by Jonathan W.
Philmont had been cancelled only a week before we were supposed to go because of the fires, so Mr. Schott came up with a last minute ‘adventure trip’ as a replacement.
Day 1:
After a long drive, we arrived at Lake Tahoe and swam after setting up camp. We also cooked our dinner in a rainstorm and got very large ice creams.
Day 2:
We went on a mountain biking ride on the Flume Trail. After an uphill that lasted forever, we got to have lunch and swim in the local lake, and then a long downhill ride! We got to the end of the trail with only a few crashes and only losing one scout (we did find him eventually).
Day 3:
We got to have our first day of river rafting, with class 3 and lower rapids. Mr Schott fell out of his raft about five minutes after we started. Later, we all jumped out of the rafts and floated down the river for a while. We had a fun time on the river for hours, with a break for lunch in the middle.
Day 4: Our second day of river rafting started early in the morning in the ice cold water. We got to go down the class 4 Tunnel Chute rapid which was like going off a cliff, and one of the guides was thrown from the raft and lost his paddle. We stopped and ate lunch with wild blackberries on the banks of the river halfway through the day. We also visited the historic Sutter’s Mill, where gold was discovered in California.
Day 5:
We camped outside of Greenfield and got to hike up a typical California creek. However, as we hiked on, we got into a narrow gorge and the water got deeper, making us have to swim up the creek on our inflatable tubes that we brought. We also got to jump off a 20 foot rock into the creek once we reached our lunch spot. We got to end the day with a dinner of delicious tri tip cooked up by Mr. Brown.
Day 6: We had our long drive home and stopped for ice cream and to visit many historical places, like the San Juan Bautista Mission. We also visited a water park for a few hours on the way back to end very fun boy scout trip.
