Yes.

Yesterday, there were a group of boy scouts, why is it always a group of boy scouts, that had to be helped as they had run out of water in Surprise Valley around 11:30 a.m. Why is anyone in Surprise Valley any time after 6 a.m. or before 5 p.m.? Even on the best of days Surprise Valley is too hot to be walking in after sunrise or close to sunset. Why would anyone even set foot in Surprise Valley at any other time?

I recall that one day I tried to hike down the Redwall Switchbacks above Surprise Valley around noon, thinking that I was only a couple of hours from the cool waters of Thunder River, and the rocks were so hot that they melted one of the nylon straps on my backpack. It was too hot to be there and that was a cool day compared to the days we have been experiencing now.

Is it that people just don’t want to give up on a goal, even when there is great danger? Do Boy Scout leaders come with defective danger meters? Do they think that being a Boy Scout means taking terrible physical chances because they are supposed to be building character? Is it too much machismo in one group?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 at 7:08 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.