High Adventure for our Stake this year took place at Stone Hill, Montana (located 50 miles North of Libby, MT at the banks of lake Koocanusa). My Elder's Quorum President, Josh Strom (the same guy that helped move us in) needed another climbing guide to insure that we didn't have any scouts falling off the mtn, and into the lake..this one========>
So I figured one cannot beat a free climbing trip, especially when people cook your meals and drive you around!
Unfortunately we arrived late.... who would have thought that a bunch of troop leaders and 14-16 year olds could be so unorganized? It's probably because they left their wives and mothers behind, which is a philosophy that I am quickly placing stock in.
I'm sure you can imagine what 40 lawless prepubescent scouts look and sound like... running out in the middle of the road, talking about certain body parts, throwing rocks from the road, and not listening to the climbing guides when scaling a route. From all of that, what you're imagining is pretty much all that happened. I'm just happy we didn't have any accidents!
We camped about 4 miles away that night, back in the woods. The next day we woke up at 5:30 am and drove all the way down to Superior, MT to the rafting company that would take us down the Clark Fork River. After arriving an hour late, (no surprises there) we suited up and packed into buses, and drove 13 miles up river. Upon arrival, we broke up into groups of 7 and loaded our rafts. Our guide Jamie gave us the protocol, and then pointed out water guns that had been placed in each boat for the slow moving times. Little did Jamie know that rafts, guns, and testosterone equals epic pirate-like battles of scouts and leaders leaping from one boat to another tossing the small and weak into the river. After 5 or 6 miles of river, we docked our raft on a beach and ate lunch that the guides provided. Baked potatoes, romaine lettuce, chicken, cheese, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, trail mix, and watermelon...basically a feast to feed all the little beasts haha. After more bodies falling into the water, we came to our pull out point, jumped on the buses and came back to our cars. After that the scouts went back to base camp, and Josh and I drove home that evening. Overall, it was a blast and Jana is upset because she wasn't able to go, but I had fun!
