October 2007 Catalina Island Trip Report

Dear Troop 606,

Last weekend (Oct 13-15, 2007), we had a great trip to Catalina Island, Little Harbor Campground. We left San Pedro at 7:00 am, and arrived at Two Harbors at 9:00 am. After a little breakfast and shopping, we were on our way to the campsite. Fortunately, our gear was hauled by truck. Most of our intrepid scouts and scouters hiked approximately 6 miles into Little Harbor, taking a lovely scenic ridge route along the Manning Trail that offered views of the ocean almost all along the way.

Little Harbor campsite was beautiful, as was the weather--moderate, partly cloudy. We had most of the campground with ocean view to ourselves, which gave us plenty of room to play around. Scouts worked on scout skills (fire building, knots, first aid, etc.). Later, Mr. Cook took scouts on a five mile map and compass hike that provided up close encounters with buffalo, and beautiful scenic overlooks. We had two campfire programs. The first was "open night", and the boys had fun telling silly stories, jokes, and riddles. Second evening was "follow the flame", and we had a great time with goofy scout skits, stories, a group game, and some songs.

Scouts managed their camping duties by patrols, and did so beautifully. All boys ate well planned hot meals that they cooked themselves. Adults ate well too, including a fancy dessert each evening. There was plenty of time for exploring, tidepooling, and playing around. We had one particularly good football game of boys vs. leaders (I wonder who won...). On our way back, we stopped at Avalon for lunch and ice cream. The boys also found something else in Avalon--candy! Needless to say, we had some pretty energetic boys on the boat ride home!

We didn't lose a single scout and everything went just about as smoothly as you can imagine. This is in great part to the outstanding leadership of our patrol leaders, Doug B., Chaebin J., Dylan K., and our senior patrol leader, Daniel F. Excellent job guys! Thanks also to Mitchel V., our patrol advisor, who provided plenty of useful advice and insight. Our adult leaders did well, providing just the right amount of guidance, support, supervision and discipline. Mostly, we stayed back and watched the boys lead themselves, make mistakes, learn and have fun. Thanks to our adult leaders: Mr. Bachman, Mr. Vieyra, Mr. Cook, Mr. Huang, Mr. Patton, Mr.Yocca, and Mr. Chen.

Please check out the photos at our Troop Picasa web site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Troop606/CatalinaLilHarbor

Best to everyone,
-Mark.