Paddy's Flats - Camp with Bike Hikes and Spelunking

June 20-21, 2014

First summer camp of the year.

Log from Hale.

Friday (Day 1)

All the scouts were headed to the church at 5:00pm. We packed the tents, pots/pans/utensils, and etc.

We departed at about 6:00pm to 6:30pm; it felt like two hours or less to get to “Paddy’s Flats” (our camping destination). Once we arrived, we quickly got into “scout action”. No time was wasted; everyone was unpacking, and setting up the tents while the sun was slowly setting. We spread the tents out, got the poles and connected them to our cozy commode. It took us about 15 to 30 minutes to complete our tents and get unpacked. It was getting quite late, about 8, 9, or 10:00pm. The dinner was delicious and simple, self-roasted hotdogs under an open camp fire (everything a scout boy could ever want). Dinner felt like it was 1-2 hours long. After our stomachs were punished with such a good dinner, we decided to play games (which is kind of a bad idea after eating so much). We played activities like camouflage, biking… then the slingshots were calling to us, and so we started shooting trees with paintballs. Rj found a bubble wand earlier in the church so he snatched it just for safekeeping. The bubble wand DID come in handy, the bubbles served as targets for our paintballs. After all that fun, we started getting ready for bed, they called us out of our tents for a spiritual fireside-Brother Kennet shared a touching lesson on how to be successful in being happy in life. Then it was time for bed; we nestled up into our sleeping bags and started to “sleep”. T’was the night when some foolish scout boys decided to pull an all nighter, that didn’t go so well after a leader scolded them to get to sleep. (This was at 3 or 4am)

Saturday (day 2)

We woke up to a cold, wet morning. Kitchen duty was speedy at getting up and making breakfast, we cooked: eggs, bacon, and left over hotdogs. We had to improvise because we didn’t bring any salt or pepper so we took the remaining oil from the bacon because of the amount of salt in it, and poured it into the eggs. Clean up duty were people who didn’t participate in cooking anything (Wise info to shareàKitchen duty>Clean up duty). We gradually started packing for our journey to the ice caves; we packed snacks in our backpacks and a lot of water. It was like the Hunger games, get the essentials and run. Bikes were a key item to get to the ice caves; there was a long bike path to the caves. The road seemed like it would never stop! Once our bikes were not much of a use anymore, and we reached the walking trail, we mounted off them. Our journey just got harder as we had to go on foot. The rockiness of the terrain was hostile, but we’re scouts… we’re always prepared! After the treacherous trail, we made it to the ice caves. It was so dark, not even light could penetrate the darkness. The inside was very rocky and slippery (not mentioning extremely cold). Once we got to the very end, we experimented what would happen if we shut off all our light sources. It was pitch black! There was a passage/entrance near the beginning of the cave. That passage took you into a higher place where an opening was. The people who climbed up there were shouting down to some of the scouts, they safely made it back down, after that; we had a brief snack in the cave. We returned to our campsite after another long, biking journey home. Once we reached the campsite, some people were packing. Most of the scouts went down in the woods to play paintball. I, Hale, suggested in taking pictures while they were heroically shooting paintball’s everywhere. After the great free for all, all of the scouts began packing everything they had. A lot of memories were made in our campsite. We were all set to go as we said our last goodbye.

Team Members

	Jason Smith, Karl Burndorfer, Nigel Kennett, Glenn Buchanan, Dave Proctor, Matt Gardner - YM Leaders
	Blair Layton - Parents
	Hale Aqino, RJ Laigos, Riley Aneca, Blake Gorner, Jace Nelson, Austin Smith, Sam Erasmus, Javon Falconer, Preston Layton, Duke Buchanan, Isaac Gagnon, Tayson Saravia - Scouts

Maps and stuff

	Map to Camping area
	Map of Bike Hike area

Camp Assignments

	Tayson - Leader/Coordinator
	Javon & Austin - Food, Menu, Duty Roster
	Sam - Maps & Lists
	Duke - Group Gear
	Activities & Games
	Hale - Journal

Photo Library

Just making sure the bikes are in good working order	Whoa, watch the big rocks!	Breaks working good.	OK, I'm feeling it. New set of muscles getting used here.
I think I can do this on 1 wheel.	Pretty high river.	I think a bug flew into my mouth.	My 1st 27 match fire. Got to keep fanning it.
The Cheezies food group	The standard protein food group, smoked!	Need to bring out some personal cutlery here.	Good Hot dogs boys.
Yup. life doesn't get any better than this.	The new O shaped hot dog stick.	Checking out the equipment before tomorrows game.	Just using pinecones, don't worry.
OK, well maybe a couple extra paint balls.	There is a rust colored fungus right?	And then they went to bed.....	But they couldn't get to sleep. So at 3:00 am the came out again and ate around the fire pit, and shone flashlight into the cars.

Food crew gets breakfast ready.	Bacon and eggs for starters	Blue berry muffins
Still found some chocolate brownies from the night before.	Round 2 for bacon.	Now we're firing up some cocktail wieners.	Quite a few wieners to use up here.
Too many marshmallows for breakfast.	Getting creative with the tube bacon.	Sharing their secret stash of clean plates and cutlery.	Did to know that bacon fat makes a great fire starter?
That sure made it hot. Moving back.	You can see all the potential energy you get from bacon	Yup, we should be able to peddle up any mountain today and still have energy left over.	Last serving of bacon.
Packing up the trail snacks.	So how many water bottles you got in there?	End of the bike ride.	Ready to start up the mountain.
Some of us are more excited about this part than others	But the enthusiasm is catchy!
Whoa, now that's a cave...	and I guess that's why they call them ice caves.	I'm not scared, really.
Riley's first Ice crystal. Could be magic.	Too early to get too far back.	Ice still sealing off a good part of the rest of the cave.	When the flash is out, believe us, it's dark.
See, we can still smile.	Checking out the left side, but still can't get any further.	Gets a little squishier	Javon's glad a leader packed in his jacket. It's cold in here.
View of the opening as we come out.	You can tell that's Tayson right!	Which one is Sam?

The extra adventure begins...	Only the bravest are selected.	And we are going down there.	So good, so far.
Bit of dirt starting to get rubbed on through some tighter squeezes.	Made it. We're now on top of the cave entrance.	Those little specs down there are our scouts.	Glens up and ready to peer over the edge.
Really, it's an awesome view, slid on over.	Javon's up for it.	Whoa, we are up high. Hi guys.	Tayson wanting to check out the other exit.
Interesting cave drawings up here.	OK, through the hole and we are now out the other side.	Nice view eh!	View from the hole.
I made it out!	Yes, impressive view.	Look I can see some of the scouts.	Up pretty high here too.
We can't climb down from here though.	The mountain gives birth to a new scout.	Got his head and 1 arm out.	Got the other arm out.
Pants are not making it through.	Almost there.	There, I'll get my pants back up now.	Scrambling down the chimney.
This is the easy part.

Ice cave ice, stays cold.	Good to start warming up the body.	Hale and RJ share the traction gloves to add security crossing the scree slopes.	Definitely not a bike trail
Look, Preston made me a tooth pick.	After dipping my head in the stream, my brain is now numb.	Even throws off your balance.	and the boys are off...
Average speed coming out: 20km. Number of times you needed to peddle: 20	Found some nice jumps just below the parking lot. Check out this air!	Here comes Sam...	High speed lean into that turn...
and he's air borne.	Preston coming down again.	Here's the shot...	and the camera totally misses it.
Consuming the rest of the trail snacks.	Now that's a well deserved break.	Bringing out the large marshmallows.	Hale getting the log written down.
I got shot in the neck, but I'm still alive.	So I get to shot the guy who shot me, cus its considered a Head -Shot?	OK, I'm into payback.	Oh, both at the same time. Even better.
This is too suspenseful...	The ultimate smore.

I'm camouflaging pretty good, right.	So how come the leaders get a whole bag full of amo?	The man with the most headshots approaches...	and retreats...
Stand off...	Is that Preston taking shots at his Dad from the camp site?	Team B ready and loaded.	Trees keep getting in the way.
It's important to kick back and observe nature.	Yup, that whole hunter gatherer unfolds before you.	Upper lip shots are also considered head shots.	But not those other hits.
Justice administered.	I'm ready.	Butt shot.

So you really don't need to sleep during camp.	You always have that long ride home.	Night Night.

My 1 flower shot.