Hi-Sierra Trip Report

Hi-Sierra Trip Report

7/11/03-7/17/04

by Bob Wedig

This year's trip to Hi-Sierra was as fun as usual with never a dull moment. The trip started off as planned, with everyone meeting at SJC at 9:00 am and we were on the road by 9:45 am. This meeting time was about an hour later than last year and the timing worked out well. I would recommend this start time in the future. The drive to Sonora was uneventful and we stopped at our normal place for lunch. The detailed driving instructions Mr. Shannon and I developed were useful to get everyone to camp except for Mrs. Fishler who passed the turnoff to highway 120 from highway 99. She was able to make up for her mistake by having the boys buy lunch at a drive through. This helped to save time and get her to camp not too much longer after everyone else arrived.

At camp, the most significant change was that the boathouse and swimming area was moved across the lake to the program/office side of the lake. The boathouse was brand new but was somewhat smaller than the old boathouse.

Check-in at Hi-Sierra went off smoothly based on previous year’s experience. After having fairly poor seats in the dining hall last year, we got smart and requested our staff guide to take the tour of the dining hall first this year when the seating arrangements were still open and flexible. Our strategy was successful because we were able to get our normal position of 5 tables on the inside wall of the dining hall. We then immediately headed over to the health lodge and were successful at arriving arrive early enough such that there was no line. The older boys once again played the “health lodge shot” game with the younger boys. Some of the boys were quite scared of this so I immediately told any boy that asked that they would not receive a shot when they visited the doctor. Afterwards, the boys all had a good laugh about this.

We once again had our traditional Hi-Sierra campsite of Chippewa. We always also use a second campsite which has traditionally been Miwok. However, two years ago, the commissioners moved to a different area of camp so now we were able to use the old commissioner’s area called Crossroads. This was more convenient because it was immediately across the road from Chippewa. The boys chose their tents such that all the scouts were in Chippewa and the adults were for the most part in Crossroads. This concerned me at first because of the lack of adult supervision. However, Mike Lombardi set up in Chippewa and for the most part the boys were well behaved.

We got through the Merit Badge Midway successfully, with the troop signing up for merit badges and the Trail to First Class sessions. The staff seemed to be more accommodating for the merit badges sessions, so everyone got into almost everything they wanted. Once again that set up TtFC a bit by breaking the Scouts up into groups based on current rank. That way a Second Class scout wouldn't have to sit through sessions on Tenderfoot requirements. Like last year, most of the Scouts had two one-hour sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Second Class scouts had just one session a day.

The most interesting event on Monday was the altercation our boys had with the troop down below in Blackfoot. The boys from Blackfoot were playing down below in the creek and they were swinging sticks and having sword fights. A couple of our boys decided to join them in this fun and then things turned somewhat nasty. There was name calling and I even heard that one of the scouts from Blackfoot pulled a knife. After I found out about this, I told our scouts to simply stay away from the scouts down below and if they did not do so, I would ban them from playing in the creek below for the rest of the week. This seemed to work well because the scouts below did not give us any further trouble.

Monday night we had our troop induction of all the new scouts and leaders. This went well and everyone enjoyed it. Afterwards, we had S’mores. Unfortunately, Andrew Erickson seemed to be suffering from dehydration because he felt sick to his stomach and did not want to come out of his tent. He received his neckerchief later. Andrew went to the health lodge the next day, drank lots of fluids, took a nap and was better by Tuesday evening.

Tuesday night was the Astronomy overnighter and Mike Lombardi was concerned that Nick might not be able to make it up the big hill that was required to climb to do the sleepover. So, Mike and I hiked the trail first during the day. Mike was still concerned so he asked Niket Desai to hike with Nick and stay with him on the overnighter. Niket, being a good scout, willing agreed to stay with Nick. Nick also got an early start up the hill and with Niket’s help and the early start, he was able to do just fine.

On Wednesday, things started getting interesting. Patrick Schramm was seeing Scott Morse, our resident EMT, each day for medicine and Scott noticed that Patrick was havng labored breathing. This continued and got worse until Scott decided that Patrick may be in danger and should go to the hospital. So, at 8:30pm on Wednesday evening, Peter Henscheid and I took our first trip with Patrick to the CommunityHospital in Sonora. A simple treatment of Ibuteral and a prescription inhaler was all Patrick needed to make him as good as new. Next year, we need to make sure that Patrick brings an inhaler so that we do not need to make this trip again.

On Thursday night, the staff had not planned to do a Trail to First Class overnighter because they did not see the value in the trek. I convinced them that it was worthwhile so most of our newest scout headed off to a campsite that was no more than 200 yards away from the main camp. It turns out that the mountain man group was also at this campsite. At around 8:30pm that evening one of the mountain men participants fell off a rock in the creek and injured his leg. The staff, not taking any chances, thought it could be broken so they thought he should go to the hospital. I walked over to the creek to check on the situation and who do I see being splinted up to be taken to the hospital but none other than our own Patrick Schramm. Well, Peter and I knew the way so off we were again to Sonora to the CommunityHospital. Unfortunately, this time, Patrick needed to get X-rays so we did not return back to camp until almost 2:00am. Fortunately, Patrick’s leg was not broken and he was walking around again by the afternoon of the next day.

Friday was final sessions for merit badges and, after lunch, the Campwide Games. This year we submitted only one team to the games and we did not place in the top three. Kevin Doherty, our SPL, was somewhat unhappy that we did not submit two teams considering our size. I would suggest that we do submit two teams in the future. As usual, we had the Oarless Rowboat Race and the Greased Watermelon Scramble and of course, we had the Scoutmaster Banana boat race for which I got dunked twice. The games were great fun and the boys (and the Scoutmaster) all did their best.

Friday night was the closing campfire ceremony. Congratulations go to Niket Desia and Mike Lombardi for being asked to join the Honor Patrol. This is an award given to Scouts and scouters who, sometime during the week, had done something to impress the camp staff with their Scouting spirit. We also had quite a few advancements in the Tribe of the Hi-Sierra, reaching Brave, Warrior, Medicine Man ranks and even Chief. Since these Tribe members had to keep a vow of silence until after grace on Saturday breakfast, it was a quiet night Friday night. All the new scouts embraced the program and attained their Brave rank. I was able to finish my chief rank and I am now Chief Contemplating Owl.

On Friday, we had a number of parents join us to watch the games and participate in the campfire. There were enough parents on Friday we did not need to wait for any new drivers on Saturday morning when it was time to leave. On Saturday, I picked up all the blue cards and we sorted them by scout. We then proceeded to hand them out and we checked to make sure that every scout was satisfied that they had received the proper number of blue cards and that they were fill out properly and signed by the counselor if they needed to be. I had made a spreadsheet before camp with everyone’s name and all the merit badges listed. We put an “X” at a square if a scout signed up for a particular merit badge. We then used this list to help us when we returned the blue cards. This helped but handing out over 100 blue cards to 30 scouts still took a long time.

Unfortunately, the spreadsheet did not quite hold enough information. Next year, I will indicate when I hand back the possibly completed blue cards if the scout has completed the merit badge (by marking the box with a “C”) or if he has received a partial (by marking the appropriate box in the spreadsheet with a “P”). This may help to alleviate the problem where a scout accidentally sends his blue cards through the wash which actually happened this year with one of the scouts.

In any case, on Saturday, all the boys had the bags packed and their stuff down in the flag meadow by 10:00am. However, blue card distribution was our bottleneck and we were also very close on the room for seating on the way back home. We also had to get a picture of the troop at the end on the bridge. All this combined to cause us to be one of the last troops to get out of the parking lot such that we did not get out the door until after 11:00am. We need to have a little more room in our cars on the return and we need to do better at our blue card distribution.

Problems / Suggestions for future Hi-Sierra Summer Camps:

LEADERSHIP:

Kevin Doherty was a very good SPL for summer camp. He was always there at the right time and he had the boys wake up earlier when they were not ready for inspection on one morning. The boys did not like that but they followed him as they should any good leader. He was very conscientious to make sure the boys got up on time he and made sure that the campsite was already ready for inspection.

SPL meetings that took place every day after breakfast. I think it should be made clear, especially for summer camps, that the current SPL is expected to attend, and that his primary duty is to the troop. Hi-Sierra offers SPL Week to all troops. The SPL can go up to camp, free of charge, for the week prior to his troop's week. Then he can take all the merit badges he wants, plus get some SPL training on how to handle the following week.

DUTY ROSTERS:

Make sure the SPL gets all the rosters posted right away. Each campsite needs a steward schedule and a duty roster. Each of these rosters can be printed out from the web. I suggest that the SPL make the steward schedule and the duty roster before camp so we can print it up nicely and have it ready before camp. Each camp also needs a fire guard roster. Make sure they are filled out every morning as required. To avoid confusion, do not let the scouts make changes to the steward schedule without getting it OK'd and posted by the SPL

EQUIPMENT:

Some of the merit badges require equipment that's not on the list for everyone else:

Astronomy: spends one night sleeping under the stars, so bring a drop cloth to put your sleeping bag on, a day pack for your water, rain gear, etc. that you are taking with you, and a backpacking (compact) sleeping bag that you won't mind carrying a mile or so up the hill.

Wilderness Survival: spends on night out, without a sleeping bag, so bring emergency blankets and matches in a waterproof container. There is also a water crossing on the way back the next morning, so wear sneakers and convertible pants. One of the requirements is to build a fire several ways without matches, so bring a magnifying glass, flint and steel, and steel wool and a 9-volt battery. One person can bring these and share them with the others.

Woodcarving: requires a Tot'n-Chip card.

Trail-to-First-Class: also has an overnighter, so bring the same drop cloth, day pack, and compact bag as the Astronomy guys. Also have a personal first aid kit put together and be ready to describe what everything in it is for.

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