Essentially right after Philmont, I traveled to California for Camp Emerald Bay. Additionally, I traveled there early for a thing called SPL (Senior Patrol Leader, which is basically the big boss of the entire troop) Training, meaning that I got there 3 days earlier and only got 4 days at home. On top of doing SPL Training, I got my scuba certification, the PADI Open Water Certification, meaning that I could go down to 60 feet, or 18 meters.
While at Emerald Bay, I was around the younger kids of the troop, contrasting to when I was at Philmont and everyone there was either my age or older. Overall, I still had fun talking to and catching up with everyone else while summer was going on. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Sam was there meaning that I would spend roughly a month with him.
My experience at Emerald Bay has been very good, and I have been thinking about working there as a ranger next year.
Day 1: We departed from Phoenix Sky Harbor to Long Beach Airport, where me, Sam, Chase and his mom and then got something to eat at a restaurant, I got fried shrimp with fries and a coke. Chase got a swordfish with fries, Sam got some seafood tacos. When we arrived at the place for the ferry, we waited 2 hours there since we were so early. I bought another piece of food, a spicy chicken wrap, which was very good. We met our ranger person for our SPL leadership, Diego, which we arrived at the camp 3 days early for. We did a 7 mile bike ride from 2 Harbors, in which I found out that you have to apply a little more pressure than you would think to switch gears. We set up shop in the staff lounge, which was the only place that we could sleep, as all the scout camps were occupied.
Day 2: The next day, we woke up and learned the schedules, and we did the swim test in the morning to make sure you can actually swim. After that, we did a lesson about what it means to be a leader up in the chapel area. After that, we did Aquacade, which is a competition between all of the troops, but we technically couldn’t win since we weren’t a troop. For Aquacade, I built sandcastles with Sam and Chase, which consisted of five ships, a carrier, a battleship, a cruiser, a sub, and a patrol boat.
Day 3: We kayaked around Indian Rock, and we threaded the needle, which meant that we went in between two rocks there, in the kayak. Afterwards, we capsized each other, until we had to go back. Additionally, we visited the aquarium, which had a petting tank for invertebrates and sharks. There were also large aquariums filled with fish and other animals like moray eels. Later at night, 5 people including me went out to try to catch a fish for one of the guy’s merit badge. We met some nice fishermen who gave us some squid as bait to catch a fish, and not even 10 minutes later, we caught a calico bass. We thanked the fishermen, gave their bait back, and started about the process to gut clean, and cook the fish. We went to the beach, and first killed the fish until it stopped moving, then cut down its stomach to gut the fish. We put everything that might attract other animals back into the ocean before putting the fish into the fire to cook, and we all ate a small part of the fish before throwing it back into the ocean. We retired to bed 5 minutes later with a great memory.
Day 4: Our troops finally arrived, meaning that I would no longer be around the other SPL Training people. Colin, a Troop 441 alumni and the current Ranger Director there, found us and asked us to take in Kenny, a 10 year old asian boy who didn’t have a troop yet because he just joined Boy Scouts. Of course we accepted, and brought him to our campsite to unpack while we waited for Grant and the rest of the troop. Once they finally arrived, they came to our campsite, which was Carmel and fairly close to the midcamp bathrooms, they all picked tents and set up before going to the swim test. My buddy tag, the thing you show to get into the Waterfront area to make sure you don’t get lost, was thrown away so I had to technically do the swim test over again, but I didn’t because I was doing the scuba swim test, which was harder than the normal swim test. While people were doing that, I was scrambling to get my forms to the scuba place because Diego was in Avalon and didn’t give our forms back to give to the people at the scuba place. After lunch, we went to the scuba place to get fitted for our wetsuits and BCDs for tomorrow, as well as learning how to assemble and disassemble the kits. After that, we went to dinner and then hung out at camp before going to sleep. We also attended the opening campfire.
Day 5: Because I’m in scuba, they gave me a wristband which allowed me to go into the dining hall early and receive extra food as it was considered “rugged”. Anyways, after breakfast I went to the scuba place for my first lesson, which consisted of the swim test and other surface skills in out wetsuits and kits, which consisted of a regulator, backup regulator, a LPG hose that attached to my inflator hose, a SPG which told you how much air you have left in the tank, a BCD (buoyancy control device), fins (not flippers), a mask (not goggles), a snorkel attached to said mask, a wetsuit, and some booties for our feet. The inflator hose added and subtracted air from the BCD. After we finished up, we set up our kits for after lunch by just replacing the cylinder. We went scuba after lunch and did some more skills. After dinner, we went on a small hike up towards Arrowhead, where we saw some pretty scenes, after which we hung out then went to sleep.
Day 6: There wasn’t much to do, it was just basically wake up, eat, scuba, eat lunch, scuba again, eat dinner, then pack my sleeping bag and mess kit for war canoe on Day 7.
Day 7: Today was special because we went to war canoe today, which meant that we didn’t do scuba today. We put our bags that we packed the night earlier, in the parade ground to load into the truck to deliver it over to Parson’s beach, where we were staying the night. We ate breakfast like normal, then gathered near the war canoes to start paddling over. I was put into a canoe with Sam, Chase, Paul (who I roped into the canoe) and two rangers, Lincoln and Tarkon. We were the tail, which meant that we had to stay in the back. It was fun, with me playing white girl music and the chants to keep time with each other while paddling.
After we finally landed we got the instructions, and set up a windscreen with rocks where we were sleeping. After, we played on the beach, as we didn’t want to snorkel, because we were doing so much scuba, and we didn’t want to hike because, well, it’s just hiking. We built sandcastles to withstand the gentle lapping of the water, the trick is to hide rocks inside of the sand to provide a backbone. Afterwards, we ate lunch, which was just a ham sandwich, with some seconds and thirds, accompanied with chips, and then went back out to lay around the beach, being lazy. We then cooked dinner, which was “beef stew” with peach cobbler. I cleaned out the beef stew and washed the pot after, and started to doze and wake up and repeated that in my sleeping bag after I finished.
Day 8: We woke up early, like 4:15 early, to pack everything up, and launch the canoes to make it back in time for breakfast. After breakfast, we did scuba, then lunch, then scuba again, then dinner, then sleep.
Day 9: After waking up, eating, doing scuba, eating again, and then finally cleaning everything out and receiving the merit badge and our gloves from scuba, we did Aquacade. We didn’t win, which I think is partly my fault, but our scores were as follows: 3rd in Caterpillar (5 scouts in a rowboat without any paddles), no placement in Drain the Ocean (we should have gotten at least 3rd), no placement in belly flop, 3rd in Crossing the Delaware (where an adult stands up in a row boat while 5 scouts push it), no placement in Message to Garcia, (a relay race that goes kayak, kayak, swimmer, then runner), 1st in sandcastle, and 4th overall. I participated in Caterpillar, Drain the Ocean, Crossing the Delaware, and Message to Garcia. I believe that if we had more older scouts that we would have won. We headed back to camp to pack, then attended the closing campfire.
Day 10: We woke up, ate breakfast like usual, and then brought all of our stuff that we packed down to the dock to load into the ferry. We had an uneventful ride back to LA, where Kenny was picked up by his sister, and we all headed back, except for Paul, who stayed in California and instead headed to San Diego. I rode back, took a shower, and then talked with my family.
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!