C & I got up early and headed out at 6:15AM on our first backpacking trip on Saturday August 3rd. The destination was Boulder River. We met up with the other boy scouts at McCollum Park & Ride, had a moment of prayer, and caravanned up to the trailhead. The route was up I-5 to 530 and then east past the Oso Slide, and then up French Creek Road for about 20 minutes. French Creek is a gravel road but in terrible shape. A 4x4 is almost required because of constant huge potholes that forced us to travel slowly and dodge and weave.
At the trailhead we loaded our packs onto our backs, signed in, and headed out with the river audible below us to our right. It was 8:20. About 30 minutes in we got to the first waterfalls and a path down from the trail to the river. All the boys headed down and I joined them. It was a fun time of rock-hopping until a young scout (M) lost a special knife in the water. He spent some time looking for it without success. Then some of the older ex-scouts, gave it a try. With the water being only a couple of feet deep in that spot it seemed like it should be find-able, but being so cold, it was hard to keep one's arm in for any length of time. Being right below a dropoff with fast-moving water, there was also lots of bubbles obscuring visibility. The leader finally gave it a go but after a total pitstop of 20 minutes we decided to move on. Maybe we'd look on the way back.
The rest of the hike was pretty and relatively flat, but it felt a good bit longer than the 4 or so miles we were promised. Everyone agreed that it was closer to 5 or 5.5 miles. When we got to the campsites, it was a bit concerning because there were only two and they were both occupied!
The older boys, including C, had arrived some time before me. I had stayed with a young scout and had some good conversation. Talking while hiking makes the time pass much faster and more easily for me. C later said he had actually hiked alone for about an hour. There were lots of violations of the buddy system, which is bad, but it would have been pretty hard to stray from the track.
After resting for a few minutes, as the first adult to arrive, I decided to check with the campers about their plans. The first were a couple of girls and a nasty pitbull dog that was protecting them. They said they were not going to be staying another night, which was great, but they gave no indication as to when they might be leaving. It later became apparent that they weren't going to let our presence rush them! The other site was occupied by a couple, perhaps in their 50s. They were planning to stay and indicated that they had no interest in sharing their space, which was larger, with a bunch of teenage boys! They did, however, offer to pack up and relocate to the girls' site once they left. This was kind because they had really moved in, with clothes drying on various lines, etc.
After the leader and some of the other adults arrived, I informed them of the situation and we eventually decided to cook our lunches on a spacious rocky beach which was a bit down from the campsites. The DragonFly stove worked great. We boiled our river water for 10 minutes and then had our first Mountain House meal: Mexican Rice & Chicken. It was really good and filling.
After cleaning up and packing up the stove, I noticed that the girls were finally starting to pack up. I decided this might be a good time to go down and tell the grumpy adult couple that they could move, but it turns out their campsite was completely evacuated! Apparently we had inadvertently kicked them out. I notified the boys who had finished their lunches and told them to start moving in. A little later we decided that due to us having about 7 tents, it would be best to map the tents out to make sure there was enough room. Eventually the older boys decided to use the girls' site and rest of us used the larger one. We had 6 tents, with our $30 Big 5 "special" being the largest. C gathered up a lot of moss to make some really nice all-natural mattresses for he and I to use as sleeping pads. They worked well.
Once all the tents were set up and bags and pads were unpacked, most of the boys found boulders in the river or hammocks on land to lie on and many napped. The younger scouts went on a supplemental hike so they could get the Second Class hiking requirement done.
Another dad and I decided we wanted to try to get a fire going, with all the wet wood, without a match. He had a flint and steel kit with cotton swabs. After trying for a while, making good sparks that didn't quite catch for some reason, I gave it a go and got a flame. It took a few goes to get the initial flame to find any fuel to burn and we actually spent an hour or two desperately trying to get the small fire to turn into a nice stable campfire. In fact we never really got there due to the lack of dry firewood, but it was still satisfying knowing we never used a match!
Everyone made dinner themselves when they got hungry. We went back to the rocky shore and had our Turkey Dinner Mountain House -- which was absolutely delicious! Another dad and his son had desert MH packets which would have been nice. We had instant oatmeal which we got to work, and that wasn't a terrible desert. We washed all our food packets in the river and wrapped in ziplocks and several layers of plastic.
Everyone was in bed by about 9. It was comfortable, including my ziploc pillow, but ultimately I slept terribly. C said he also took a long time to get to sleep even though he was comfortable. I'd bought a super-cheap sleeping bag and didn't expect it to be terribly warm. I slept with jeans on and ultimately had to don my fleece. A warm pair of socks would have helped also. 7AM was the designated rising time and it was welcome when it arrived.
The sound of the river beside us and pitch blackness should have made for a perfect sleeping environment but most of us didn't sleep that well. It probably takes at least a night to adjust to the backpacking sleep situation.
The next morning everyone made breakfast separately. Our Mountain House Scrambled Eggs & Ham was our only MH failure. We finished it but oatmeal would have been a better choice. The only thing that remained was to pack everything up and head out. We departed at 8:50, with a simple prayer. We didn't have a worship service even though it was Sunday morning. The leader emphasized the buddy system and C and I decided to keep together.
The hike back took 2 hours, instead of the 2.5 hours on the way in. There were definitely a few rest stops, and I stayed with M at one point who was the smallest of the scouts near the front. Many boys were struggling with wet socks and shoes/boots.
The highlight of the return was when I went down to the river to refill our water bottle (which we were drinking from with a Life Straw). While I was there I decided to take a look for M's knife. I used my hands to slow the water near the site to reduce the "whitewater" that was blocking the view of the bottom. I looked for anything that looked like it might be a knife. I saw a small spot that was a noticeably lighter colour than the surrounding rocks. I reached down, up to my forearm, into the frigid water. The first time I found a rock! I moved it out of the way and tried again. This time I hit paydirt and pulled up the switchblade. It had fallen vertically into a hole the size of the knife. Without giving anything away, I brought it up the hill to where the boys were and called out to M: "Looking for this?" After giving it to him I said: "It's not lost until Mr. B says it's lost".
When we got back to the trailhead, with the oldest boys, we waited about an hour for everyone else to arrive, did the reflections, and headed home.
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