On May 13th, the Boy Scouts hiked from Redwood Park Skyline Gate to the Redwood Staging Area and back. It was sunny and bright that morning when the scouts were hiking. They hiked up and around Redwood Park, passing through the Chabot Space and Science Center, and past Redwood Bowl. At around noon, they reached Redwood Staging Area where the scouts sat around, ate lunch, slept, and played cards.

At around 1:00 the scouts headed up a huge hill to get up to the East Ridge trail. Then they started hiking back to the cars at the parking lot, accompanied by songs and stand up comedy from Stephen B. Eventually the scouts made it back to the parking lot where the scouts drank lots of water and had their pictures taken.

The scouts then grabbed their gear and trekked down to Girl's Camp, a hill they would regret going down in the morning. When the scouts arrived at Girl's camp they started to unpack their tents and set up camp in an orderly manner. After setting up, the scouts played cards while the adults cooked hamburgers. Thanks Mr Hsieh! After eating the kids played a game of football, and then gathered around the campfire and talked. Then one by one, the scouts went off to sleep.

The next morning everyone ate a quick breakfast and broke camp. Then the scouts hiked up the hill. Then all the scouts were picked up their parents and went home.-- AD. W-O

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On Friday April 21, the scouts arrived at Montclair teacher's parking lot, to leave for Sunol, for a backpacking trip. Some scouts decided to leave later in the evening instead of hiking earlier in the day. Then the two groups of scouts met up after sunset.

In the morning they were joined by another group of scouts. Then they hiked together to the next campsite for Saturday night. Then the Philmont crews split up into different hiking groups to get a better feel for the crew experience. Many miles were hiked that day.

The next morning it was damp, and still the crews packed up their stuff and started the grueling hike to the meeting spot with another group of scouts who spent the day as day hikers. Then after a short lunch and a catching up, everyone hiked back to the cars together. It was beautiful weather for the remaining hike.-- AD. W-O

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After gathering in the Montclair teacher's parking lot on March 11th, the scouts headed for Sugarloaf Ridge camp site. On the way there the scouts decided to have lunch at the town before the campsite. There we enjoyed sunny skies and warm weather. After the short lunch the scouts got back in the cars and headed for what would become one the most infamous campouts for this scout.

When we arrived, we set up the dining fly and prepared for the possibility of bad weather. Then the clouds came in and encircled the campsite, which dramatically changed the air temperature. The scouts reacted by putting on warm clothing. At about dinner time, it got worse. It started to rain, but as the temperature dropped it started to sleet and hail. This is when it started to become miserable. The temperature continued to drop, and eventually, the scouts could no longer adapt to such cold temperatures. We started a fire, but it didn't help much, because it never got really warm. The scouts then prepared for a very long and cold night. Some scouts slept relatively well, but most had a very difficult time keeping asleep and coping with the cold weather.

The next morning was much like the night before; cold and damp. During the night, some scouts had caught a cold, so they were trying to stay as warm as possible while the rest tried to take down tents and cook breakfast. After a very miserable camp sweep, the scouts packed up the rest of their stuff, and prepared to leave a camp that never really got as fun as it could have been due to the weather.-- AD. W-O

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As like most campouts, the scouts met at the Montclair teacher's parking lot and headed out for the Marin Headlands. On the way up to the Headlands, it was a little foggy, that turned out to not be much of a problem. Once we had gotten there, we put our stuff in the Hostel where we going to sleep. Then we got out our lunches and had a pleasant meal.

Later, the scouts decided that we wanted to play a game a basketball, while others played in the grass. After we got tired, we decided to go check out the nearby bunkers and lighthouse. After seeing what there was to see, we went back to the Hostel and made dinner of homemade pizzas. After dinner, the scouts played rousing games of pool and foosball. When everyone was tired of these games, we decided to go to sleep.

The next morning, we woke up and had a breakfast of French Toast. Once we were done, we packed up all of our stuff and decided to leave. This concluded the Marin Headlands Trip.

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Each scout began their part of outing by finding a way to get to the de Young Museum. All scouts arrived one by one until the tour of the museum began.

The scouts began by observing some wall murals in a banquet hall. They all listened attentively as the Scoutmaster lectured about "The Great 'Are These Murals Appropiate For The Asian Art Museum' Conflict." The scouts then headed upstairs. The gallery upstairs was mostly paintings of inanimate objects that symbolized something or an idea. Another section of this gallery were sculptures. The scouts were amazed to see what could be sculpted in metal, wood, glass, and something that looked like used gum.

The most dramatic part of the outing was going to the tallest tower and looking upon San Francisco. Every scout, even the older, more experienced ones were in awe of the spectacular view of a city every scout in Troop 202 has known about.

Over all, de Young Museum was a fantastic outing that may have inspired some scouts to be a bit more artistic. After lunch, the scouts headed for home.

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After a nice long sleep at their homes, the scouts woke up and eagerly went to the meeting place to head for the Wildcat Canyon campground. The ride to the campsite was just as fun. Some scouts learned about car parts. Others learned about technology, and others talked about what to do at the campsite.

The outing opened up with lunch. the scouts brought their food and shared stories in the gazebo. After lunch, the scouts separated into two groups for activities. One group played a long game of mud football while the other group enjoyed a mushroom-hunting hike around the local eucalyptus forest. The mushroom hunters collected and identified 2 poisonous mushrooms; and one possible edible one. The mud football players got muddy.

A new card game was introduced to Troop 202 on this outing. The game is called Mow; a game that you learn by playing. Never before has a card game that penalizes talking and explaining how to play ever been played.

Over all, a great outing. This outing won't be soon forgotten. -- Jose R.

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After the Scouting for Food drive, we headed out for Rancho Los Mochos at around noon on Saturday. Once there, the scouts set up camp (including some of the biggest tents in Troop 202 history). Then the troop had one great long game of football. After football, scouts returned to camp to prepare for dinner.

Dinner was tortilla casorole made in Dutch Ovens. Everyone enjoyed eating a nice hot dinner under the spotlight of the moon (while listening to the "goat story").

The game for the night was Control vs. Chaos, a game like Zorch. Every scout tried their best and for the first time ever, someone completed the blueprints at the top of the hill.

The next morning, we had a great breakfast that wasn't oatmeal. After a breakfast and camp sweep, we headed home -- Jose R.

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The trip to Moaning Caverns was a great one. We left Oakland at the civilized time of 9:30am and drove to the campsite where we would spend the night. The first day of camping was one with nearly every scout in attendance. At camp, a lot scouts used a nearby meadow of tall grass and engaged in a pretend guerilla war for a while. Others talked about other things. We cooked Shepard's pie for dinner in Dutch Ovens that night and ate it. The temperature that night was about 37 degrees; so almost all of the scouts wore 3-6 layers of clothing.

The next day we headed for the Caverns. All scouts were separated into 4 "waves" to go into the cave either by repelling down on a rope, or by taking the stairs. Either way, we all had to look down a 100-foot drop. All repelling scouts went down in waves 1 by 1. Once inside the cave; we entered a new experience.

It was all wet inside. The places you went into were created when a giant section of the main chamber collapsed; making the tunnel systems. All the scouts had fun squeezing through the narrow spaces. The hardest spot in the cave was a place called "Godzilla's Nostril", a section of the cave that is very steep and narrow. According to the guides; that section was originally called the "Birth Canal". Scouts who weren't tired went to an additional section of the cave known as "Santa's Worst Nightmare", a 90 foot "chimney" to climb.

After the caverns, we all packed up and started the 3 hour
drive back home. -- Jose R.

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We left for the Russian River at 8:30 Saturday morning and arrived at 9:15 and shoved off. Morning found the scouts having "battles" between canoes. There was lots of swimming.

We ate lunch around 12:00. Then we continued down the river and got caught in a raid by water ballooners. (Campers at a trailer park along the river). We stopped to rest in a cove with a rope-swing, so we could jump into the river. We found and gathered some water balloons, from the earlier raid, that hadn't burst when they hit the water. The unburst balloons just floated down the river to where we were. We were attacked again by the water balloon raiders. We fought back, but ultimately lost the battle.

After that, we continued on our journey but daylight was running out. So we had to row faster to get to our destination before nightfall. We got back at 5:45 and took the bus back to our campground. The next day we left at 10:00 and headed home. - Evan .V

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