By: Thomas Ye (Sharks Patrol)
Mr. Shan drove me to the James River campsite. Right away, Will, a new scout, and I set up a tent and started eating cold cuts. Unfortunately, there was no cheese. While I ate, I placed lemonade powder in my water. Soon, all the patrols had finished eating and loaded into cars to go to the starting point.
At the starting point, I listened to a safety instructional video. At the end, we were advised how to go through the class two rapids. Eventually, the safety session and everyone shuffled out to the boats and paddles. Once everyone chose a boat, we carried the boat down to the water where we boarded the boats. I sat in my canoe, ready to paddle.
Right after a few minutes, we stopped at a rocky beach. Some of us played in the water. Once we departed, we traveled along until we saw cows along the side and eventually a large group of geese. At the beach near it, several crawfish was spotted. I even caught one, but released it immediately because I noticed my fingers were close to the claws. Later, Mr. Liao and Mr. Shan help me catch crawfish and I put them in a small closed off tiny pond. The crawfish was about to be released until someone threw rocks at the crawfish and killed it. First of all, that really didn’t follow Leave No
Trace, and second, a scout is kind.
Everytime after that incident at all the places we stop at, I look for crawfish. Sometimes, there are many, sometimes, there are very few. After leaving one of the last beaches, Willam and Jason tried to either flood the boat, or capsize it. Soon, my boat had become very far behind. As I kept track of time, my boat had gotten stuck on the rocks several times. Soon, 5:00 appeared on my watch indicating 30 more minutes.
By canoeing buddy rushed us to the finish, missing the rope swing, however, I made it back to the campsite at 5:24. I barely made the time limit. I had 
just finished changing when people started arriving at 5:40, 10 minutes late. At the campfire, the patrols did skits, and older people told the announcements.
In the morning, I woke up, and went to the chuckbox to help with cooking. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to help out with. I helped with having strawberries in the pancakes. I held the pancake mix bowl for 18 minutes. There hadn’t been much activity.
After cleanup, people packed their things and we all did a police line. After that was finished, we did the Scout Service. Someone made me come up to speak unplanned, but I was fine with it. As soon as that finished, everyone put their packs in the cars and left the campsite.
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By: Albert Z. (Bucks Patrol)
For our September outing this year, we went to a campsite near the James River, where we went canoeing. We left early Saturday morning, and arrived a couple of hours before lunch. The car I was one of the first two cars to arrive, and we waited around an hour for the rest of the people to arrive. Then, we prepared and ate lunch and then drove to the place where we would begin canoeing down the river. We put on our gear and then watched a video teaching us the safety rules and requirements that we needed to follow. Then, we began canoeing (and for some, kayaking) down the river. For the next few hours, we cruised down the river, occasionally stopping to regroup and play in the water. After we finished canoeing, we dried off and began preparing dinner. Then, we went to bed and left the next day.
