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Re: [AT-L] Scouts
> >> >
> You'll find many of us Scouters on the trail, not necessarily with our
> troops. A few years ago in SW Virginia [running to get trail >
>notes...it was 4-17-90], I stayed in Saunders Shelter on Straight Mtn.
>
> >> >DP...
> >>
I'll add another Scout story to this one. In 1988? our troop was to hike
Southbound from Fontana. One of my Scouts and I decided to put in at
Waterville/I40 and hike south thru the Smokies, to meet them at Fontana.
We stayed in the Russell Field shelter one night. About eleven, after we
had turned in, we heard the thump-thump of rap music. After a while, a
bunch of kids comes into the shelter, one with a boom box on his
shoulder. This was an inner-city Scout troop, and had hiked up from
Cades Cove that night. After explaining to them that we _were_ asleep,
they quieted down (at least turned off the blaster). They got done
cooking supper about midnight, and I told them (of course) to watch out
for bears (we had one the previous night). They laughed it off, thinking
I was kidding, that there really weren't any bear around.
I spoke up again when I saw that they were turning in without washing
their pots and dishes. I warned them... "Skunks. Those will be licked
clean by morning." They blew off my warning, thinking I was playing
games. During the night, they kept hearing the clink of their cookgear
rattling around (and all flashlights would come on). In the morning,
sure enough, all their plates were shiny clean--not a scrap of food left
on them! :-)
(I think they learned a lot that weekend)
DP...
ps-- this same trip, we were at Double Spring Gap shelter, and had a kid,
maybe eleven or twelve, come barrelling up the trail, packless. His
words were fast and right to the point: "My Scoutmaster had a heart
attack a mile back!!!" A thru hiker and I went running full blast down
the trail, only to meet the man and the rest of his troop. He had sat
down to rest, and as we found out, the youngest Scout overreacted,
thinking he had collasped, and assumed the rest...
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