Highlights from the Canoe Trip

A dozen scouts and half that many men journeyed a few hours to Colorado Bend State Park this weekend - it was, perhaps, the best scout camping I have ever experienced! The weather was great; lows in the 50's, clear skies, highs in the 80's. The scenery was beautiful and the food was delicious. We pitched our tents in a large open area just feet from the Colorado River. This is what we saw from our campsite.

Jono came with us since The M is out of town dealing with her father's Alzheimer's. Because Jono was too young, the two of us could not canoe. He and I spent the day together, just the two of us. We fished together, hiked together, and went to see Gorman Falls, a beautiful waterfall in the area. We waded in the cold water and laid on our backs in the shade. I could tell he was thriving on the personal attention because he kept telling me that he loved me. "Guess who I love" he said. "Who" I asked. "You" he says. He must have said this ten times that day, without any prompt.

Here is a photo of Gorman Falls.

At one point, Jono, D, and another boy were talking about their names. It was a serious conversation that went something like this:

R: "If I had to change my name, I would change it to Brad, because that's my middle name."

D: "If I had to change my name, I would change it to Austin, because that's my middle name."

Jono: "If I had to change my name, I would change it to F.H.. That stands for french horn."

That's my Jono. He marches to the beat of a different french horn.

Saturday morning D and the other scouts made breakfast of pancakes and charred bacon, then packed into a Suburban which pulled the canoe trailer. They drove out to the entry point, donned their "PFD's" (personal flotation devices) and began their river journey like Huckleberry Finn wearing SPF 30. One of the men used a GPS to measure their progress; their track went 16 miles before reaching our campsite! D says his arms are sore from paddling, and his butt is sore from the metal canoe seat, but I can tell he had a great experience.

The red arrows show the starting and stopping points of their trip. The bottom red arrow also shows our campsite.