I had the privilege of accompanying an excellent troop of boy scouts recently. These boys were all 12 and 13 years old but highly experienced in the outdoors. All the older boys have completed 50 miler backpacking trips and all the boys are well versed in both light weight cooking as well as camp cooking with dutch ovens and grills.
We traveled to Southern Utah's Cedar Mesa area via Arches NP and Canyon lands NP. We day hiked into a couple of canyons with many ancient ruins. The sharp eyed boys found more pottery shards and took great delight in leaving them for display for others to enjoy. Later in the week, we traveled west through Capitol Reef NP, viewing many glyphs. That night, camping primitive in the grand staircase, we took a late evening walk up Calf Creek and waited for the full moon to rise highlighting the beautiful Lower Calf Creek Falls.
The young men were quite proud of their culinary skills, especially with the dutch ovens. They have prepared several meals this past winter, for parents and leaders, learning various menus and skills and their work proved excellent as they cooked full course meals on this trip. Bacon, eggs, and hash browns were a given for some of the breakfasts but chicken Alfredo, cheesy potatoes, dump cakes, biscuits and the like really set off their evening meals.
They are now busy planning their next major outing, a backpacking trip into the Frank Church Wilderness in central Idaho. It is a real pleasure to see these young men take a real interest in the outdoors. The respect they show and the skills they have reflect on a good troop program. I wish all young people could show this kind of respect and enthusiasm.
We traveled to Southern Utah's Cedar Mesa area via Arches NP and Canyon lands NP. We day hiked into a couple of canyons with many ancient ruins. The sharp eyed boys found more pottery shards and took great delight in leaving them for display for others to enjoy. Later in the week, we traveled west through Capitol Reef NP, viewing many glyphs. That night, camping primitive in the grand staircase, we took a late evening walk up Calf Creek and waited for the full moon to rise highlighting the beautiful Lower Calf Creek Falls.
The young men were quite proud of their culinary skills, especially with the dutch ovens. They have prepared several meals this past winter, for parents and leaders, learning various menus and skills and their work proved excellent as they cooked full course meals on this trip. Bacon, eggs, and hash browns were a given for some of the breakfasts but chicken Alfredo, cheesy potatoes, dump cakes, biscuits and the like really set off their evening meals.
They are now busy planning their next major outing, a backpacking trip into the Frank Church Wilderness in central Idaho. It is a real pleasure to see these young men take a real interest in the outdoors. The respect they show and the skills they have reflect on a good troop program. I wish all young people could show this kind of respect and enthusiasm.
