When David was about eleven and Matt was 14 or so, Matt was a boy scout in the ward troop. Since I was the father of a boy scout, naturally, I was called to be the Scout Master of the troop. It turned out to be a lot of fun. This was back when I could get around and do stuff. I was very overweight, which I’ve been all of my life, but at least I could walk and go on hikes and do the stuff that boy scout’s do.
I had an assistant, but don’t remember his name. We decided that summer (probably 1981, but I can’t be sure) to take the boys on a canoe trip. We had to rent canoes and arrange for the boys to bring food to cook and eat along the way. We carried everything with us in the canoes. We spent many scout meeting planning this adventure and trying to think of everything we would need for the trip.
We were planning to be gone three days, I think. We went to a spot just outside of Chatfield where there was an access to the Root River. The Root was not a big river but it offered some challenges. Karen drove with us to the drop off point. Then we put the canoes in the water and we arranged for Karen to pick us up somewhere down river in three days.
Matt went on the trip and I think he had a good time. David got to go because he was my kid, even though he wasn’t officially a boy scout. I remember the Brinkman boys went along, too. There were some other boys and my assistant. So, we had quite a group. The river was quite shallow in places. The canoe would bottom out and stop. We found that all we had to do was step out of the canoe into the river and take our weight off of the canoe and it would bob to the surface and we could get it off the bottom.
We stayed at this little campsite the first night. We had arranged for the boys to work on merit badges during the trip. Of course, everyone got the canoe merit badge, but we worked on camping and preparing meals to eat out doors and several others. I think the goal was for each boy to get at least three merit badges as a result of the trip.
The river was shallow in some places and then in this one section, it was almost rapids. Not quite, but for a group of inexperienced boy scouts, it seemed really fast. I think we had at least one canoe that swamped and dumped all it’s contents into the river. The second night we camped on a sand bar and everybody woke up in the morning with sand in everything they owned.
At the designated time on the third day, we arrived at the pick up point and Karen and other mothers were there. We had had a good time, but we were really glad to see them and get off the river. It was something to talk about for months. I think, by and large, it was a success. I enjoyed scouting so much that I joined the scout council that met in Rochester and was involved in scouting for a couple years after I was released from the ward.
Dad