[Rhodes22-list] Weekend Canoe Trip

[Roger Pihlaja]

Hi Everybody,

Well, I just got back from a camping/canoeing trip with my Boy Scout troop.  On Friday night, we drove up to a MDNR State Forest Campground on the north shore of Mio Pond on the Au Sable River.  The Au Sable River is a designated National Wild & Scenic River.  Consumer's Energy Corp. has a series of hydroelectric/flood control dams along the river.  The dam near the town of Mio, MI creates Mio Pond behind it.  Our campsite was right on the lake.  We had 4 adult leaders & 21 Scouts on this trip, including 4 Scouts that had just joined the troop last Sunday in the WEBELOS crossover ceremony.  At last Tuesday's troop meeting, we had instruction on how to pack & what to wear on a canoe & camping trip.  So, less than a week after joining Boy Scouts, we had our new Scouts out in the woods on a camping trip.  We hit the ground running in my troop!

We were originally scheduled to have 5 adult leaders.  Our Scoutmaster is in charge of the ER at the Saginaw Mercy Hospital.  He had a substitute lined up to cover for him this weekend.  But, at the last minute, the sub's mother died of a heart attack down in Tennessee & she cancelled out.  Our Scoutmaster couldn't come up with a replacement on such short notice.  So, I became acting Scoutmaster for this trip.  All of this happened in real time on Friday afternoon.  For a while, I wasn't certain we could come up with enough vehicles to transport all the people & gear.  But, we managed to pull it all together.  We got off to a late start & arrived at our campsite at about 9:30 PM.  But, the older Scouts helped the new Scouts set up their tents in the dark & it all went pretty well.  I was settled into my sleeping bag by about 11:00 PM.  

Friday night was clear & cold.  When I got up at 6:00 AM on Saturday, my key fob thermometer read 23 deg F.  Near the water, there was also a heavy fog.  With all the frogging around on Friday afternoon, I hadn't had a chance to do the grocery shopping for the trip.  I didn't want to buy food for 24 people & then have the trip cancelled.  It wasn't certain the trip was actually going to happen until just before we left.  I drove into Mio with the shopping list, found a grocery store that was open, & was back by 7:30AM.

After breakfast & clean-up, we drove up river to a MDNR canoe launch site at the Parmalee Bridge on Red Oak Rd.  We unloaded the gear & the rest of the adults left me with the Scouts at the launch site while they shuttled the vehicles & canoe trailers back to our base camp.  While they were gone, we had Canoeing 101 instruction for the new Scouts.  The adults drove back to the launch site in one vehicle & we were underway by about 1:00 PM.  By the time we got on the river, the temperature had warmed up into the upper 50's, it was mostly sunny, with a 10-15 knot southwest wind - pretty nice canoeing weather!  The area had gotten about an inch of rain the day before our trip & the current was flowing along at a brisk 4 knots.  There was plenty of water covering the rocks & stumps.  Basic canoe maneuvering skills were required to keep away from a few boulders, partially submerged stumps, & the occasional "strainer".  A pair of our senior Scouts got their canoe caught sideways in a strainer & the current dumped them into the rather cold (about 40 deg F) water.  Brenda Acklin & I were in the last "sweep" boat & we saw them get dumped the 1st time from about 100 yards upstream.  They gathered up their floating gear, emptied out their canoe, & tried to get going again.  The only trouble was, they didn't back up sufficiently far upstream from the strainer & got caught in it again.  They got dumped for a 2nd time in same place!  By this point, Brenda & I were sitting a safe distance downstream ( we didn't want them to run into us! ), kibitzing, & taking pictures.  They finally got their act together & gave the rest of the strainers in the river a wide berth from then on.  Initially, I was little worried about them becoming hypothermic, but the wind had them mostly dried out by the time we stopped for lunch.  No apparent damage except for their pride.  Naturally, the pictures will show up again on a poster with the appropriate cations!

After about 4 river miles, we stopped for lunch at another MDNR launch site called the Whirlpool, named for a standing vortex created by the stanchions of an old railroad trestle.  After another 3 river miles, the current slowed as the river started widening out into the west end of Mio Pond.  The lake winds around as it follows the old Au Sable River channel.  A lot of this part of the trip was tough going against a stiff headwind & chop with no current to assist.  You had to paddle pretty hard to make headway.  After about 3 river miles of this, we made it back to our base camp by about 5:00 PM.  Everybody was pretty tired.

Brenda & I saw 3 beavers, numerous beaver lodges, several whitetail deer, a bald eagle, lots of nesting wood ducks, & nesting Canada geese.  Male wood ducks have the most spectacular multi-colored plumage.  The wood duck is an endangered species, but they seemed to be doing pretty well along this stretch of the Au Sable River.  They're such a cool animal, I'm glad to see them making a comeback.  Brenda tried to do some fishing from the canoe, but didn't have any luck.

Brian Moe & I drove back to the Parmalee Bridge launch site to pick up my minivan while the rest of the troop started making dinner.  Dinner was just about ready by the time we got back.  After dinner, some of the Scouts took the canoes out fishing & others fished from shore.  Nobody had any luck.  After sunset, we had a lengthy campfire program.  By about 11:00 PM, most of the Scouts were in their tents.  I went to bed about 11:30 PM.  Several of the senior Scouts stayed up talking around the campfire until about 1:00 AM.

The temperature got down into the low 20's deg F again on Saturday night.  I let the troop sleep in until about 9:00 AM on Sunday morning.  There were lots of sore arms & shoulders on Sunday morning.  We had breakfast & then started packing up.  We had an unfortunate incident with a new crossover WEBELOS Scout named Jordan.  Jordan has ADHD & is very stubborn, & short tempered.  Jordan's Patrol Leader told Jordan he had to take his troop tent home, dry it out, & return it at this Tuesday's troop meeting.  Everyone that used a troop tent had to do likewise, so this was not an unusual request.  Well, Jordan wasn't having any of this.  Without telling anyone he was leaving, he ran away from camp!  When someone noticed Jordan was missing, we sent out search parties.  One of the search parties found Jordan out on the end of a rocky sand spit skipping stones into the lake.  Pat Riley, the adult leader that found Jordan, tried to reason with him & get him to return to camp.  Brenda Acklin also tried to talk to him.  Finally, they sent a Scout to fetch me.  I walked out there & tried to get Jordan to come with me.  After some time of trying to reason logically with him, I wasn't getting anywhere.  Finally, I stretched out my hand & told Jordan that this was his last chance to salvage some dignity out of this situation.  "You are 120 miles from home in the middle of the Au Sable State Forest.  I am responsible for you & I will not leave you here.  Now it's time to leave, so take my hand & walk with me back to camp."  Well, he turned his back on me.  So, I scooped him up, threw him over my shoulder like a sack of cement, & carried him back to camp kicking & screaming all the way!  When we got back to camp, I set Jordan down &, while I held him by his arms, I asked him if he would give me his solemn promise not to run away from camp again.  He wouldn't even look at me.  So, I handed him to Brenda to watch while we finished packing up.  Then, I put him into the middle seat of my minivan with a senior Scout on either side of him to make sure he didn't pull anything on the trip home.  When we got back to Sanford, it turned out that Jordan was also wearing another Scout's shorts & his shorts were packed away in his duffle bag.  Apparently, Jordan had taken the shorts off a clothes line when no one was looking.  While we were unloading the troop trailer, the other Scout noticed that Jordan had on his shorts.  Jordan claimed they were his & we got into another argument about the shorts, but the name tag left no doubt.  So, by the time Jordan's mother showed up to pick him up, we had him in his own clothes.   The two pair of shorts weren't even very similar, so I think this was deliberate theft.  I explained all of this to Jordan's mother.  She looked really embarrassed.  I told her that Jordan could stay in the troop, but that such behavior was completely unacceptable.  One of Jordan's parents will have to come along on any future trips to take charge of & be responsible for Jordan.  I told her I wasn't willing to accept the potential liability of being responsible for Jordan in the future.  Privately, I told his mother that I didn't think Jordan was sufficiently mature for Boy Scouts & another year in Cub Scouts would be a really good idea.  We'll see what they do.  My guess is that we've seen the last of Jordan.

It was a good trip, despite the uncertain beginning & the problems with Jordan.  The Au Sable River valley is spectacular & the weather cooperated.  Everyone except Jordan had a really great time.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium