Misadventures in Scouting - "The Dutch Oven Dynamo"

The Boy Scouts have been in the news lately, and perhaps for not the best of reasons.  I haven't thought of my scouting days in quite a long time, but I thought I would try to tell a tale from my own days as a Boy Scout to show a little levity and humor on my own time in the organization.

My troop broke off from a larger one at the beginning, and we had a real "go-gettem" leader from our days as Cub Scouts. The troop leader was all about doing badges, camping, getting out and getting experience which is what the Boy Scouts is all about - turning goofy young boys into strong, mature young men.  One of the things you can expect in scouting is camping and by extension, backpacking.  Pack what you need to cook and survive in the wilderness, shoulder the weight, and get hiking.  Normally you would pack essentials like tents, dried food, water purifier, etc.  The pack itself is about as big as the scout at times, and often just as heavy, but with the proper distribution and planning it's doable.

Our scoutmaster had unique plans for this particular backpacking along what is known as the Morro Strand near my hometown of San Luis Obispo.  Essentially we would be hiking along a long sandspit and dunes that extend from Morro Rock in Morro Bay all the way to Montana De Oro State park.

Approximate Route - Image Courtesy Google Maps.

It is a beautiful stretch of land, with views out over the ocean and down into bays of deep jade green-blue.  With this and Morro Rock as a background, its a remarkable setting, though at times I recall the trail being quite close to cliffs with a pretty sheer drop down. I don't know the exact distance, but I believe it's about 12 miles all the way.  12 miles walking in sand is hard on its own, but 12 miles with a heavy backpack is pretty daunting.

Panorama of Montana De Oro - Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

I also don't remember the exact number of scouts, but I'll estimate 10, and each of us had a pack loaded with stuff that the scoutmaster had included with our other stuff, things she wanted us to carry.  Some of the trip is a blur to me, as I remember struggling over hill after hill of sand, but what I remember most was that everyone's pack was extraordinarily heavy and no one knew exactly why.

As we walked, certain things stood out, like when the scoutmaster had us take a random otter skull, or when one scout who was lagging behind ate all the food for his entire group in the troop, snacking as he struggled along.  They ended up at camp without any food and we had to share.   There were other missteps, but we endured a march of maybe 9 miles of sand before we made it to a road.  That was when one of the dads on the trip started wondering about what was in our packs.

This dad found a plethora of things that brought his anger to a boil, but what sent him over the edge was when he looked in my pack and found a dutch oven.  For those who don't know, a dutch oven is a cast iron skillet.  They range in size from 8 - 16 inches in diameter and can weigh from 11-32 pounds on their own.  One doesn't bring a dutch oven lightly to backpacking without also bringing charcoal and such which we did not have, but we did have the oven even though none of our plans called for cooking with one.

Somehow I had carried this heavy cast iron skillet 9 miles along and over sand dunes for no real reason.  At the time I was so tired I couldn't really reason, but the dad was livid.  Once we landed at camp, we were all dog tired, and with everything else that happened, things worked out later on after that.   Overall, it was just another experience, something that I look back on and laugh.  Somehow I trudged all that way with that dutch oven, and I came out a better person.  I guess I should call myself a Dutch Oven Dynamo.