Snow Camp Trek
March 25, 2006
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Friday we met at the FUMC at 5:00 p.m. to packed up the equipment. We did not use the usual trailer because it might be dangerous on icy roads, so instead we packed everything in three cars. Cash Murphey fitted cars for snow chains. Saturday morning we left the church at 6:30 a.m. with nine scouts, two leaders, and one adult volunteer. We arrived at 8:30 a.m. at Mt. Pinos Nordic Base, and were served a pancake and sausage breakfast by the ski patrol. It was 40 degrees under cloudy skies. We unloaded all of the gear and moved it to Buena Vista campground using Cash Murphey's sleds. It was a lot of work moving it across two feet of snow, but it was better than carrying it. We set up camp assembling the new blue tents. Jonathan hibernated in his tent because he was feeling sick. The rest of us built two snigloos (a cross between an igloo and a snow cave). Matt came down with altitude sickness and hypothermia. Cash secured him with ropes to a sled and brought him to the Ranger Station with Walt Sturrock. Luckily Sherrie Murphy was visiting and was willing to drive him home. Due to the driving rain and wet snow the scouts clothes became very soaked. They were cold, and had low morale, so we went to town to a Laundromat and dried our clothes. It felt great to be dry! We went to a pizzeria and had nice hot pizza. When we go back to camp we discovered that our blue tents leaked (because they were not made for that much rain). We put up several heavy duty tents that stayed dry. Unfortunately one of the snigloos was vandalized and destroyed while we were away. The skies cleared and we built a campfire. Cash played the harmonica as we cooked marshmallows. Sean and Mac slept in their Snigloo as the other scouts slept in waterproof tents. It was cold at night with temperatures going down to around 20 degrees. Sunday we woke and noticed the snow turned to hard ice during the cold night. Jonathan finally rose from his tent feeling rested and better. We ate breakfast and Cash Murphey taught us Fire Chit and Totin Chit. We also worked a lot on the Wilderness Survival merit badge, including building fires with no matches, and carrying a scout in a hand made rope stretcher. Later we joined the Ski Patrol in an exercise using ropes and pulleys to move heavy weights. It was like a tug-of-war to see if six boys could pull 2 adults (the adults won). Then we went on a four hour hike in the snow up to the peak of Mt. Pinos. When we got to the summit we had a snowball fight. The ski patrol arrived with their search dog named Cody. They demonstrated how trained dogs can find and help save people. We hiked back down to the camp and arrived at 3:00 p.m.. We moved the equipment on sleds back to the trucks, and then went sleigh riding on Cash's toboggans. We left from the Ranger Station around 5:50 pm and arrived back to the church at 7:15 p.m..
Reported by Sean, Troop Historian, 3/29/06 |