Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Three--Monday

We drove back up the Hole-in-the-Rock Road to the road to Harris Wash, where the high-clearance vehicles proved their worth.  We got to the trail head and began the second stage of Getting Your Act Together.  We planned to stay in the Wash until Friday morning, so we had to carry 12 meals, plus crew gear such as pumps, stoves, water jugs, and the first aid kit. Given that we were organized into two eating crews, we had a total of 24 meals to carry, divided by 13 people.  You do the math. 

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Two--Sunday

Another name for this expedition might be the "Learning to Get Your Act Together Tour."  Gear expands to fill whatever vehicle in which it is carried, and it took our campers a lot of effort to fix breakfast, roll up their bedding, pack away their tents, and get ready to roll.  We pulled out at 9:50 AM.

We drove through Hanksville, passed through Capital Reed National Park, then turned left at Torrey and climbed through the Dixie National Forest.  The highest point is 9,600 feet high amid the largest aspen forest I have ever seen.  We dropped into the town of Boulder, Utah, where we stopped at a good coffee place.  From there we drove along one of the more stupendous roads in the Mountain Time Zone.

Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day One--Saturday

Our troop always goes to the Utah desert for Spring Break.  This year we took five crews in all--three to Paria Canyon, and two to the Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument.  I was with the latter bunch, seven 12-year-olds and a couple of 11-year olds and three of their fathers, so this account will be about them.  

We rendezvoused with the Paria crews at the visitors center in Fruita, where we bid adieu to them and continued to Green River, Utah, where we gassed up, drove west on I-70, and headed down Highway 24 into the wild.  We chose a campsite outside of Goblin Valley State Park.  We go here for a couple of reasons.  First, there's no charge.  Second, we can camp in places where the boys can make all manner of noise.

Going where the helicopters cannot follow

It must have been a slow news week or else Time, Inc. has laid off the people in charge of ferreting out real issues.  The November 30th Time Magazine cover trumpets the dangers of “over parenting,” aka “helicopter parenting.”

This anxious parenting bit is nothing new.  When our sons were in the Montessori School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the mid-80s, I thought we were in the epicenter of that kind of behavior—“Yes, I know that those are the school rules, but this is our child . . . .”

We see over-parenting in Scouting, but in this organization we have one big advantage over schools and other places who suffer from the parental obsessives:  we take the Scouts where their helicopters cannot follow:  out in the wilderness.

Paria Canyon Paroxysms: BLM website is the pits

Our troop plans to hike Paria Canyon during Spring Break in March.  Paria is a wonderful slot canyon that begins in Utah and comes out at Lees Ferry along the Colorado River in Arizona.  Hikers slosh along--often in the river--for 38 miles.  At its narrowest, the canyon is about 15 feet wide with sandstone walls that go up hundreds of feet.  A wonderful place, but not one to be caught in during a summertime flash flood.  That's one reason we go during Spring Break.

Making the Cover of Backpacker Magazine

Our troop is headed for Paria Canyon on Spring Break in March, assuming we can snag some permits in the next 10 days.  The cover of the January 2010 issue of Backpacker magazine has a photo of Buckskin Canyon, which terminates into Paria about eight miles down.  We always spend our first night up in Buckskin on a high bank.

Seeing a place I've been on the cover of a magazine always brings out two opposing thoughts.  First, I'm thrilled to see some place I've been in a magazine.  Right after that thought, however, I always think "Dang, now everyone will want to go there."

I've never through-hiked Buckskin, which is supposed to be the longest slot canyon in the world.  When we go to that area, in late March, it is very cold in there, and the pools of waist-deep water make it tough.  We usually hike up it from Paria for a couple of miles, however, and it is always awe-inspiring. 

The kinds of Scout parents we want

Our troop is approaching maximum size, and we are facing an onslaught of potential new members.  While we decide just how large we can reasonably go, we kicked around the idea of what kind of parents would jump a Cub Scout to the front of the line.  Here we go, starting at the top:

• An ER Physician. Having that kind of medical expertise on wilderness trips and summer camp would be primo.  We once had a pediatrician father in the troop, and he was wonderful.  I once saw him remove cactus spines from a Scout with duct tape, and hiked in Alaska with him as well.