Crabtree Falls Outing 5/14-15 2016 by James L. (Bear Patrol)
We met at St. 
Francis early on Saturday morning and left pretty quickly. Last backpacking trip we took a long time in the parking lot preparing. The drive was long, about 4 hours or so down windy and steep roads.
We finally arrived and unloaded our backpacks. The older scouts took full gear and first year scouts took day packs or nothing extra and left their full gear in the vehicles as they were going to come back down from the top of the falls.
We starting hiking up really STEEP hills back and forth up to th
e top of Crabtree Falls. It’s a beautiful falls with water dropping a very long way. It took several hours to get to the top in sunny weather but right when we got to the top, the clouds and rain came. We were wet but most scouts had rain gear we put on except for a few new scouts who didn’t bring up a day pack. Shortly after reaching the top, we looked off the falls and tried to eat lunch in the rain and then the new scouts headed back down the mountain to camp below at the nearby campground on a river. The older scouts then kept climbing up beyond the falls to the top of the ridge.
We rested at a meadow area at the top and filled up water bladders with our water filters as we heard there were no more water sources where we were going. The meadow where we had thought we might camp had quite a few campers and so we just went forward to hike further.
The patrols spread out and one actually missed the cutoff to the Appalachian Trail and hiked several miles in the wrong direction but finally figured out where they were. All patrols ended up finding a spot on the ridge to camp with one patrol hiking all the way to Spy Rock to c
amp there (a mile or so beyond where the remainder stopped to camp).
The rain stopped on the hike from the top of the falls but then started again and at that point, the patrols decided to pitch camp and there were quite a few wet tents as the rain came in before the rain fly’s could be put on top. Scouts tried to wipe out their wet tent interiors.
Rain then halted again and dinner was cooked. There was a variety of food choices each patrol had selected and they all seemed to work well including one patrol that brought a carton of eggs!
The night was extremely windy with huge gusts of wind that threatened to blow away the tents. It was so noisy it was hard to sleep. It was quite cold in the night and morning. We packed up and started hiking the last mile or two to Spy Rock. When we got there, we met up with the patrol that was camped there and we climbed up on Spy Rock.
To get up on Spy Rock we had to climb with both hands and feet. Once we got on top, we were above all the trees and with clear skies, we could see mountains and valleys for miles! There was a water filled area on the rocks that we saw frog eggs and we couldn’t believe a frog climbed all the way up there to lay eggs? Scouts took great pictures and scrambled down different parts of the steep face of the rock.
We then started hiking down the mountain to the Fish Hatchery. Our total hike was probably around 8-9 miles up one mountai
n and then along the ridge of other mountains and we came down another mountain to the Hatchery. On the way down we saw the new scouts climbing up. They had driven from the camp ground to the Fish Hatchery and then started hiking up to Spy Rock. We then finally reached the bottom and some of us checked out the trout in the hatchery and fed them food. Mr. Pan’s car was broken and adults were scrambling to fix it. Finally it was started and cars were filled up and we headed out. We ate lunch on the way back.
It was a very challenging hike going straight up the mountain with full packs and was also very exciting as we were successful and were able to see the valley from Spy Rock! Some of us were sore after the hike but really enjoyed it.
James Lyon
Bears
