My Little Boy is Growing Up!

Well, the Scouts had another adventurous weekend. This time it was off to Devil's Lake State Park around Baraboo, Wisconsin.

We arrived on Friday night as usual and set up the campsite. There were some Cub Scouts (Brian, tell Caleb they were Weeblos) with us on this trip so that they could have a chance to get some of their camping and hiking requirements done. On Saturday, the Weeblos took off on a five mile hike with some of the older Scouts while the rest of the Scouts decided to go "Bouldering". I did not realize that the term "Bouldering" meant that they were going to climb up the bluffs by climbing on all the boulders that had fallen off the bluffs. I got a real shock when I learned that Jake had gone with the second group. Another leader and I caught up with Jake's group just in time to look UP (couple of hundred feet) to see them standing on top of the bluffs. Below is the view from the top. Disregard the ropes in this picture because it is the only one I could find on the Internet that showed a clear view. You think I would have brought my own camera for this trip.

Anyway, the bluffs are a total of over 500 feet tall and my heart nearly stopped when I saw Jake looking over the edge. He LOVED it. Here is another shot for you:

It was really neat to look down to see the Turkey Vulture flying around although I was really hoping that he wasn't looking forward to having frog legs for dinner.

Late in the day Jake went out on a canoe with the entire crew. He wasn't the most comfortable person around the water. He's fine if he can touch the bottom. But when it comes to deep lakes, he gets a little nervous. I am soooo PROUD of how much he has challenged himself and pushed himself to do things even though it might seem a little scary at first.

One other thing I failed to mention is that the Weeblos took the easy trail and also got to enjoy the view from the top.

On the ride home, our leader took us for a ride on the Colsac III ferry.
Jake REALLY got nervous on this one simply because he had never been in a vehicle driving onto a boat before. A few seconds into the ten minute trip, he was fine and out of the truck visiting with the other Scouts.

On a funnier note, we did have a little thievery going on at the campsite. On Saturday night, a raccoon decided to go into our equipment trailer and abscond with an entire loaf of bread and we were only a few feet from the trailer. One of our leaders chased after the little thief but let him keep the bread.