EDITORS NOTE: yesterday was a very busy and long day, so this did not get posted, nor are there many pictures because we all took waterproof cameras that have –gasp- film in them!
We woke up and had home fries, eggs, cereal, pop-tarts and oatmeal.
After breakfast, we headed out to Earthquake Lake. This lake was formed when a huge earthquake knocked down a mountain which dammed the Madison River and made it flood. This all happened in 1959 and 29 people were killed by either the earthquake or the flood. There were some 80 Million tons of rubble which came down.We then headed up to Big Sky area, and Geyer Whitewater Expeditions. After checking in we got to rock climb until it was time for our raft trip. During our climbing safety training we learned that a 20 lb belayer can actually belay a 140 lb person. We also learned some of the spoken commands and acknowledgements like “belay/belay on”, “climb/climb on”, and “belay off/belay off”. Each scout was wearing a harness and an automatic locking cannoner with a 4000 lb rope. All the scouts took turns climbing or belaying.
We had lunch in the parking lot while the final trip preparations were made.
Now it was time to get suited up for the rafting since it was so cold. We had to put on booties, wetsuit, splash jacket, a life jacket, and a helmet. We rode the bus upstream on the Gallatin River, to our put-in spot. We had final safety training, where they emphasized the possible dangers of rating when the water was flowing at 6000 cfs (cubic feet per second). 1 cubic foot is about the size of a basketball, so imagine 6000 basketballs per second flowing by you! At the end of last seasons rafting, the flow was down to only 275 cfs, so we knew we were in for a good trip!
Our group broke into two different boats, with a guide in each boat. One guide was Helen and other was Whitney. Whitney told a joke “Do you know the difference between a rafting guide and a mutual fund? Eventually the mutual fund matures and earns income”While we were rafting, there were several splashing wars started by the “trouble boat” against the defenseless “kind boat”. We will let the reader’s imagination decide who was in each boat. We learned about different places on the river and animals that can be seen in the park. Whitney quickly figured out who the scout was who most needed to get wet, and after he accidently splashed the guide, the boat mysteriously turned sideways in time to douse Jack in a big wave. We went under several bridges where we had to duck way down to get under them. At another spot, the front of the boat was pitched up in the air, and Jack came down rolling over his tube and into the bottom of the boat. At the end of the trip Will said he did not feel wet enough, so the guide showed him where he could jump in. No one ever actually fell out of the boat, so the guides did not have to practice their rope techniques.
While we were driving we saw one large herd of 111 bison and claves. One park center claimed there were 3000 head of bison in the whole park, but we think we saw at least 2999 of them!
After our whitewater adventure, we met up with Veronica Gooding and Marianne Baumberger to learn about fire prevention and management in the park.
Veronica and Marianne are Rangers with the US Dept. Agriculture Forestry Service. Hank got the opportunity to get field dressed with all the gear that a firefighter might wear during a fire. He had on: a helmet, fireproof jacket, gloves, and a very heavy backpack. The backpack contained fuse-ezs (flares), food and water for 24 hours, an emergency fire shelter, and bear spray. The whole pack weighed 35-45 lbs but Hank thought it was a lot more! Hank also held the chainsaw and the “Polaski” fire axe. 
We also saw their firefighting truck, which had a 300 gallon water tank and pump, with a variety of nozzles, a compartment full of hand tools, and a tank of fuel to start fire lines with. The tank could be used with a drip torch, but most interestingly, the fuel is very attractive to the park bears! The bears are known to try to drink the fuel or chew on the cans and chainsaw!We also learned the difference between Park Rangers and Forest Rangers – Forest Rangers are all about conservation, and Parks are about preservation. So in a forest, you can take a few rocks, cut personal lumber, allow for selective commercial logging, and actively manage the forest. At least one scout learned that standing on logs while a ranger speaks to us CAN be dangerous (to his pride if not his bottom!). The presentation was GREAT and very informative! Thanks Veronica and Marianne.
Now we headed back to camp for the infamous “Big Burrito Pig Out”. Mr. Cummings had skipped the ranger presentation to have dinner ready for us when we retuned, which was good because shortly after dinner started, our camp was hit with gale force winds. Everyone had to wear coats and hold down their plates. Despite the winds, the burritos were “muy magnifico”. Lastly, since we need to head out early in the morning, we took some time to organize and pack up as much of the camp as we could.
Day 7 will come soon (I hope)!
White Water Rafting
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