My Boy Scout Summer: Cold Lake

Remember Norman Lee Warden the Third? We visited with him and his brother, John way back when my Boy Scout Summer began.  Well, he's back.

The high adventure was through the heart of the Idaho Sawtooth Mountain range.  It's beautiful up there, but hiking was rugged and wearisome.  The replacement scout leader quickly earned the nickname, Sir, Yes Sir.  The reason, if not already obvious, was that he barked out commands that always involved faster and farther.  He seemed to walk with his map in hand, constantly complaining that we weren't going to make it to our planned campsite by dark.

The Sawtooths are high desert and we spent about half the time above the treeline, hiking right below the snow of the white caps.  At night the wind would whip through the canyons, ripping tent ties right from the ground.

Alternately too hot to stand, then wind too cold and strong to withstand, the hiking was brutal, but the scenery contrasted the struggle so well.  I remember coming over a pass and looking down into a valley twenty miles long with glacier fingers stretching into pine forests like hands on either side.  With binoculars we could see bear cubs rolling down a hill while their mother watched lazily sunning herself on a rock.  Another time we seemed to follow a bald eagle most of the day as it hunted from the updrafts.  It'd drop, grab a rodent, then fly away only to reappear a few minutes later for another catch. 

The first couple days John, Shane and I had plenty of time for sightseeing, since we didn't have to get up and keep moving until we heard Sir, Yes Sir screaming at Norman to pick up the pace.  We'd stay out ahead of that firestorm, at least for the first two days.

The second night Sir, Yes Sir roared like a cornered Mountain Lion screaming at something.  I shot out of my tent to see what the hell was going on.  There was Sir, Yes Sir standing up in his tent, still completely closed in like a blue and yellow amorphous monster flailing around.  Lighting came from a flashlight inside the tent and from the embers of a fire that had died only a few minutes before the ruckus.

What was angering the monster so much? Norman Lee Warden the Third was standing by a tree, throwing rocks at Sir, Yes Sir.  Yes, you heard me.  The lunatic was throwing rocks at the monster who took Big R's place on the hike.  Oh, things were going to get bad. 

He'd tied the tent zippers all together and was throwing rocks.

So, I tackled him and John and Shane got Sir, Yes Sir out of the tent and calmed down.  Calmed down wasn't easy for that drill sergeant, since he was type A all the way.  At first he was just going to kill Norman, but then we had a sit-down pow wow and determined that poor Norman had snapped because of all the barking and ordering and insulting.  Then we had to go through the threats of just turning back and quitting the hike right now. That didn't go over too well as soon as Sir, Yes Sir realized that we'd just mutinied on his ass.  We were going through with the hike whether he wanted to or not, but if he went back without us he'd be known as the leader who let a group of boys fend for themselves in bear country.  Oh he was mad. 

For the next five days, Sir, Yes Sir and Norman were kept on opposite ends of the trail.  Sir kept barking, we kept ignoring and we all settled into a pretty fun hike. Distributing the heaviest load from Norman's pack allowed him to move faster as well, so we didn't have to worry about Sir because despite his bluster he wasn't in very good shape and couldn't keep up. 

On day seven, the last day of the hike, we were descending into the valley where the cars were and where a couple parents were supposed to meet us.  It was that day that we started seeing a lot more people because we were within day hiking range of trailhead.  Notably, we started seeing girls . . . and for eight boys gone for a week, we oogled every girl we saw until I'm sure they were wishing they'd brought mace along. 

The other thing about the last day was how hot we were.  The temperature was easily above 90 and we'd been carrying heavy packs the whole day. 

And that's when we saw Cold Lake.  It was so pristine.  Blue and clear and we could see all the way to the bottom from several hundred yards up the trail.  We broke into a run to get to that water. We didn't notice that there were people around because we were hot, tired and really fast.

As we ran we shed packs, then shirts, then shorts, then underwear, and then we dived off the rocky outcrop at a full run.  It wasn't until I put my hands together to break into the water that I noticed the glacier.  The glacier you ask?  Yes, the glacier that was touching this beautiful mountain lake at the end of the trail.  This lake that I was diving into naked, was touching glacial ice.  Oh.My.God . . . cold. 

I think my heart stopped.  I know I lost my breath.  I might have walked on water briefly as I resurfaced. 

And the boys were screaming around me from the cold, especially Norman who I thought might be crying.

And there was Sir, Yes Sir standing on the rocky outcrop we'd dived off.  He was gathering up clothing. Shorts, shirts, and underwear.  And he calmly, joyfully walked on toward the parking lot, leaving us to swim a couple dozen yards to the shore where we could get out of the water and then climb back up to the trail, naked.

Then us boys had to dig through our packs to find clothing before we could follow Sir to the parking lot.

All to the whoops and hollers of several groups of girls. 

Sir had his revenge.  And I had another story from My Boy Scout Summer.

rick, still shivering.

The post that starts My Boy Scout Summer

Up Next:  Order of the Arrow

Comments

[a rose is a rose]

were there ANY nice adults in your life at this time? man, seems like everyone was at the very least, a yeller

oh, i just read a blurb (i know there are several different versions and i realize i read only one of them) about the mountain meadows massacre. i had never even heard of that before. wow

[CV Rick]

Rose,

Despite the facts that he was a Captain in the Air Force, a Mormon, and a Scout Leader, my first scout leader was obviously gay. He was also the best scout leader I ever had. He motivated me to care about gaining ranks and getting merit badges as well as teaching the other kids.

Unfortunately, he wasn't living anywhere near where my Boy Scout summer experiences occurred.

There were nice adults around, but they didn't seem to be involved in scouting in Idaho.

[Sister Mary Lisa]

Oh. My. God. You made me laugh so hard with your story.

First of all, I can't believe how you boys had to run interference between Sir, Yes Sir and Norman. Wow. Thank God Norman didn't have even worse issues where he lit his tent on fire or something. Holy crap.

Second, your description of diving naked into that glacial lake was classic. And Sir's totally passive aggressive taking of your clothes? Priceless. What an ass, but great for a laugh today. I'm so sorry you had to experience that then.

[Success Warrior]

I'll bet you impressed the hell out of the girls coming out of ice cold water nekked.

[Sister Mary Lisa]

I'd like to clarify my comment above:

"What an ass" referred to Sir, Yes Sir, not your nekkedness. Just in case anyone wondered.

[Success Warrior]

I thought it read correctly. If you've seen his ass, it's good for a laugh.

[Sister Mary Lisa]

LOL. (courtesy laugh)...

[CV Rick]

It's Shrinkage!!! The cold water does that!!! (obviously I've seen too many Seinfeld episodes) And there's nothing wrong with my ass . . . I think I just got a kink in my neck from checking it out for myself.

[Amy]

Absolutely beautiful, Rick. One of my favorites so far. Love the glascier fingers and the lazy mama bear, love "Sir Yes Sir" and his stealing your clothing. Love everything about that post.

I must give it the highest accolade: magically delicious.

[Amy]

Whoops. Fix my spelling of glacier, will ya? I was typing fast and eating soup at the same time. Chunky soup.

[Success Warrior]

Like a frightened turtle.

[Cherise]

I LOVED THIS POST... BOY SCOUT SUMMER HAS KICKED WEIRD HAROLDS ASS! THE BLOG WAS WONDERFUL, YOU'RE WONDERFUL... HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY.

[CV Rick]

Lesson to all of us . . . don't bug Cherise to comment on the blog post she likes. Sometimes it seems that she can be a bit sarcastic.

[Cherise]

I was being serious!! B'fhearr liom thú nó céad bó bainne! :)