Hell’s Canyon Backpacking Trip 2013

 By Jordan F

Troop 201 has gone on another exciting backpacking trip, this time to Hell’s Canyon. After we arrived at the scout shack we rode in our cars for four hours to get to base camp and by that time we were very tired. Everybody just set up their tents and went to sleep. That night it rained very hard on us and most everyone got wet. Luckily though, the weather did get at least somewhat better. Since we were still at base camp everyone had a good breakfast that morning, and soon after that we got all ready and headed out to Kirkwood ranch. We backpacked 6 miles into Kirkwood and camped. After we got into Kirkwood the scouts had a choice to take a day hike to either the old Carter mansion or go to Suicide point. The hike to the old Carter mansion was about two miles out. The hike to Suicide Point was about three miles out. The mansion wasn’t a big house in today’s terms of speaking but back in the 1920s it was huge. At suicide point there was a sheer cliff, extremely high up and a straight drop to water. After that, the scouts had their extra miles of hiking to get up to at least 15 miles. The food that the scouts had was amazing. They prepared hot cooked meals for themselves and others and still kept the weight down on their packs. We went to bed early that night because we wanted to be well rested for the long hike back to base camp. That night we got rained on again but not as much as the night before. The next day we were a bit more rushed because we wanted to hit the trail and get out of base camp as soon as possible. We made it out pretty fast and everyone had the time of their lives.