-Written by Troop Scribe Nathan G.

On August 20th and 21st, Troop 27 embarked on yet another great outing: whitewater canoeing on the Stanislaus River. We arrived at the river around noon and unloaded the canoes. While the adults moved the cars to the end of the stretch of river we were going on, scouts waited in the shade where some scouts went in a still section of the river. After the adults returned, we were assigned canoe buddies, packed lunches in coolers, and started on our 13 mile trip. It was a very nice river with calm stretches and stretches with rapids. We only had a few canoes capsize, and everyone reached the final destination safely. We then hiked a short distance to our campsites, had backpacking style dinners (adding hot water), had a campfire, and went to sleep. Most scouts chose to sleep under the stars and we were lucky to have such a great view of the sky. The next morning, we packed up, had a backpacking breakfast, and listened to Mr. Frydenlund’s Scouts’ Own about obedience and disobedience and three types of laws: natural laws, just laws, and trivial laws. After a camp sweep, we hiked out and unloaded the canoes again. Instead of doing a short stretch of rapids, we decided to do the same 13 mile course we had done the day before. In the middle of the course, some scouts took part in rescuing some rafters under the direction of Mr. Frydenlund. We then continued along the river and reached the end smoothly. This experience was undoubtedly skill-enhancing and great preparation for the September canoe outing.