Fri. June 20/03: Scouter Janice: We left Zurich at 6:30pm. and drove up to Walkerton with 2 vehicles and 2 trailers. We have 5 leaders and 9 scouts. We stopped at the Outfitters across from Lobies Park and paid for 2 sites ($15/ site, no electricity; $20 with). We set up our site and Scouter Gerry and I took the scouts over to the water to talk about river characteristics. Scouter Mark joined us. Scouters Bill and Sam left to take the vans to Saugeen Bluffs while we went over braces by the campfire. Scouters Sam and Bill arrived back in our van, and the troop hung up their food packs. I said goodbye and left at 12:30am. and headed home. I’m working tomorrow morning and plan on meeting them at the bridge before McBeath Conservation Park (access #8).
Sat. June 21/03: Scouter Bill: We were on the water at 9am. We had a good run down the river. The water level was low, but there was only one place we had to get out and walk. The highlight of the day was when Scouters Sam and Gerry unexpectedly tipped after bumping loudly onto a rock. We had lunch at the concession before first bridge. The rapids were fun and the scouts paddled well. We were at the bridge before McBeath Conservation Area at 5 pm. and loaded up a canoe on our van. Scouter Mark, Laura, and Kara left to drop our van off at Saugeen Bluffs and then they were off to Owen Sound. At 5:30, Scouter Janice joined us in the bow of my canoe and we took Marsha in the center. We arrived at the camp at 5:50pm. We picked the farthest downstream campsite at McBeath because we had passed a whole lot of drinking young canoeists that were headed here too, and we knew they would take over the campsite. We met a group of American Scouts from Michigan and they ended up camped right beside them.
Sun. June 22/03: We had a nice quiet nights sleep and woke up to another beautiful day. Marsha and Chris did scouts own, and after a site cleanup we were on the water at 10:15am. Lunch was had in Paisley at the old fire hall at 12:30pm. At 1pm. we made our way to Saugeen Bluffs and brought the vans and trailers down to load up at 3:30pm. Dropped Justin off in Clinton and Scouter Gerry off in Hensall. We were in Zurich at 6:30pm.
Scouter Janice: Scouter Bill and I switched partners in Paisley. Scouter Bill had 2 scouts in with him and I had one in the bow of the canoe that I hopped into. It was a lovely day. Some of the scouts thought they liked this part of the river better because there was more flat water mixed in with the rapids. We had a good day and we missed Scouter Hub. Hope your back is better.