Scouts on Mount Langley

[Bob Gross]

On Monday, I had backpacked east over New Army Pass. For reference, this is out of Sequoia National Park and into the Cottonwood Lakes area, and this is ten or fifteen miles south of Mount Whitney along the Sierra Nevada Crest. At the end of the afternoon, I really needed to camp at this one lake. There was a bunch of five 14-15 year old scouts with two adult leaders camped at the same lake. Their plan was to wake up early on Tuesday, eat, and start hiking by 7 a.m. They could make it over the pass and up to bag Mount Langley (14,042', very respectable), then return safely to camp by evening. I had a quick discussion with the two leaders, and they knew what they were doing.

I slept that night, then woke up at 5 a.m. to start watching the scout entertainment. I ate and then loaded up to leave. At 7:05 a.m., I was walking past the scout camp. The two leaders were standing around, and there were no teens visible at all, so they hadn't even started breakfast. That seemed like typical teens, scouts or not.

–B.G.–

[Bob Shaver]

We were on a hike in Grand Gulch, So. Utah, and on the last day of the 5 day hike, the boys wanted to get out of camp early (so they could eat junk food). They said lets get up before the sun comes up. I said "I'll get up as soon as someone comes over to my tent and says "the coffee is ready Mr. Shaver."" Next morning, shortly after first light, a scout came over and said "Mr. Shaver, the coffee is ready for you." Dang, that was a first.

[M B]

At philmont our scouts were up generally at 4:15 am. Packed up, camp policed, and on trail at 5:30 just as it was starting to lighten up in the sky. We stopped to eat breakfast after about an hour on trail.

They recognized that hiking in cool morning was infinitely better than the heat of the day. Were usually where we were headed before lunch.

I was astounded to meet crews that didnt get out of camp before 10am, then hiked all day in the hot sun.

Our crewleader was a knucklehead that overslept thru his alarm several times. Fortunately I was up at 3:50 to make sure he woke up at 4am as he was supposed to.

[Author]

Posts