CowTownRenegade14: Mount Saint Helena Rim of the Bay Hike, March 15-17, 2013

In our Troop it is all about the patches. Scouts and adults alike will do just about anything for a patch. We will jump into cold freezing water at six in the morning for the right to earn the coveted Polar Bear patch. At Camp Wolfeboro I even stuffed an ice cream bar down my throat fast enough to stimulate a brain freeze so I could earn their special Iceman patch.

Bottom line: if there is a patch for it we will find a way to earn it...

Now each council has specific patches that can be earned for various hikes/treks within their boundaries. For example here in Golden Empire, scouts and scouters can earn any of the five of the Folsom Lake Trek patches (http://www.gec-bsa.org/program/training/adulttraining/highadventure/hatawards/folsomlake ), the Sacramento Historic Trail and the Sacramento Historic train patch (http://www.gec-bsa.org/districts/trailblazer/tbcracker/tbhiking#sac), just to name a few.

The San Francisco Bay Area Council sponsors a series of patches called Rim Rovers (http://www.sfbac.org/programs/hiking#rim): these are a series of six hikes that will take you to the top of the tallest mountains in the bay area.

On March 15, 2013 the Troop headed out to Bothe-Napa Valley State Park near the town of Calistoga to hike Mount Saint Helena, one of the above mentioned six hikes that are part of the Rim of the Bay Patch series. The mountain itself is located 15 miles away from Calistoga in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, but Bothe-Napa Valley is the closest campground. If possible, you want to reserve the group campsite, it is one of the nicest group sites I have ever stayed at...plus there is a trail that runs right through the camp that takes you to the Pioneer Cemetery a few hundred yards away. It makes for an interesting night hike...

If you are unable to reserve the group site, then the park also offers an interesting Yurt option for those that want to try something different...

My bedroll at the Bothe-Napa Valley Group Campground.

ASM and Associate Crew Adviser Emily Malcolm ready to hike.

The morning of Saturday March 16 saw us heading out early to the trail-head, about 20 minutes away. Once there our appointed scout leaders quickly took a head count and got us into marching order. Now, there are two ways to start this hike, the "fun way" and the other way, both which involve going up hill. But the "fun way" is a very steep, mile-and-a-half climb where you are pulling yourself up by grabbing onto trees and doing just a little bit of rock climbing. To find the "fun way" up, head towards the marked trail-head, then veer off slightly to the left. You will see an unmarked trail going up. This is the "fun way..."

Otherwise, continue to the right and you will see the "official" trail-head marker. It is still going up, but not nearly as fun...

Scouts organizing at the trail-head.

Needless to say, we went up the fun way...

A cave that we found going up the "fun way."

ASM Craig Chalmers and scouts locate a geocache along the fun route.

After a fun climb...er, I mean, hike...we hit the main fire road (the majority of the trail is nothing more than exposed fire road.) The slope lessened and it was easier going, though it still meant we were hiking up... We took our first break at a place known as Bubble Rock, named so because of the bubbles that can be seen in the rock face.

Bubble Rock

My son Austin (left), me and my younger son Gavin (right) at Bubble Rock.

At Bubble Rock my older son Austin, who was the acting Senior Patrol Leader for the outing, went around and made sure all the scouts and adults were drinking water. Even though it was March the temperature was in the high 80s and it was easy to find yourself dehydrated. As a precaution Austin carried an extra gallon of water in his pack to assure that no one ran short on water. I must say, he was very dedicated to refill water bottles at every rest stop...

From left: ASM Emily Malcolm, ASM Craig Chalmers, and myself on the trail.

Even if the trail was a boring looking fire road the view out was amazing...

One danger in hiking with younger scouts is having them fall to the way side with the sinking feeling that they can't continue, that the trail is simply too tough. One nice thing about this hike was that the scouts were able to hike in groups and played verbal games that kept their minds off the fact that they were slowly moving upwards with every step. Austin did his part by moving back and forth between the various hiking groups and demonstrated scout leadership by encouraging the younger guys to keep going. Considering that this was a 10-mile round trip that was no easy task...

Austin with a first year scout on his first 10-mile hike.

Around the 3-mile mark the road levels out in a saddle between three different peaks. I have read various blogs about this section that describe this portion as confusing and easy to lose the main trail. To find the true summit is simple, keep following the widest section of trail until it simply ends and doesn't go any further. You will see branches of the fire road continue up towards various peaks where you can see communications towers. Just keep going until the section you are on disappears over the edge of a cliff. Simple...

A little further on is a small grove of trees. Enjoy this spot. Aside from the early trail this is the only shade on the mountain. After passing this spot you will see the final steep (and I do mean steep -- the kind of steepness that leaves you cursing every dumb act you have ever committed; leaves your legs quaking, your breath ragged, and makes you look for that soft bed of pine needles so you can take a well deserved mid-morning siesta) climb to the summit of Saint Helena.

On the summit there is room to stretch and enjoy a somewhat comfy seat. Most of the younger scouts headed towards the sunny rock outcropping overlooking the valley below. Those of us a little older and wiser grabbed a shady spot in the lee of the communications shack. One nice benefit of being a part of a large troop is that there are always scouts working on their hiking and cooking merit badges. This means there are always scouts experimenting on various trail lunches. On this hike we munched on Asian chicken salad wrapped in flour tortillas, canned pink salmon with a dill dip, various dried fruits, energy gels and Cliff bars.

Me enjoying Asian chicken salad with tortillas.

ASM Emily Malcolm enjoying her trail lunch.

Gavin learned a long time ago that when it is time to relax, you might as well as relax the right way...

After eating my fill (for some reason I always eat better on these hikes than I do at home) we slowly got up off our behinds and started to explore the area. Standing at the edge of the summit gave me the same unique feeling I always have when looking at the views below: it starts with a sense of victory at overcoming nature's challenges once again, a type of euphoria that gives me a rush like no other; then the that little Irish baktaq of a leprechaun starts whispering in my ear, "You're not done yet..."

And the little bugger was right -- we still have to go down...

On the way down from the summit.

The troop split into two groups: the larger group headed by Austin headed straight down, determined not to stop until hitting the parking lot. The second, and smaller group decided they were going to do some geocaching on the way down. Led by ASM Craig Chalmers (who is also the Geocaching Merit Badge Counselor) this group found several hard-to-get-to geocaches during the 5-mile trip off the mountain.

The hike down was uneventful, other than the fact that we traveled another half-mile further down the fire road from where we came in and caught the normal trail down instead of trying to climb down our "fun way." This led us past the small memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson and down a series of easy to navigate switchbacks that deposited us back at the trail-head.

We arrived back in camp a little after five, just in time to start dinner preparations. On this trip I have to admit that I was very lucky to be sharing my grub with ASM Emily Malcolm. She made the best BBQ ribs and fire-roasted bake potato dinner I have ever had on a scout outing. And the steamed broccoli she made was to die for -- I still don't know how she managed that over live coals...I can say that the meal was so good I had to growl a bit to keep back circling scouts.

Emily Malcolm cooking her great rib and baked potato dinner.

Gavin relaxing in camp.

Scoutmaster Bill Heberger (left) and ASM Craig Chalmers enjoying their salmon dinner.

After dinner there was a short down time, then on to our traditional campfire program led by one of our older Life Scouts. I stayed up for a while playing a card game with some of the scouts then crawled into my bed roll for a good night's sleep. I had a lot of fun on this trip and I am already thinking about when I can come back and tackle the mountain again...