The Las Trampas Hike 2010

Today, we went on a hike in the Las Trampas Hills, an area of scenic land in between Danville and Alamo, for Ben to feel more welcome. Apparently, he didn't come. It was just me, Rick, Jaren, Dewlin, Ryan, and Brandon, and then Brother Spencer and Randall were our leaders. Oh yeah, and Randall brought his dog with him.

Anyway, we met at the church and then drove to the trailhead on Remington Drive here in Danville. Apparently, Remington Drive is not far from Town and Country Drive, where Dallin, Alec, Ryan, and I did Scouting for Food back in November. So, the houses around us looked very familiar.

Ryan was kind of surprised!

We started hiking up the Las Trampas Ridge Trail at a small slope.

A cow kept staring at me and Rick.

Randall let his dog run around, and sometimes we had to yell at him to come back.

The higher we hiked, the more we could see Mt. Diablo, so I took this self portrait with the mountain in the background.

We also found a stinkbug. Dewlin stepped on it, and it stuck it's butt in the air. We backed away so we wouldn't get the smell stuck on us.

We took a rest stop in a small alcove with a little bay laurel tree.

If you crush up a bay laurel leaf, it smells very minty.

We climbed around on the branches of the bigger trees, and then continued hiking.

And then we came at a fork-in-the-road. We could have either gone up to a big tree up on the ridge, or down to a pond to hunt for frogs. We chose the pond.

And yes, we saw cows along the way.

Now, the pond wasn't really the prettiest pond in the world.

Kind of swampy.

But there were frogs everywhere! They were small, because they had just come out of their pollywog stage.

I caught one by the head.

It jumped out of my hand, but then I caught it by the legs!

We went around about a third of the pond, just hunting for frogs.

And then it was time to head back. We hiked back to the Las Trampas Ridge Trail, and then back down the way we came, with the view of Mt. Diablo still ahead of us.

We kept on hiking down. When the dirt trail became a paved road, we knew we were close. And then, we got to the front gate.

Oh yeah, and Randall showed us his multi-tool that I got him for his wedding gift.

After taking a group picture (above), we got back in Brother Spencer's car and Randall's car, and drove back to the church.

So, this wasn't really the biggest hike we've done, but it was still kind of fun!

Snow Camp 2009

Yesterday, some of the scouts got home from Snow Camp. I didn't go, but I know who went and what happened.

So, Alec, Jeremy, Dallin, the Kyles, Brandon, and Dewlin Rosdahl met at the church on December 28th at the church a 5:00 AM. They drove up to Donner Ski Ranch in the Sierra Nevadas.

They hiked up a ways through an old train tunnel built in the 1860's.

When they got to their camp, they made their snow caves, probably and dinner and stuff, and then when the time came, they slept in their caves.

That's pretty much all I know. I'll need to get some more information and stuff.

We Meet Again, Sunol!

Well, we just went on a camp out to Sunol Regional Wilderness...again! Only this time, we had our new scouts: Teddy and Brandon Wilhelmsen (who will join our troop in a week or so)! Also, this was Rick's first time at Sunol.

Brother Spencer, Alec, Rick, Dallin, Jaren, Jeremy, Teddy, Brandon, Brandon's dad, and I met at the church yesterday (October 9, 2009) at 4:00 P.M.

We checked to see if we had everything, then we packed our bags into the car, and off we went!

After about 30 minutes of driving, we got to the boundaries of Sunol.

We parked our cars and got our packs on.

We started hiking on the Hayfield Road up to the High Valley Camp.

Here's a map of Sunol. The black dot is where we started, the black line is the route we took, and the circles are the main locations we were at.

According to the map, we hiked about a mile to the camp.

Along the way, Jaren and I found a huge ravine. Good thing we didn't lose any scouts!

Now, Sunol is largely populated in cows, and when life brings you cows, the cows give you something as well (and it's mostly something you don't want)!

Anyway, after a while, we got to camp. And it was the same camp as last time. Seriously, the creepy old barn was still there!

There's also a house that's built into the side of the hill (notice the chimney coming out of the ground).

I think we even took a picture of it last time!

This Camp Out:

Last Camp Out:

So then we played football, and some Uno for a while.

Then we made fajitas for dinner (which is what we did last time)!

We couldn't make a fire because we could accidently burn down all the hills, Alec made a "fire" out of a lantern and some cello paper.

Since this Camp Out was a Stake Camp Out, meaning that the other troops from the other wards came, we all had a meeting around Alec's wonderful bonfire.

Then, Alec, Jeremy, Dallin, Rick, Jaren, Teddy, and I slept out on a tarp underneath the stars (Brandon slept with his dad in their tent). Wow, the only times we haven't slept under the stars was our first trip to Sunol and Scout Camp! Anyway, I tried to get a picture of the stars, but it didn't work out too well.

I did get a picture of this an electricity tower with blinking red lights!

Okay, maybe it is kinda hard too see. Maybe if I get a close up shot. Now can you see it?

So, yeah, we really didn't go to bed until about 10:30, or 11:00. I fell asleep before everyone, and I woke up a little bit after everybody fell asleep, and I was surprised that Jeremy wasn't yelling "I WILL EAT YOU!" anymore!

In the morning (today), I was the first one up. I wanted to get some pictures of the first light of day, so I did.

Oh yeah, and all throughout this trip, several planes flew over us. It makes sense since we're only about 30 miles from the Oakland Airport and the San Francisco Airport! I even saw one fly over and disappear in the mist!

After I woke up, Teddy woke up, then Jaren, then Rick, and then Dallin. Jeremy and Alec kept on sleeping when we were all supposed to be up and ready. So, we tried to get them out of their sleeping bags.

So, when they finally got up, we had a devotional meeting around the campfire (which was still a raging bonfire from last night)!

After our meeting, we made Sunrise Stew for breakfast. In case if you forgot, Sunrise Stew is hash browns miked with eggs and bacon and cheese. Put it in a frying pan, and what do you have? Pure Goodness!

While we were waiting for it to cook, we played some more football.

When the food was ready, we swooped in and ate all that we could!

After cleaning up our breakfast, we went back down the Hayfield Road, and then branched off onto the Indian Joe Creek Trail.

We hiked down until we got to the Cave Rocks. We went there on our last trip to Sunol, and a lot of fun there, so we came back on this trip!

We did find this hidden cave. It was pretty cool because it kept on going and we couldn't find the end of it, but we couldn't go all the way inside it because we only brought one flashlight, and it wasn't that bright enough. Oh well, maybe another time!

Here's what it looked like inside the cave.

After we discovered the cave, we played an epic game of Hide-and-Go-Seek! So, Dallin was it, and I hid in the main cave inside the mountain thingy. I crawled inside a smaller cave in the main cave. I took a picture of one of the air holes up above me.

It was a pretty good hiding spot, because Dallin came into the main cave, and I was only 3 feet away from him and he didn't see me!

The next round was awesome! I was it, and I found Teddy in less than a minute. Then Jaren came out of his hiding spot from the first round, because Dallin didn't find him. So, he helped me and Teddy. We tried to look for Brandon, but when we found him hiding in between a narrow crack between two rocks (which was kind of cool, because the crack was as wide as the width of a sticky note), he ran off and hid somewhere. So we went on a wild goose chase, until we had him cornered, so then he started to help us. Then, Jaren found Alec, and Alec said he would give us hints to where Dallin, Jeremy, and Rick were hiding; the only guys left.

Then, when Teddy, Jaren, and I were searching the main cave, we saw a cave that went straight down. I was brave enough to go down into the pitch-black cave. I looked around, and then I saw a pair of shoes. I thought somebody had just left their shoes in the cave, but when I looked above the shoes, I saw a body and Dallin's face. Dallin roared "RAUGH!!" and scared my pants off! I screamed as loud as I could!

So, so far on my side, I had Teddy, Jaren, Brandon, Alec, and Dallin. Only two more guys left. We looked all over for them, but we had to go, so we quit the game. Jeremy and Rick came out of their hiding spots, which were the complete opposite of what Alec told us. We figured out Alec was a spy for Rick and Jeremy! So then we left the Cave Rocks.

On the way back to camp, we found a tarantula (it was tarantula mating season)!

Back at camp, we learned a game called Covety. It was pretty fun.

Then we played Sharks and Minnows, but that wasn't too fun. So then we had some tuna and crackers for lunch.

And Dallin entertained us by reading out loud the fun facts and riddles on the back of the oatmeal packets.

After lunch, Jaren, Brandon, and I looked through the small holes on the barn. You could actually see inside the barn!

Then Brandon was able to fit through a hole the size of one of the pictures on this blog! He could actually get inside the barn!

This one kid from another ward let us have his big bag of cotton candy. Obviously, we didn't take a whole bunch!

So, then we packed up and hiked down the Hayfield Road down to the parking lot.

Then we all went home. When we dropped off Dallin at his house, we saw the little ghosties hanging up outside his house. He told us his little sister is scared of the little ghosties. I thought they were kind of cute!

So that's pretty much our whole camp out. Yup.