Summit Day 1

Playing hangman on our way there.

It is the end of our first day at the Summit Bechtel Scout Reserve in West Virginia. The start of our week was the Big Zip. It's a 45 minute uphill hike to the launch point, but the zip was worth it. It was quite fast - it is supposed to go up to 65mph. So that was pretty cool.

After that, we hiked a short ways down to Bravo Lake for kayaking. That was a lot of fun. I like kayaking much better than canoeing; it is easier to coordinate just yourself than working with a second person. The Summit has nice PFDs and equipment; it is their first year. We practiced wet exits, team rescues, two-man rescues, self rescues, swamped and  unswamped kayaks. The best part of the day was Ultimate Frisbee in kayaks, which was intense.

During the afternoon, we saw an ambulance whizz by on one of the roads with lights flashing and sirens wailing. Later we saw a helicopter, and we are pretty sure somebody got airlifted. (Later found out that a boy fell wrong mountain biking, broke his arm, and then lost consciousness, but was fine).

The view from Rock City.

Another Rock City picture.

Venturing uniform under blacklight.

Creepy gnomes in the Fairyland Cavern

Ruby Falls.

After dinner, Action Point was open for activities. I did a challenge course with my brother, while several other crew members did BMX and mountain biking. Some of us took naps, and our advisors had their coffee meeting.

We will go over our info for camp duties, whitewater kayaking in the morning, do our LNT discussions, and do our devotional, as well as do our Thorns and Roses before we get to bed tonight. Whitewater kayaking tomorrow!

Monty has been in several photos, and I'll put them up here when I get a chance to go through them.