Boulder Cave
Scott Mclean
Here is the next Cub Scout years installment. There were a lot of my classmates in Mom’s den. Sometimes she got a boy that another leader couldn’t handle.
Mom’s theory was that you couldn’t have these country boys cutting out paper dolls. You had to have outdoor outings to let them be boys within reason.
Here is a roster of our classmates she had in her group. I’m probably missing a few and I apologize. Kids wanted in her group because she actually did fun outings with them. Greg Benner, Dave Neubert, Tom Webster, Rick Harris, Rick Estes, and Mark Williams to name some. As I said there were others and many groups came later.
One outing took us to Boulder Cave which had a campground at the time. We went through the cave first. With a group of 8 and 9 year olds for the most part, it was probably like herding cats for Mom. The cave is quite dark with a small stream running through it. Of course some of us had to hide and try to scare the crap out of our friends.
Later we went up to what was called the fanny slide at the time. It was a 15 foot or so waterfall up the trail from the cave. It went over slick rock and you could slide down it on your butt. When you hit the pool at the bottom it felt like you were going down 10 feet or so in the water. The fact was that you ended up being able to stand with the water only chest deep. You then climbed up and did it again. Any Cub who was afraid to do it got kidded by his friends till he tried it.
Years later, a log appeared that ran diagonally across the falls, blocking it. I suspect this was done intentionally by the forest service.
That night we had one of Mom’s mountain feasts in the old lean to there which we were camped next to.
After we were ready for our sleeping bags, at least according to Mom, a bunch of rowdy drunks across the road were making a commotion. Mom was keeping an eye on them and we Cubs quietly armed ourselves with assorted firewood, weiner sticks, and pine cones. Mom went across to talk to them and they quieted down and then left. Mom was a force of nature when she was defending people who were in her charge. I don’t believe she had a hot wheel track with her though!
Later that night we had other visitors. Bears tried to get in the garbage cans. We started making a racket and they left. Even bears don’t want to mess with a group of country boys of that age!
The next day we tried fishing the river with no luck until what must have been a salmon or steelhead got bored and hit my bait. Whatever it was it headed up river and took all of my line with it.
Some of us went back to roast weiners and hadn’t got in our quota of trouble yet. We found scraps of paper and tried smoking any plant we found and even pine needles. Mom came back up with the bunch from the river and found a group of coughing, choking, and slightly green Cubs. We got to pick up litter over the whole campground due to this.
I privately got a rather scary heart to heart lecture.
There were other outings and adventures. We were a bunch of country kids having fun outdoors thanks to Mom. I had other adventures at the cave in Later years that were far removed from Cub Scouts.
More tales later.
Bye