Sunset Mountain overnighter

“Firday afternoon six Boy Scouts and two leaders, myself included, departed Santee, CA and headed for the Anza Borrego Desert. We reached Pinyon Wash at about 6:30 pm and parked the vehicles about twenty minutes later. Our destination was a flat sandy bowl just below Sunset Mountain in the Whale Peak grid. I call it Sunset Bowl.

Having been there before I handed the topo map to the boys and marked where we were standing and our destination. The other leader and I hung back while we let them find our way on a dark and moonless night.

We reached the bowl a few hours later, just before the moon would rise over the ridge descending East of the peak looming to the North of us. We laid on a large granite rock and took turns exclaiming at falling stars everywhere. On the way out I had taught the boys the meaning of the word "masticate", and we continued to uproarously work it into our conversations as we snacked out.

Eventually we all climbed into our bags, mine a brand new REI Syn Cat. I slept well that night to my pleasure; a 4lb 4oz bag had better give me a damn good nights' sleep. I awoke first, emerging from my bag shorlty after dawn with the sun still well below the desert peaks to the East.

The boys began to awaken to my chuckling at the ice and frost covering each of their bags, not to mention the backpacks. It definitely got cold that night, but my +20 bag kept me warm enough.

During breakfast the boys would survey the likely routes to the peak; loose rock and cactus abound. They held a vote: scale the peak or hunt a nearby geocache. Geocaching by a landslide. The approach to Sunset Peak is not pretty.

They spent an hour playing baseball with a Sunny Delight bottle with some sand in it. Two of the boys scaled a hill and proceeded to venture to the edge of some a unstable looking cliff. I yelled at them to get away from there. They decided to dislodge small boulders and create rock slides.

Eventually the two rebels returned to camp; I let them know of my displeasure and asked them not to do it again. Twenty minutes later they had returned to the unstable cliff and were at it again. We finished policing the campsite wihtout them, put on our packs and left. They scrambled down the hill, back to camp and caught up to us in short order.

Back at the vehicles I kinda tore into these two. I am a scout leader, not a babysitter. I brought them on this trip for their enjoyment; forbiding particular activities is not to "wreck their fun". If I tell them not to do something it is for reasons of safety, legality or environmental respect. Often and in their case all three.

We meet Tuesdays for planning and other activities. Each of the two rebel boys were apologetic but are required to turn in two essays each: one on respecting the environment and one on respecting their leaders. If they fail to submit their essays they were told that we would have to report their behavior to their parents. Neither of them like that idea.

We hunted and found a geocache on the way home. The boys absolutely love to treasure hunt. For "just" an overnighter we had a very good time, and lessons were learned.”

“Sounds like a good trip c_bat, disobedient Scouts notwithstanding.”

“Sounds like a good one, C bat. Don't ya just love the 'selective hearing' the boys get sometimes. Sounds like you did the right thing. I am constantly trying to get my the parents from my troop to get more involved, as I, too, do not want to be a baby sitter...”

“Yeah, they are all good kids. They just start to feed off eachother and they start making bad choices. Thats fine and all part of the process, so long as they are learning from their mistakes and not repeating them.”

“no dodubt, man! My boys are good kids too. Same thing with my own kids. But, they wouldn't be kids if they weren't stpid sometimes!

Actually, that goes for lots of adults too. But, those usually wind up on the Jerry Springer show... :)”

“They decided to dislodge small boulders and create rock slides.

Bobo- it's the French boy!”