Ashford-to-Logan Scout Exhange 2010: Finally...Catching Up

Greetings all parents, relatives and friends. Randy Martin here. After a week and a half at Camp Loll and Yellowstone National Park, we've finally arrived back at the Cache Valley. During our adventure Paul S. had the scouts write entries for the blog - they follow below, along with a few pictures....

Wednesday 4th August (by Joe Metland)
Today the older Scouts and Paul hiked to Survey Peak. The experience was tiring but satisfying. We hiked 16 miles. This is not the furthest I have hiked but was the most exhausting as the terrain as well as elevation was a lot different. There were no trails to follow and the hike had to be done via bushwhacking following a compass bearing. At the top we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains, valleys and basins. Among these were the Grand Tetons which still had snow on them. We were told where we were still had snow less than three weeks ago. We also had lunch which was a lot more rewarding than usual. The walk back was even more tiring despite being downhill most of the way. On the way back we stopped at Phantom Falls. Throwing a hat off the side would result in it coming back due to an updraft which came up the cliff face. Each person drank over three litres of water due to the heat. The younger Scouts went on a much shorter hike.
We were all supposed to go on an overnight canoe trip, but all of us (except Fred who did go) were too tired. Instead we concocted the finest brew of root beer which had been suggested by one of the staff who also got the ingredients. This involved mixing dry ice, sugar and root beer abstract to four gallons of water. We then sold this off at $1 a cup and made a slight profit!
We then went to a campfire where we did a sketch, a song and a yell before going to bed.

Thursday 5th August (by Kieran Whitehead)
I got woken up early by Kingsley saying there was a bear outside the tent. I said of course and went back to bed! Later on that day we were informed by the Yellowstone Park Ranger that a bear had been positively sited within Camp Loll for the first time since 1993. During our ACE (Advanced Camper Experience) programme we went bouldering which involved climbing over rocks and exploring caves. In one, where we had to climb down into the cave, we managed to get 14 of us in. As we were climbing out of the cave a large rock fell and hit one of the American Scouts on the head. As he got out a large amount of blood was running out of his head and down his face and t-shirt. Joe Metland was next to him and took off his t-shirt and applied pressure to the wound. After Ben (the camp staff member in charge) had stabilised the Scout he tried unsuccessfully to contact camp. Ben, Kingsley and I ran back to camp (about two miles) in order to get transport to get the Scout back to camp. The Scout got taken to hospital and had to have five staples in his head.
In the afternoon we worked on our Trading Post merit badge which involved chatting up the girls in the Trading Post!
In the evening we played the camp wide highland games which involved playing traditional Scottish games such as tug-of-war, tossing the caber, etc.
Additional: We later learnt that the rock fall happened at the same time there had been an earthquake in the Jackson Hole area and that the tremors had also been felt in the Yellowstone area.

Friday 6th August (by Fred Webb)
On Friday I took part in the camp Flag Ceremony when I had to break the flag in front of the whole camp (about 200 people).
In the morning I did leatherwork, woodwork and rifle shooting. After lunch we did a service project that involved making stairs up around the back of the campfire area. Earlier in the week I had refurbished a camp sign along with Alex.
During free time I did the Polar Bear challenge that involved sitting under a waterfall for ten seconds. The water was only 45°F due to the water coming from a glacier. I then went back to finish my rifle shooting merit badge. Bryan the instructor wanted to make sure I passed so let me and Corbin my host Scout stay for an extra session in order that I could finish the requirements. To do this he let me use the scope.
In the evening when we went to campfire they had lots of sketches and songs which were humorous. Before Paul let the English Scouts go to bed he made us do a presentation to the Camp Loll staff. We gave out t-shirts, badges and Scout coins as well as a further batch of root beer that we had made.
Additional: During the day Rob fell over and had to go to hospital. He came back later with bandages and a brace for his wrist but no broken bones.

Saturday 7th August (by Alex Silvester)
No entry (yet)!

Travel from Camp Loll to Yellowstone

Sunday 8th August (by Kingsley Standen)
As it was my birthday Paul delegated me to write the blog. One of the waiters at the lodge decided to put a candle on my breakfast which consisted of a sausage burger and a pancake and everyone sang me happy birthday.
Before we set off we had to sought all our laundry out as our first port of call was a Laundromat. Once we had dropped our laundry off we headed out to the Buffalo Bill Historic Centre to take photos. For lunch Paul said we were going to a park to eat sandwiches which actually turned out to be a surprise party at a Pizza Hut. Not having had a restaurant type meal for a few days we all took advantage of the all you can eat buffet.
Following this we spent the afternoon touring the Buffalo Bill Historic Centre, whilst Tom and Nick kindly collected the laundry. There were five different museums here which included a gun museum, a museum on Yellowstone, one on Indians, an art museum and one on the Wild West.
On our journey returning to the lodge we asked Tom to stop at Walmart to collect supplies for our planned party. Unbeknown to us he was planning to stop anyway to pick up a specially made cake he had ordered and so Paul could pick up a card. Once we returned to the lodge I was kept busy whilst everyone signed the card and the cake was prepared. Just before dinner the card was handed to me as well as the cake which I had to cut.
We then had dinner which was steak and potato salad. Straight after dinner we went to the lodge to play pool before returning to our rooms for a birthday party.

Monday 9th August (by Ella Warren)
This morning we all woke up with full up bladders from drinking too much soda the night before. We had breakfast and got ready to go horse riding. We all enjoyed the riding which took two hours and went through the mountains. When we got back we munched on lunch. Then we got ready to go on a hike in Yellowstone National Park but due to Buffalo on the road slowing traffic down we got there late by which time it was raining. We stopped at several viewpoints including the Lower and Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River. We didn’t mind the extra long journeys due to some banging tunes in the car.

Tuesday 10th August (by Robert Wright)
Today we went to Old Faithful which is the most famous geyser and most predictable as to when it is going to erupt. It erupts approximately every 90 minutes. It seemed less impressive than we were hoping for. It usually reaches between 108 & 180 feet but seemed to struggle to reach 100 feet when we saw it. Also in the park we saw Coyotes, Elk and Buffalo which thankfully were not on the road delaying us today. We also went to see some mud volcanoes which were small little geysers of mud which smelt like eggy farts.
In the afternoon we went to the Firehole River where we spent an hour swimming and floating down some rapids.