For our first backpackking trip of 20205-2026, we hiked Telephone Ridge Trail down to Chevelon Canyon.  We had a good turnout with 19 scouts.  We got an early start out of town and met at Prince of Peace at 7 am.  The drive up was nice, but the last bit of the drive got rough with the road rutted out and muddy with deep puddles of water.  Luckily, nobody got stuck and we made fine to the trailhead.

We got started hiking down the trail around 10:45 am.  It only took 50 minutes to get to the bottom of the canyon to our campsite.  It was a short hike of 1.3 miles.  The bottom of the canyon was beautiful.  There was a stand of pine trees in a large campsite.  We all had plenty of room to spread out and find great spots for our tents.  We all set up our tents and then began exploring the area.  Next to our campsite was a large meadow.  We had some frisbees and played a game of ultimate frisbee.

Chevelon Creek was flowing through the canyon with cold, crystal clear water.   Not far from our campsite, there was a section of the creek dammed up that had a spot we could wade in until we got too cold.  Some of the scouts brought fishing poles and tried to catch some trout, but no such luck this trip.  We did find a lot of crawdads.  We brought them back to the campsite and had a crawfish boil!  Xander spent a lot of time preparing his survival shelter, spent the night in his shelter, and earned the last requirement for his outdoor survival merit badge!  

There had been a lot of rain in the area, so we were able to have a campfire!   Several scouts needed to demonstrate how to start a fire for their Second Class requirements.  They gathered wood and kindling, built a teepee style fire, and successfully got our fire started.  We all had dinner and then hung out by the campfire until we were ready for bed.   

Everyone got up early Sunday morning and packed up.  Parker was our SPL for the campout and had us organize our trash line, so we made sure we picked up all our trash and followed our leave no trace principles.   Jackson and Dr. Keeler led our interfaith service.  We then got our packs ready and began the hike out.  It was a great weekend and everyone enjoyed the trip.