2007 04 Scouting

Scouting

When I was about eight or nine years old my mother suggested I join Cub Scouts. So of course I did. I didn’t much like cub scouts. I considered it too sissy. We did things like make hot pads for our moms. I was much more interested in what the older boys could do. Things like hiking and swimming in the rugged California Sierra Nevada. When my family drove my older brother up to the mountains for scout camp I tagged along. When the scouts and the troop leaders left the parents at the trail head we waved after them. I wistfully wanted to hike down the trail with them. At nine, I felt I was ready to do the demanding hiking they required. Instead I watched them disappear into the forest, only to be loaded back into the car wondering what great adventures the scouts would be having while I was left with my family.
Then the year arrived when I could become a Boy Scout. There was a fine candle ceremony where new boys were inducted into the troop. We were required to memorize and recite the scout oath. I remember it to this day: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people at all times, to obey the scout law, to keep myself physically fit, mentally awake and morally straight.” They also recited for us the twelve points of the scout law. A scout is: “Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.” Our mothers received a pin which we had to pin on them…a bit of a challenge for a twelve year old.
During the school year, we’d go on outings to various places around the San Francisco Bay area. Sometimes it would be a day hike out to Mount Diablo where we climbed above the fog and looked down as if we were flying off the mountain. Other times it would be overnights, such as to Tennessee Valley in Marin County on the Pacific Ocean or Mt. Tamalpais to a spot we called Laurel Dell. On one such outing I learned a lesson in economics and the Scout Motto: “Be Prepared”. Patrols of six boys would organize their own food for overnights. The older boys were organized into the “Junior Staff” and they enjoyed making sure that the younger boys were prepared, clean, and so forth. They wielded their power in the form of contests between the patrols where they judged the results of meals, clean-up. The prizes were things like a can of blueberries awarded for the Sunday morning pancakes. A lesson in economics came when our patrol, the Boas, had decided to bring along Kool Aid. The packets cost five cents each in those days. However, one of the patrols saw that we had Kool Aid and they didn’t. So we were out in the country with no store nearby. We had the supply, they didn’t. Therefore the price for our Kool Aid was not five cents, but fifty. Supply and demand ruled. They argued that it was unfair that we would charge so much. But we were prepared.
The weekend outings became great preparation for a three week wilderness summer camp. The Junior Staff gave lessons at our weekly meetings in how to get ready. They instructed us in what to pack and what not to pack. They enticed us with great stories of the adventures they had had in previous summers. The backpacks were weighed in and had to be less than thirty pounds including the wooden frame. Some of the more wealthy boys had aluminum frame packs.
We started our trip to camp at 5 a.m. by loading into station wagons in Berkeley. One fun stop was Tracy where we were given $2 bills to buy breakfast. After a five hour drive we arrived at Lake Alpine on Highway 4.
Summer camp was located in the Sierra Nevada at a Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reservoir called Union Lake. Eons ago, glaciers had carved the granite rock into East-West Valleys. PG&E found that by putting concrete dams at one end of these valleys, they could form lakes to control the flow of water late into the snow melt and produce electricity using turbines. But because these valleys ran East-West, through rugged mountains, they are a bit hard to find. So the boy scouts started their summer camp with a seven mile hike from North to South on the PG& E tractor road full of boulders. This road was passable only on foot or by four wheel drive vehicles with high underbody clearance. Down a valley, up the ridge, down another valley up another ridge and a bit of cross country hiking, we finally arrived at the shore of Union Lake. Many camp stories were related by the staff who got to drive supplies into camp in vehicles with names such as “Gutless” and “Yellow Fever”. Yellow Fever was a yellow Ford truck with a radio telephone to be used in emergencies. That was high tech for its day. The tractor road did not actually go into the camp site, but terminated at one end of the lake near the dam which we called the jeep landing. Supplies were ferried in boats from the jeep landing across the lake to the campsite.
There were six patrol camps, scattered around the south shore of Union lake in a tamarack forest. The patrols were all named after snakes…Rattlesnakes, Cobras, Moccasins, Vipers, Pythons and Boas. On a promontory overlooking the lake in what might be called the camp’s most desirable real estate, the staff constructed a rustic commissary consisting of a few tables made from plywood nailed onto the tops of sawn logs placed on end and some canvas tents for storing supplies. Thick insulated sacks called meese bags helped keep vegetables cool, but as each week progressed, we gradually got away from fresh food and more and more canned food was the order of the day, since there was no electricity and no refrigeration or ice. Each Saturday some of the scout fathers would come up to camp bringing fresh vegetables and meat which was a real treat. Commissary also stocked items of need such as axes, shovels, saws and binder twine.
In the center of the six patrol camps was a granite rock called assembly rock. The staff raised a flagpole at the top of assembly rock and the bugler would call meetings in the morning and evening to count attendance and announce plans for the day. The evening assembly also involved a personal inspection in which the staff checked for dirt under fingernails and behind ears. It was forbidden for patrol members to enter commissary or go onto assembly rock without permission. That was how the staff could control the distribution of desirable items such as candy bars and keep the dust down.
We drank water directly from the lake without any filtering. A latrine consisting of rocks in the ground was stationed at the campfire circle on the “back side” of assembly rock. One staff function was to sprinkle the rocks with lime powder to keep down the flies and smell. That latrine was called “Junior”. Back in the forest several hundred yards was where you’d find “Senior”. Senior consisted of two logs placed over a hand-dug pit about four feet deep. Four toilet seats were nailed into the logs and wire screen covered the whole affair except the middle of the seats. Huge spikes were driven into the logs at strategic intervals to hold toilet paper rolls. Because the forest is very dark at night, you quickly learned to plan your trips to Senior during the daytime so as to be able to see the rattlesnakes and bears which might happen by.
Garbage was hauled up the hill into the forest by the younger scouts to a pit dug in the week before the camp by the junior staff. In those days we didn’t haul out our garbage, but we buried it in the ground to rot and rust. I suppose an archeologist could go up there to this day to uncover some of the camp stories. Nowadays scouts take their garbage out to be recycled or rot in an official land fill as opposed to an informal land fill. At the end of camp both the garbage pits and the latrines were covered with dirt.
After settling in to our patrol camps on the first day, the staff arranged an evening “promenade” at different spots around the camp designed to orient new boys to the camp and convey the rules. Some of the rules were for our own safety. For example, you couldn’t go out in a boat without passing the swimming test. There were different levels of accomplishments you had to pass before you could use an axe or cross cut saw. There was a lesson in fire safety. Swimming in the cold mountain water was to be supervised and had to be done at certain announced times. If you broke the rules, you were subject to “laking”…being thrown in the lake with your clothes on. Inspections were conducted on a schedule for cleanliness and food preparation. Patrol leaders got to test their skills in organization to put on meals quickly and with nice presentation, including entertainment for the staff if possible.
New scouts were labeled “flunkies”. On the first Tuesday night of camp, the flunkies were told to pack for an overnight to Morley dome and bring their packs to the campfire circle. Morley dome is up a fairly gentle grade roughly a mile above camp. There is no trail and most of the hike is heavily forested. We took the hike at night, preferably without flashlights. Honestly, for the first year boys it was a bit scary hiking through the woods cross country in the dark not knowing how far and not yet having the skills to be on our own to camp overnight in the wilderness alone. At the “baseball diamond” (a clearing in the trees about two hundred yards from camp, all the flunkies were told to put down their packs, that indeed we were all going to take the hike, but the flunkies would not be bivouacking by themselves. What a relief! The older boys always got a good laugh out of that little practical joke. We did get to Morley dome, had a nice campfire and then hiked back in the dark to our packs and more familiar camp. In later years I again went to Morley dome and found a beautiful native American arrowhead out in the open just sitting on some sand. I avoided the temptation to pick it up and instead left it there for some other lucky person to find the same surprise another time.
After the Morley Dome hike and indeed most nights, we slept in sleeping bags under the stars. Because camp was many miles from any electricity and city lights, the stars were spectacular. The Milky Way in particular was very much like a cloud in the dark night sky. We learned the names of some of the summer constellations, especially the Big and Little Dippers and Cassiopeia. On several occasions it rained, so then we stayed in patrol tents. These war surplus items were canvas with wooden poles secured with binder twine tied to stakes. Thy were barely big enough to sleep four even though there were six in a patrol. We often got a bit wet when it rained, but that was part of the adventure and made for good stories afterwards. One summer in later years when I was scoutmaster it snowed and rained a full week. That was a most miserable summer camp.
Hiking was a big part of the scouting program so we had two major hikes a week. They were on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first hikes were shorter and toward the end of our three week camp they became gradually longer. There was a scout designated hikemaster who was in charge of showing us the way and keeping us together. He often got lost which was part of the adventure and learning experience for him and would-be hikemasters. Even the names of our destinations evoke fond memories for me: Elephant Rock & Pothole Lake; Spicer’s Reservoir; Gabbot Meadows Overnight; Bull Run Peak; and the 20 mile Dardanelles Cone Overnight for hiking merit badge scouts. Often at our destinations we would swim…sometimes in very cold water. Once there was still ice floating on Bull Run Lake and the dare was to get in the water at all. Of course the Polar Bear Club was formed on the spot and each boy had to decide for himself how much of a man he really was. Another tradition was the Island “hike” and the “round” the lake hike. These events involved patrols going onto different islands or campsites around the lake. It was especially fun, because sometimes a 14 year old was in charge and did cool stuff not allowed in camp like putting unopened cans on a fire to watch them explode. Such adventures would be deemed too dangerous today.
One of the hikes we took as older scouts was to Arnot Peak, some 20 miles east. The direction is important because when you’re on the western side of the Sierra, going east means going up hill. We got an early start and being in really great shape, we made the summit about four in the afternoon. That night we camped at Highland Lakes, near the headwaters of the Mokolumne River. The following day we returned, arriving in camp late. I remember being so exhausted that I couldn’t even eat dinner.
Swimming, boating and canoeing were highlights of camp life. Every afternoon there was an opportunity to go into swim lagoon and swim or check out a boat or canoe. The water was Sierra snow melt, so it was pretty cold. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the opportunity to engage in merit badge advancement for swimming and lifesaving merit badges. First Class seaman allowed you to go in a boat on your own. For that you had to have Rowing Merit Badge. To take out a canoe, you had to earn Canoeing Merit Badge. Second Class Seaman meant that you could swim 100 yards and could be in a boat with a First Class Seaman who could only take you within 100 yards of the shore—all wearing life vests. The names of the boats were as colorful as the vehicles…Nameless, Fred K and Useless. One summer we took the Bliss family double-oared boat to camp. It required a lot of work because it was wood battens with caulk. It leaked but was very fast on the water. We called it Blissful and it served two seasons before vandals shot at it while it was stored for the winter.
Because the camp was so remote, it did not make sense to haul supplies in and out every single year. So there were a couple of ways we dealt with things like tables and boats. Above the camp in the forest was a big rock with a hollow underneath one side. After camp, the big items were packed up into this cache and covered with plywood to protect it from snow. Sometimes canned food was put there along with some other heavy items like iron ice-box stoves. That is where Blissful met it’s demise after the logging road made camp more accessible to the gun-toting public. The other means of avoiding transport of heavy items was the shed at Arnold just off Highway 4. For many years, some of the boats, canoes and larger pots were stored in a simple shed part way down the mountain.
Pots varied in size from the big commercial aluminum pots used for rare communal meals in commissary to the smaller patrol vessels. Because of the regular inspections, the pots were always shined to perfection even if the meal was burned. We learned to put soap on the outside before it went on the fire which made cleaning easier. The patrols with the best record of making a hot fire were the ones which had hot water for cleaning. The stoves were old iron ice molds with one end cut out plus a hole cut in the top. The end opening was a rectangle roughly 12 inches by 24 inches and with a length of about 48 inches. Because cooking takes a bit of skill, the older patrol members would stay in camp cooking and send the younger scouts out to collect wood in the forest. Of course the younger scouts felt put upon since they thought the action was in camp instead of out in the woods. In addition, the wood became more scarce toward the end of the three week camp.
An important part of scouting are merit badges and what is called advancement through the ranks of Tenderfoot, Second class, First class, Star, Life and finally Eagle Scout. Camp merit badges generally were the outdoors challenges of Nature, Astronomy, Cooking, Camping, Pioneering, Hiking, Swimming, Rowing, Canoeing, and Bugling. Badges such as Citizenship in the Nation, World or Community, Music, Reading, etc. were better suited to city living and were not always offered at camp. For Nature Merit Badge one of the requirements was to write an essay about what we thought Union Lake would look like in forty years. I wish I had some of those essays today to see which scouts had the foresight to predict what it is actually like today…more people, less privacy, no gas powered motors, more kayaks and boats, major logging and reforestation, no camping near the shore, roads which can be navigated by two wheel drive sedans, a bigger dam on the nearby lake which destroyed Gabbot Meadow, cell phone access and a public toilet at the boat landing. Some of the changes are good. For example, we don’t pollute the water by soaping up and then jumping into the lake to get clean any more.
Eagle Scout Projects often had the environment in mind. Often they involved erosion control or trail maintenance or mitigation against human impact. I am sure in hindsight that some of the erosion control would have taken care of itself had the Eagle Projects not been done. The lesson there is that even good intentions are not permanent.
After we worked or played hard, we tended to get dirty and chapped in the dry mountain air. So bathing was an important part of camp life. Each patrol had a spot on the shore where we would take our towels. We’d strip naked then carefully soap up and then jump in the lake. It was an exhilarating experience to be clean in that cold mountain water, sometimes with the afternoon wind blowing across the lake. Then we’d take nylon brushes and clean under our fingernails and behind our ears. There was a lot of pride in being named the patrol with the fewest demerits for dirt or chap. As during the patrol overnights, the weekly prize was a can of blueberries for the Sunday breakfast.
Sundays were a special day at camp. Saturday night before we got to sleep out on the rocks between the Python and Boa camps. The advantage of that arrangement was that if you had a friend in another patrol, on this one night a week, you could join him for the time after the bugler blew taps and share stories in your sleeping bags while you looked up at the stars. Then Sunday morning reveille was an hour later than usual. We dressed in our scout uniforms for morning assembly. Then after breakfast, everyone went over to “church point”. There, a member of the junior staff would give an inspirational talk. There would be some prayers and singing of hymns such as “The Little Brown Church in the Dell” or “For the Beauty of the Earth”. And the last special thing about Sunday was that you got to have the “emu”.
Emu is a bird, but in scouting we used a leg of lamb. Each patrol would dig a pit, line it with granite slabs and build a fire for about three or four hours in the pit. While the fire is going strong heating the rocks, the patrol members took the lamb and surrounded it with potatoes, vegetables and spices. We’d then wrap the entire concoction with aluminum foil, wet dish towels and tie it all together with binder twine. Once the rocks were very hot, we would put the emu into the pit, cover it with hot ashes and keep the fire going for another three or four hours. Finally, when enough cooking time elapsed, we’d dig it up, unwrap the towels to shed the dirt and dig in to a delicious feast…if we timed it right. Those patrols who were not so organized and had too small a fire or got a late start on the preparation often had to eat an undercooked meal in the dark. Eight hours is a long time to prepare a meal for 12 to 15 year olds. The staff cooked their own, and with their experience, they often produced very delicious results in a timely fashion.
Scouts in their third camp year (or more) were eligible to be voted Union Lake Pioneers. The Pioneers are an honorary society of Troop 5 scouts similar to Webelos in other troops. Election is not automatic. One afternoon, camp gets very quiet and previously elected Pioneers disappear from view. A bit later, several selected scouts “disappear”. They later reappear and without saying a word to anyone, but working together (if there are more than one), they form a raft out of logs to carry minimal supplies which they then push through the water as they swim to Pioneer Island. They stay overnight on the island to finish their initiation. There are many secrets of the Pioneers which are held sacred by those elected into this honorary society which I cannot tell, even to this day. Nevertheless, the public knowledge of the Pioneers includes several items I can share. First, the Pioneers can wear a juniper sprig as a symbol of their honor. If a non-Pioneer scout disobeys and is caught wearing a juniper sprig, he is placed in isolation on a granite “bump” in the middle of the lake for four or so hours while the rest of the troop is having their swim time, boat races or some other fun activity. A non-Pioneer may not touch the sacred axe “Susie” which hangs in commissary. The penalty for touching Susie is the same as wearing juniper. Finally, Pioneer Island in the middle of the lake is off limits. No non-Pioneer may touch that island.
I was elected to the Union Lake Pioneers and cherished the honor. Later, as an adult leader, just before an Eagle Court of Honor, the scoutmaster handed me a letter from the Eagle Scout which he had written as part of his Eagle application. I was told to read the letter as a “remarkable and moving testimony of how important his camp experience was”. What I didn’t know at the time was that the letter outlined in pretty great detail some of the sacred traditions of the Union Lake Pioneers. Only after I had started to read it publicly did I realize what was happening. I cut it short, but not after the damage was done. Some of the non-Pioneers had been let in on some of the Pioneer secrets. My reputation was tarnished. Two weeks after the incident, ten Pioneers showed up in my office (unannounced) wanting an apology and an explanation. Naturally I gave them both. That was a learning moment for me on how a quickly a breach of confidentiality can destroy trust.
Scouting provided lots of opportunities for teaching moments. I learned some lessons in scouting from scout leaders. I subsequently gave some lessons as a scout leader. One time a scout got very angry with another. He went totally out of control in a rage. He was from a broken home and had a lot of pent up rage to begin with. The lesson was that he could learn to control that rage with his word. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside from the fight he was engaging in and sat him on a log, still holding his arm. He really didn’t want to give up the fight. So my grip on his arm was a major annoyance to him, since it prevented him from doing what he was bent on accomplishing…hurting the other scout. I told him that I trusted his word and that if he gave me his word that he would not do harm, only then would I let him go. He was pretty stubborn. It took about fifteen minutes, even to the point that I wasn’t sure if I could sustain my grip. Finally, he gave me his word. And he kept it. An apology for the altercation was delivered and camp went on.
Another lesson was the scout who was led to believe that he’d be promoted at the beginning of camp to a staff position, having already served as a patrol leader. The staff had some issues which they couldn’t resolve and were not able to keep their promise. The scout was crushed to the point of tears, anger and frustration. I pulled him aside and sat with him on a log for about fifteen minutes. He wanted to quit, leave camp and go home. Quite frankly, I didn’t blame him for he was extremely capable and would have been a great asset to the staff. I shared with him that the best way to show them that he was ready for staff was to be the best patrol leader they’d ever seen. I told him that I knew he was ready for staff but for some reason they didn’t think he was ready. Therefore that was not a reflection on him, but on them. The advice stuck, and by the end of camp they had promoted him to staff. He has gone on to be a very successful leader in our society.
Scouting has provided me with some very satisfying moments. As a scoutmaster, I enjoyed watching some inner-city boys see the mountains for the first time. One trip, I had one of these boys sitting to my right in the van I was driving up to camp. It was his first camp. When we passed through the Sacramento Valley and started climbing into the mountains, I knew of an overlook at “Hells Kitchen” and pulled off when we got there. The scout took one look at the vista of snow capped peaks over a forested valley and simply said, “WOW”. Chills ran up my spine as I realized that he had never left the city before.
I’m only active in scouting now as a merit badge counselor. But whenever the opportunity presents itself, I go out of my way to get back to the site of our Scout Camp. Troop 5 has all but vanished now, but the great memories linger. I’ve been there for a weekend with our younger son. I’ve gone up to camp on Pioneer Island alone for a few days. I’ve been back for a reunion with some of the old timers. The spot is more crowded now, but still very beautiful. I only hope that people who don’t understand the huge role which scouting plays in turning boys into men is not overlooked by the agenda of a few who want to label scouting as discriminatory and forbid them access to public meeting places. Scouting is a great component of building character. Those boys who achieve scouting’s highest honor, Eagle Scout, are some of the most productive people I know.

©Frank Bliss 2007 All rights reserved
April, 2007