Uhwarrie Mountain Bike Campout Summary
September 7-9, 2007

The forecast was for a sunny weekend for our mountain bike trip.  On Friday afternoon, Mr. D. and Brian D. left early for Yates Place camp ground in the Uwharrie National Forest just outside Troy, NC.  They left early because camp sites are first come first served and we wanted a nice site.  They were able to get our usual spot just inside the camp gate in an area with several picnic tables and fire/charcoal grills and a fire ring.  The rest of the Troop loaded their bikes on a trailer pulled by Mr. Coleman and departed the gathering place at 5:30 P.M. as planned.  We had 16 Scouts and 8 adults on the trip. 

The Scouts arrived at our camp site about 7 P.M. on Friday night with just enough light left for them to get their tents up and get settled.  After the sun went down, the boys had a campfire and were led by the older Scouts in a series of word games.  Everyone was laughing and having a good time.  The Senior Patrol Leader (SPL) delared 10 P.M. as lights out time.  The Scouts were settled down and talking in their tents by 10:30 P.M.

Wake-up was 7 A.M. Saturday morning.  Our goal was to leave for the short 6 mile drive to the mountain bike trails by 9 A.M.  Everyone had a good breakfast, got cleaned up, packed packs with necessities and lunch, loaded up on water for the day and we were on the road by 9 A.M. as planned. 

We had two different bike routes, one high-adventure and one regular-adventure.  The first was about 14 miles and a mix of easy and difficult riding on mostly single track trails.  The latter was about 8 miles on a wide dirt “road” that was like a fire trail.  The high-adventure Scouts had a tiring but uneventful ride.  They had lots of stories about this rock and that tree and the steep down-hill and sharp turn at the bottom.  They had a great time.  The regular-adventure Scouts, which was the larger group had a fun ride but experienced a couple of tumbles.  Yes, we needed to administer some first aid for minor cuts and scrapes.  These Scouts also reported a fun ride and a few laughs at the expense of the Scouts who took a tumble here and there.  The regular-adventure group finished in about two hours and the high-adventure group finished in about 3 and a half hours.  Mr. D brought a big cooler with ice cold fruit punch for the Scouts to share before the car ride back to camp.

The Scouts arrived back at Yates Place camp about 2 P.M. moving slowly and showing signs of being tired.  A vote was taken and the decision was to just relax for the rest of the afternoon.  That meant some drinks and snacks and the various conversation.  Then an hour later as if by magic one Scout then two, then several Scouts wanted to go bike riding again.  Brian D. found some gullies and hills in the woods around our camp site and led the Scouts on a series of jumps and bumps.  The Scouts had a great time and later that night we heard some complaints from sore Scouts.  Mr. Tyrlik and his friend Dan who led the high-adventure bike ride decided that they wanted to do another 15 mile bike ride.  They didn’t get back until after dinner at about 6:30 P.M.

We had an interesting fellow in the camp site next to us.  Actually we were in the same site, so he was right on top of us.  I say interesting fellow, because he was a retired, single man about 70 years of age.  He has been traveling the continent for 8 years going from camp ground to camp ground.  He’s been up to Alaska and from coast-to-coast.  He just sits in his camp chair all day.  He reads a little.  He sleeps a little.  He was just fine with all the noise the Scouts made and he kept saying how well behaved they were.  We invited him to have dinner with us on Saturday night, but he was more comfortable on his own and declined.  It’s interesting who you meet when you are out on a campout.

About 5 P.M. the Scouts started getting hungry, so they started cooking dinner.  I saw one patrol doing Ramin Noodles and chicken, another patrol doing Polish sausage.  The adults had cheese burgers, fruit, chips and pork n’ beans.  After dinner and clean-up the Scouts were building gadgets with lashings, running around, talking and generally just having more fun.  No, not on the bikes.  By now they had had enough biking. 

The campfire started at 8 P.M. and the campfire program was put together by the senior Scouts.  There were 4 of them and they decided to entertain us all.  They did some skits, sang a song, did role plays, and acted out scenes suggested by the audience.  Everyone was laughing and having a good time.  But…   At about 9 P.M. the Scouts started asking to play manhunt (a version of capture the flag played in total darkness).  So, a group of about 10 Scouts were off for a few rounds of manhunt.

Lights out was at 10 P.M. again, but EVERYONE was in the sack by 10:01 P.M.  

We were up at 7 A.M. again and the Scouts started packing slowly and moving toward getting a breakfast meal down.  We had some new adults on the trip with us that didn’t know about our custom of having a cold breakfast on Sunday so we can quickly get packed and on the road.  So, the adults had a hot breakfast of coffee, sausage patties and pancakes.  The adults really ate well on this trip.  We had plenty of time to get everyone packed, fed and the camp site cleaned up.  We hit the road right on schedule at 9 A.M., and arrived back at the meeting place at 11 A.M. as planned.

The weather was sunny all weekend with 90’s in the day and 70’s at night.  I have to share one little fact.  This is the first campout in a year where I was able to pack a dry tent at the end of the trip.  I didn’t put my rain fly up and was able to watch the stars all night through the mesh on the back and  top of my tent.  It was great.  I know we all have a wonderful time.

Bob De Contreras

Scoutmaster
Troop 216