Great Basin with the Scouts

For summer camp I took our scout troop to Great Basin National Park. We started with the hike up to the Bristlecone Forest and looked at and touched trees that are over 3,000 years old. The night was spent in the Wheeler Peak campground where we had some dutch oven cooking. Early the next morning we started our hike up Wheeler Peak. The trail had long stretches of snow drifts, but the real challenge of the day was gusty winds. A brief cold front swept across the range while we were hiking. Gusts up to 60 mph buffeted us. Only scouts with their dads along made it to the 13,000 foot summit. In the afternoon we toured the Lehman Cave. It was my 3rd visit to the cave, but it was still very worthwhile. Incredible formations in that cave! That evening we drove south to the Snake Creek drainage and traveled up the dirt road to the Shoshone trail head where we found a delightful spot to camp among the aspens with a tumbling creek nearby. With the cool night air, soft grassy place to pitch the tent and the sound of rushing water, I slept very well that night. The next morning I helped several scouts pack their backpacks for a few nights in the back country. It is still amazing what some scouts will attempt to bring into the back country making their packs unnecessarily heavy. I threw out several items for them to leave behind. Good thing too, because the trail to Johnson Lake was uphill the whole way. We found the lake to be mostly frozen and had to carefully search for spots to pitch our tents. The ridge above the lake was plastered with snow and a large steep cornice blocked the trail over the pass. I then scouted a route up a steep rocky area to the right of the trail. It seemed plausible, but several of the scouts expressed their doubts. Nevertheless, the next morning I led the scout troop up through the rocky ledges, scrubby pine trees and snow fields to the ridge. It took two hours with them what had taken me 30 minutes the evening before. We then finished the hike up to the summit of Pyramid Peak. Sunny and clear, but still fairly cold. The rest of the trip was downhill. We didn't camp at Baker Lake as it was even more socked in with ice and snow. It is a beautiful lake with spectacular cliffs surrounding it. We made our camp further down the trail out of the snow near some clear, cold springs. Another good night out under the stars and soon we were to the trailhead. The days were long and the nights short at this time of the year. The stars at night were fantastic as there are no large cities near Great Basin National Park. The troop did a good job and in the end we had done all that we had planned on doing. It was especially fun to have shared this with Eric. He is getting tall and strong and clearly handled the trip with no problem and helped the other scouts often. He particularly liked all of the "glissading" we did during the trip. Sure beats an organized scout camp!