Cabin Flats Sept 10-11, 2010

We hiked in to Cabin Flats in the evening. While we were hiking down the 3 mile trail, it got dark. We took a break and looked down and there was a pile of bear scat. Then we hiked a little quicker.

We made camp and had hot dogs for dinner. Our scoutmaster said since we saw evidence of a bear, we should hang our food up in a tree in a bear bag. But instead we just left stuff all over camp. We figured that if the bear had plenty to eat, he would not eat us. He didn't come around so we didn't get to test our theory, but my guess is we'll try it again on the next trip. Here is Mt. Baden-Powell in the morning. We climbed this last month.

Tanner Q is famous for his french toast.

It's a lot to carry on a backpack trip, but it's sure good to eat.

Here's the crew. Brigham, Logan, Robbie, Tanner, Garrett, Cody, and Jared. We're all here because the bear didn't eat any of us. Maybe Buck scared him away like he scared Ken Quinn. Ken hiked down with us in the evening and had to hike out late at night so he could work on Saturday. He met Brigham hiking in with Buck and saw Buck first. Late at night, in the woods alone, with no moonlight, and evidence of bears around, Ken was a little nervous. Then Buck shows up with glowing eyes and coming right for him. At first Ken thought it was a wolf, then realized there are no wolves in the area... so after a little shot of adrenalin, Ken saw Brigham and figured it was just his dog. Nice to have a friendly dog around instead of a wild animal that wants to eat you.

So, we did a little camping merit badge, capture the flag and then got ready to hike out.

And we chased Buck around a bit.

In 1997 a fire went thru here and burned the outhouse... it was called The Charmin Fire. Anybody else see the irony in that?

So, the thing about a 3 mile downhill hike in, is that you then have a 3 mile uphill hike out. We didn't think this was the funnest part of the trip.

And it pretty much looks like some of us need some backpacking gear for Christmas.
Click here for the deal of the day!

So, this ended up a pretty good trip. Not quite as good as climbing a mountain, but it was green with a nice stream, and wild animals around.

And we get to tease Ken about the wolves, so that's cool.

Court Of Honor is Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 7:30pm right after Scouts. Make sure you are there, it could be interesting and we have lots of badges!

Click HERE for all the pics of Cabin Flats on Snapfish.

Mt. Baden-Powell August 13-14, 2010

2 miles up, camping under the stars and watching the meteor shower.

Almost 3 miles up with a view of Palmdale

On the top of Mt. Baden-Powell... named for the founder of the Boy Scouts!

Only 4 boys made it (and one guest, and the Elders) but we had a good hike!

View of Baldy from BP

Heading back down

Click HERE to see all the pictures of Baden-Powell on Snapfish

Camp Whitsett July 24-31, 2010

Troop 159 had a great time at Scout Camp!

On the way to Camp Whitsett we found a place to slide and cool off. We only had one little injury which you can see if you click on the link at the end of this blog to see all the pictures.

First day: The Polar Bear Swim... they called it the otter swim or the beaver swim, I don't think they actually knew what to call it. We called it the Polar Bear Swim because it's a cooler name and the water was cold! And yes, before we swam, they made us pat our head and rub our tummy. Very funny... can you do it?

Went for a short bike ride one day at lunch time. Not very challenging for the young guys (if you know what I mean).

Lots of time spent in camp doing projects or playing card games.



Old Sioux. Our home for a week. Kind of looks like Wrightwood, doesn't it?



Alex, Brad, Jake, Devin, Daniel & Allen went off to do high adventure. Their program was cut short by a fire nearby, but they still did cycling, hiking, rock climbing, COPE, and the High Ropes. Oh, and one afternoon of water polo. Woo hoo!



The whole group that stayed to do merit badges got a lot accomplished. Here they are all doing the Tracking merit badge. This is an old one that had been discontinued but brought back for just this year, the 100th anniversary of Scouting in America. It used to be called Stalking, but they made it more PC for 2010.

So, I have to get in the picture once in a while!

We all threw the tomahawk.

It gets crazy waiting for lunch.

These guys all actually got up at 4:30 to climb Sentinel Peak to watch the sunrise. Some of them even look happy about it. The camp staff didn't show up to lead us so we went anyway. Here I see 4, maybe 4 1/2 smiles, 1 guy cross-eye tired, 1 still asleep, and the rest just dazed... great stuff! (Click on the pic to make it bigger)

We don't need no stinking staff leaders!

This is the peak. It was only about a mile hike, but fun.

Here is the whole group in our new class B uniform shirts. Um, and by-the-way, these are $8.50 each... I either need the money or the shirt back. I know we sprang these on you at the last minute but they were great for camp. If you want to keep them, bring me the money... if you don't want them, launder them and turn them back in please. If you didn't get one and want one, call me.

Here is the sign Brigham painted while we were there. He painted it green (it was just bare) and painted the awesome scout fleur de lis... it was just a plain yellow weathered fleur before Brigham got to it. The camp was pretty impressed and said if we would paint some more signs, we could come up in the off-season and have the whole camp to ourselves... maybe even stay in the staff cabins. Sounds like we might work something out! Thanks, Brigham!

Scout On!

Click HERE to see all the pictures of Camp Whitsett on Snapfish.

Zion National Park June 10-12, 2010

First of all the Scouts want to thank Bryan Winn and Jim Willmott for driving us to Zion and shuttling the cars from the trailhead back to Zion Canyon where we met them at the end of our hike. Bryan and his son Jared are fairly new to Scouts so it’s great that Jared could go and his dad was willing to help. Jim has been in Scouting for 300 years and helps all the time but we still think it’s great that he will do it at his age. He’s so old he even gets into the National Parks for free!

We left Thursday morning at 6:00am and headed to Zion National Park. We had planned to hike the Zion Narrows slot canyon, but the water was too high and they wouldn’t let us. Something about thunder storms and flash floods and too much water and we might be swept away and killed, but we’re not sure exactly what it was. Anyway, we ended up doing an awesome 16 mile backpack trip on the West Rim Trail from Lava Point into Zion canyon with a side trip up Angels Landing.


When we got to Zion on Thursday we had an afternoon to burn since the hike started on Friday morning. So we headed up the Canyon on the shuttle and hiked up to see the Emerald Pools. As you can imagine, with a name like that, they were pretty cool. The last one was really deep and we had a nice swim dunking each other and stuff. And really, we didn’t see the no swimming sign until on the way out. Then we hiked down and the only problem we had was that Brigham left his camera and had to go back and get it.


Then we got back on the shuttle and headed to the end of the canyon where we would have come out if they had let us hike the Narrows. The trail looked fine to us... it was right there under the water!

We hiked up the canyon a little and swam in the water and it was great. Cold, but great. The adults were standing on the shore watching to make sure everything was OK when Fischer decided to go down the rapids face down and backwards. When he finally came up gasping for air he seemed ok, so the leaders shouted to all the other Scouts to try what he had done. Most of us tried it and turned out it was a pretty good run when you did it on purpose.

We had a lot of fun and the only problem we had was that Logan had left Brigham’s camera at the Emerald Pool bus stop and they had to go back to see if they could get it.

Friday Morning we went to the trailhead and started the 10 miles we did the first day. It was a beautiful hike and we had a great camp in the forest. We even saw a bunch of deer right by our camp.

We had to go down the trail a little to filter drinking water and there was a great cliff to throw rocks off of. We didn’t get too close to the edge on purpose but when Brad Quinn tripped he came pretty close by accident. But there was a bush for him to grab onto so it ended up alright.

Then it rained on us at night so the air smelled really clean and most of us stayed dry. Jerry was the only one with a tent, so the rest of us had tarps over us. Except Jeff Howe… he scooted the bottom half of his sleeping bag into a trash bag and had a little piece of plastic over the top. Then he put his straw hat over his face and he said it was ok because the straw hat smelled good in the rain. But we thought that was pretty weird so we didn’t talk much more about it.

View from the trail

Protected from the rain

Breakfast in the early morning light

Then in the morning on the way out we threw some more rocks over that cliff and how could we know that there were people hiking down there? When the guy got to us he wanted to know who was throwing the rocks and Jake took all the blame. We were grateful that he did because that guy wanted to pick a fight with someone! When he found out Jake was only 15 he just stomped away kind of mad. But we learned not to throw rocks off a cliff when the trail is right below.


When we got to Angels Landing we dropped our packs and headed up to see the view. The trail is pretty narrow and they have chains to hold onto because there are cliffs on both sides that go down hundreds of feet. But if you don’t look down you don’t get very dizzy so we pretty much concentrated on staying on the trail. On the way down Ken Quinn slipped a little and said something in Spanish… we don’t know what it was, but we don’t think it was swearing because he used to be a Bishop.

After we got down from the hike we stopped at the river to take another swim. Jerry said no one could ride in the cars on the way home unless they washed off. I guess we were pretty smelly. Maybe that’s why everyone on the bus was staring at us. Then the thunder storm started and the ranger ran us off because of that flash flood thing again.

On the way home we stopped at the Chuck-A-Rama all-you-can-eat buffet in St. George and had dinner. We definitely got our money’s worth as most of us went back for 4 or 5 servings. We were all ready to pop so we headed home and it was a whole hour before the Barnes boys announced that they were hungry again. Lucky Jerry had some caramel popcorn in the car or we would have had to stop for more food!

We finally made it home safely and are looking forward to Scout Camp next month. We hope Brigham finds his camera by then because we would sure like some pictures of that.

The Scouts of Troop 159

(No animals were hurt during the photographing of this adventure to Zion!)

OK, Not the Narrows...

Looks like the water level in the Narrows is way to high. So we will go with plan B and backpack thru some beautiful country (click here to see more pics). There are several trails to choose from but I think it would be nice to end in Zion Canyon. So my vote is for the West Rim Trail, starting at Lava Point. The trail is 14.4 miles and should be easily done in 2 days. Angels Landing is along this trail and is a place I have always wanted to go. The best part is, we will be going down hill!!! Click here for pics. Details and itinerary to come...

I'll see all you Scout leaders at training this weekend. And this campout is NEXT weekend!


Lava Point: The trail begins by a meander through Horse Pasture Plateau. The hard dirt packed trail is lined with flora and a lush forest is seen in all directions. Ponderosa Pine fill the senses gradually replaced by juniper and pinon pines as altitude is lost throughout the first six miles of the hike. Coming out of the forested section are nice views of the South and North Guardian Angel, as well as Das Boot to Zion's Subway.

Mountain scenery bursts into view as the trail rims Phantom Valley and Heaps Canyon. 7200'

Little Siberia and Mount Majestic: Little Siberia is an open valley that gradually ascends into a small canyon north of Mount Majestic and eventually reaches the saddle between the West Rim and Mount Majestic. The saddle separates Little Siberia to the east and Behunin Canyon to the west. The dense vegetation that thrives in this cool valley includes bigtooth maple, Douglas fir, spruce and gambel oak.

The lower section of the West Rim Trail descends a series of switchbacks that hug the side of a sun baked mountain.

Trailend: The hike ends at the trailhead for Angels Landing and the Kayenta Trail. Across the road is the Grotto Picnic area.

Next Camp out: Zion Narrows June 10, 11, 12

Zion National Park is one of the most exotic and spectacular places on Earth. Created by millions years of work of the forces of Nature, Zion Park is a source of amusement and enjoyment for more than 2 million people visiting it each year. Zion Park offers magnificient mountains, breathtaking views, and trails that offer endless possibilities to explore and enjoy Nature.

The Narrows is arguably the most exotic part of the Zion National Park. The best season to explore the Narrows is summer, when the temperature is around 100F outside, yet the bottom of the canyon is almost always under the shade, and air is fresh and cooled by the running stream, which makes it one of most pleasant areas of the park in summer.

The Narrows of Zion National Park is one of the most exciting hiking trails in the world. You can catch a glimps of the Narrows without actually hiking the all the way, however, that lets you enjoy only a small part of the Narrows; to get the whole picture, you need to hike the Narrows all the way downstream from the Chamberlen Ranch to Temple of Sinawava.

First, a few facts. The length of the trail is approximately 16 miles (25 km). Most of the time you will be walking in the water of the stream, about ankle deep, carefully choosing your path between the underwater rocks. As you can imagine, it's not an easy hike. You may want to take the whole trail in two days, staying overnight in one of the campsites on the way.

However, if you are short on time, you can make it in one day, too. You should plan at least 10 hours for the whole hike, plus allow some time for eating, resting, and picture taking.

The most important thing about hiking the Narrows successfully is the hiking shoes. Make sure that the shoes you choose have good support and fit your feet perfectly; because if you feel even minor discomfort in the beginning, it will multiply many times over as you walk along the trail. Find yourself a good walking stick - you would feel much more confident crossing the water with it.
Click here for more information and pictures of Zion National Park.