Cheat River Outing Historian Reports By James Y. and Jason J.
By James Y. ( Scorpion Patrol Historian)
On a Friday afternoon, May 15th, we set out from St. Francis Church for a four hour drive to Albright, in West Virginia. By the time we arrived there, it was around 10:00, so we immediately set up our tents. Our camp was near the Cheat River. Then, we put up rainflys over the picnic tables so they wouldn’t get wet. It would rain a lot during out stay. Finally, we assembled our gear and all went to sleep.
The next Saturday, we woke up for a hot breakfast. At around ten in the morning, the older scouts 13 and above set out to white water raft first at Youghiogheny River, Pennsylvania. 30 minutes later, the new scouts and the second year scouts set out to raft the Cheat River. Everyone who rafted needed a wet suit, a life jacket, and a helmet. They had “duckies” for everyone, including the new scouts, which were only a one man inflatable kayak, which was way too hard for the new scouts. Also, only six second year scouts got the duckies, and two adults.
The rafting was pretty fun. Especially being in the duckies. There were plenty of rocks to get stuck on, and many waves to send you places very thin. The rafts had a hard time keeping up. Finally, the younger group finished and arrived back where we started. The original plan was to have lunch by some shore halfway through, but it was pouring extremely hard. The younger group couldn’t eat until they were finished at 2:30. The older group, however, ate in the rain, and ate their food quickly before it became mushy and soggy. They had a longer path to complete, and couldn’t just wait till the end.
When the younger group got back, they just played around and did nothing until the older group got back. Then, we started cooking. There was a cooking competition, and everyone needed to do their best. Dutch oven was required. However, many patrols linked up because they were too small, such as the Dragorpions (Dragons and Scorpions), the Sheegles, (Sharks and Eagles), and some kind of name between Bucks and Bears. Some people dropped cooking and just played Frisbee all day.
When the cooking competition was over, we had to clean up. We tore down our rainflys and packed away cooking gear into the trailer. Everyone was sleepy, and went to bed because we weren’t doing a campfire. Then all of a sudden, we were called out of bed to do a campfire! So, we had our little campfire. The winner was announced for the cooking competition: th
e Sheegles, for their steak, potatoes, salad, and bacon. We had our routine skits and songs, and afterward, we sang the last song and we all went to bed.
We woke up the next Sunday at 7:00, only to find our plans to have a hot breakfast…spoiled. We had to make do and eat a cold breakfast, only because the older scouts wanted to get out faster. We packed up our gear and tore down our tents. We cleaned up and did our police lines to pick up trash. At last, we walked back down to where we had our campfire last night to do service. After the last song, we through our gear back into the car and headed home, another 4 hour drive with a possible stop for lunch.
We finally arrived back at the Great Falls library at the latest 1:30. Then we were all picked up to go home. The white water rafting trip was a really fun time, yet getting wet was kind of fun too!
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By Jason J. (Bear Patrol Historian)
On May 15, we all gathered at St. Francis in the afternoon. We departed the church soon after. After the four hours drive, we got to the campsite. It was nighttime, so we had to set up our tents in the dark. Everyone had a hard time staking their stakes in due to the hard ground. The scouts put up the dining flies and moving tables under their dining fly. Then, we all slept and waited for the next day.
In the morning, we cooked our breakfast. The Old Goats were kind enough to offer some oatmeal, which most of us accepted. After breakfast, everyone played at the campsite; throwing Frisbees, talking to each other, and playing cards. Then, we all hiked to a building where the outfitters’ water gear were. Once we got into our gear, we were ready for rafting. A bus took us to the checkpoint where we would start. There were trucks that carried our rafts. The new scouts could only paddle on rafts, while the second-year scouts and the adults could get on an inflatable kayak or paddle with the new scouts.
During the rafting, many of us got stuck, and we learned how to un-stuck ourselves and kept on going. There were many rapids and rocks in our way, and we had to work together to avoid the obstacles. Halfway through the journey, the rafts were all the way at the back of the group, because the inflatable kayaks would go through the 
rapids with ease because they were so small and had less weight to weigh it down on the rocks while the rafts were big, bulky, and less agile. All of a sudden, a storm cloud loomed over us so it was pouring during our trip, so we all got wet. Soon, we got to our destination. We hauled our rafts onto shore and onto the trucks that carried them. Shortly after, we took a picture near the shore. Then, we went back to the building with the water gear on the same bus that took us to the start. We originally were going to eat lunch on the river, but because it was pouring, we ate lunch at the building. When we finished, we hiked back to the campsite.
Back at the campsite, we played around until dinner. During dinner, the patrols made their own dinner. Since many patrols combined, you could cook more food because you had more stoves to feed all the people in your patrol. It was usually worth it because there often would be a patrol with about 5 people with a patrol with about 4 people. After dinner, the older and younger scouts played ultimate to fill up the time.
Then, we made a campfire, which was really small. When we finished Vespers, everyone was very sleepy and all went to bed.
The next morning, we packed up our camping gear and took down the dining flies, and we prepared to leave the campsite. We did a police line around the entire campsite to make sure there wasn’t any litter on the ground and at last participated in our service, and then left to go back to the library. The best part was the whitewater rafting, a memorable experience for the new scouts.
