Venture Crew 9 Adventures

Rainy Camping at Table Rock

2009-03-03T19:12:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Jena, Casey, Shelby, Chris, Robbie, Bridget, Shaun, and Buster the dog
Weather: Rainy

Friday night started out cool, but no rain. We set up camp and built a fire, then sat around the fire and had a "fat kid party". For those unfamiliar with the term, everyone brings something they like to eat, and we sit around the fire and stuff ourselves silly. Once we had exhausted our food supplies, we headed off to bed. Shortly after everyone settled into their shelter of choice, it began to rain, and Shelby and Casey found the flaws in their shelter in short order. Once they had repaired their shelter, the two had a fat kid after-party during which they consumed 200 Andes chocolates between them (as was evidenced by the carpet of Andes in their hammocks the next morning.

Saturday morning, we awoke to a steady rain, with temperatures in the low 50's. After some debate, we decide to do breakfast, then come back and pack up camp before we headed off for our hike to the top of Table Rock. The hike went well, although everyone was thoroughly soaked by the time we finished the 8.5 mile hike. The view from the top was of course obstructed by the rain, fog, and clouds, and it was quite windy, so we all ate a quick bite before heading back down the trail to a rock outcrop to eat a proper lunch in a relatively dry area. As we were packing up from lunch, another group (likely from a local college) came hiking by, looking as if they fully intended to spend a week out on the trail. All in all, the trip could be considered a success, as everyone came home with the same number of fingers and toes they started with and there appeared to be some learning taking place.

Notable quotes of the trip:
Casey: right before attempting a river crossing "This is going to take some skill..." (as he slips off of the rock he was going to step on)
Shaun: "...of which you apparently have none..."

Shaun: upon seeing the girls in another backpacking group fawning over Buster the dog, "I really need to get me a dog"

First meeting of 2008 school year

2008-08-04T19:47:00.003-04:00

Our first meeting of the new school year will be September 8 at 7PM at Buncombe Street United Methodist's Scout Hut.

To find us, follow College Street toward the library, and turn into the church parking lot across from the Bellsouth building. If you reach Academy Street, you've gone too far, hang three lefts to go all the way around the block and try again!

Hiking at Raven Cliff Falls

2008-02-10T21:23:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Austin, Daniel, Jena, Leia, Sarah, Wes, Chris, Matt, and Shaun

Weather: Nice

Goodfellows

2007-12-21T19:56:00.007-05:00

Adventurers: Jena, Cody, Sarah, Roy, Austin, Leah, Casey, Jessica, Allison, Shaun, Chris

Disc Golf December 2007

2007-12-02T20:46:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Austin, Brent, Casey, Jacob, Jena, Leia, Roy, Sarah, and Shaun
Weather: Cloudy skies, slightly chilly.

Tee Time: 1:00 PM

The crew showed off their disc golf skills to no one in particular on the Gower Park Disc Golf Course on Sunday. Although there were no Tiger Woods-esque plays, the crew had a good time.

Horseback Riding

2007-11-17T17:22:00.001-05:00

Adventurers (Horses): Casey(Fat Boy?), Jena, Jessica (Babydoll), Chris, and Shaun (Diamond)
Weather: Partly cloudy skies, slightly chilly.

After a nice lunch by the scenic French Broad River, we headed up to Sandy Bottom Trail Rides, where we were introduced to our equine friends. Casey and Jena helped a couple of the horses to improve their breath while we waited on the other group that would be accompanying us on the trail to get ready.

After some initial and very brief instructions, we were paired with our mounts, and the real adventure began.

The horses took frequent snack breaks, walking over to the hill and munching on grass and leaves.

Toward the halfway point of the ride, we road along the ridgeline above some cattle fields.

And here everyone is, back safe and sound from another adventure. And now for this month's awards!

Craziest horse - Casey's horse - Fat Boy
Most well-behaved - Jessica's - Babydoll
Hoghead - Shaun's - Diamond

More firearm safety

2007-10-20T23:34:00.006-04:00

Adventurers: Sarah, Wes, Sam, Chris G., Matt, Chris F.
Weather: Sunny and mild

Huntington Island beach trip

2007-09-09T20:13:00.001-04:00

Adventurers: Chris, Tiffany, Sara, Wes, Jas, Jacob, Roy, Casey and Troop 9
Weather: Clear beautiful skies.

The crew hooked up with the troop for a weekend of fun at Huntington Island State Park which is right on the beach. We left from the Scout Hut on Friday evening, our caravan consisting of the Troop 9 bus chock full of scouts and the lucky few in Tim's luxurious SUV. Tents had already been set up by a few that had gone down early and upon arriving (near midnight!), the gear was unpacked and a crackerbarrel was had. Meat and cheese and crackers...Yes!

Since we were on "Bahama time," the next morning was a lazy one. The adults that were awake drank freshly percolated coffee and most of the youth played football before a breakfast of bagels, cereal, and various fruits. After ensuring that Safe Swim Defense procedures would be followed, the whole lot of us eventually made it down to the beach.

Aside from a break for lunch, all day was spent hanging out at the beach relaxing, riding waves, and burying friends in the sand. Dinner meant a delicious low country boil procured by the scoutmasters of Troop 9. The evening was spent in the shelter hanging out, eating ice cream, and being eaten alive by bugs.

Sunday morning found everyone packing up their gear, loading everything into the trailer, breakfast, and policing the area. After a quick self-guided tour of Atalaya, the Huntington family house, and a short church service, the journey home began. About six hours later, tired and happy, Troop & Crew 9 arrive back at the Scout Hut.

[A pre-breakfast football game.]

[Joe loved the bullhorn...and it proved
rather useful for providing USC/UGA updates.]

[Nick and Jas start their shift as lookout.]

[Safe swim talk.]

[Wes, Jacob, Chris, Tiffany, Sara, Roy, and Casey.]

[Casey's new hair-do.]

[Jacob buried in the sand.]

[Scoutmaster's of T-9 cooking up some low country boil.]

[Outside Atalaya...trying to find our way in.]

Camp Old Indian 2007

2007-08-27T17:24:00.000-04:00

Adventurers: Wes, Jacob, Roy, Brent, Shaun
Weather: clear, sunny, and hot (most of the week), with occasional afternoon showers

Four crew members came to camp with the troop and were coerced into participating in the High Adventure program. Activities included rock climbing, whitewater canoeing, mountain biking, caving, and whitewater rafting.

First Meeting for Fall 2007

2007-08-20T07:48:00.000-04:00

The first meeting for Fall 2007 will be August 27 at 6:30 PM at the Scout hut. We'll be cooking out and playing games, so bring friends to start this year off with a bang!

Rafting on the Nantahala River (heaven bound with a #3 on the side!)

2007-04-22T09:45:00.000-04:00

Adventurers: Sam, Chris, Yvonne, Shaun, Neil, Christi, Chris, Matt, Tom, Jenny, and Owen
Weather: clear skies, air temp - high 76 low 47, water temp - ICE!

After a scenic drive, we arrived at the river ready to do some rafting. John (the outfitter owner) hustled us into lifejackets and paddles and loaded us on the bus with high hopes of still having water at the put-in. Upon arrival at the put-in and seeing that we weren't too late, he rushed through the safety dance and released us to go tame the wild Nantahala. The put-in was uneventful, but our first swim of the day occurred five minutes into the trip when Jenny lost her foothold on the raft on a rapid and fell into the frigid water. She was quickly pulled back into the raft, and her paddle was retrieved (VERY IMPORTANT!!!). Although the river was low, neither raft had too much trouble dodging the rocks. Both rafts took the hero line at The Bump, where Neil decided it was a good time to go swimming. After a crash course in running the falls, both boats ran the falls without anyone going swimming again. Dinner on the way back was provided by the best barbeque place in WNC, Barbeque Inn in Asheville.

AWARDS:
First Swim goes to Jenny
Dale Earnhardt Award goes to Chris for his spectacular performance on those mountain roads

Rocks and Ropes

2007-03-10T16:12:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Sara, Wes, Jacob, Austin, Roy, Shaun, Chris, Matt, Allison
Weather: outside - clear skies, upper 60's; inside - sweaty

Night on the town

2007-02-22T22:15:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Wes, Carrie, Chris, Shaun
Weather: clear skies, 54 degrees

Dinner was graciously provided by Fuddrucker's on Woodruff Rd, with entertainment provided by the amazing Scott Stolarski. Much red meat was consumed all around (even though some people chose to eat healthy by ordering a LARGE salad).

After dinner, the daring adventurers crossed Woodruff Rd (an adventure in and of itself whether it's rush hour or not) to Frankie's Fun Park. Much fun was had playing laser tag, followed by an extensive tour of the arcade, causing several of the machines to malfunction. In short, we came, we saw, we destroyed.

Wes showed Carrie his skills in air hockey...then hopped back into his space ship to fly back home.

We shot up the saloon, then when we went to get a picture of the new sheriffs in town, we discovered that the flash sets off all of the sensors in the game, so we proceeded to take about 10 more pictures of the saloon to watch the game go crazy. For the purposes of brevity, only one is shown here...

Um, Chris, your eyes have to be OPEN to be able to shoot properly...

At the end of the night, we cashed in all of our tickets that we had won to get...a keychain! (which Chris is holding in his hand)

Backpacking on the Chatooga River

2007-01-28T22:11:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Sara, Sam, Wes, Yvonne, Shaun, Mr. Edge, Neil, Christi, Chris
Weather: Saturday - clear skies, high 60 low 38; Sunday - clear skies high 44

After a quick equipment check at the Scout Hut at 8AM, we departed the church, bound for adventure on a beautiful weekend at the Chatooga River. The drive up was pleasant, and uneventful until we reached a police blockade on SC 107 about 5 miles down from our original ending trailhead, where we had planned to drop the shuttle vehicle and continue to the starting trailhead with everyone in the church minibus. Apparently, a generator was being moved up the road a piece, and the road wouldn't be open for another 2 1/2 hours. Disappointed, we turned around and headed back down the mountain to a mom and pop grocery/gas station and the bottom of the mountain (junction of SC 28 and 107). After a short conversation with the store owners, we discovered that a gravel road, Burrel's Ford Rd, ran from 28 to 107, possibly coming out above the road blocks. Spirits uplifted, we headed off in search of Burrel's Ford Road. A short time later, we arrived at the upper trailhead, and decided upon observing that the upper roadblock was at Burrel's Ford Road, we would hike in and back out (total trip distance of ~9 miles) instead of the original plan to hike from Fish Hatchery Road to Cherry Hill Recreation area (~12 miles).

After a short lunch at the trailhead, we departed. Although the trail was initially thought to be mostly downhill, we started the trip with a slight uphill (and with some mild complaints). The trail eventually flattened out and we fell into a good pace of around 2 mph.

We arrived at camp right next to the Chatooga River around 3:30 PM and quickly set up camp so that we could make a short trip to beautiful King's Cross Falls before dinner.

King's Cross Creek plummets 70 feet over the falls to form one of the more spectacular views in the vicinity of Burrel's Ford.

After spending some time at the falls for a few photos, we hiked back to camp to gather firewood at eat dinner as night was rapidly approaching. After dinner most everyone wandered off to their tents to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night (between 9 PM and 2 AM), another group of campers showed up, set up camp at the adjacent campsite (about 15-20 yards away from ours), and proceeded to talk LOUDLY until around 3AM (best guess). We retaliated by singing the good morning song LOUDLY this morning to wake our group up at 7:15 AM.

We hiked back up the logging road to the Burrel's Ford parking lot, where we left our backpacks to hike up to Spoonauger Falls.

On the way back, Sara saw this mossy rock, tricklefall and wanted me to get a picture of it, so I did...
The return trip from Burrel's Ford Road to Fish Hatchery Road was pleasant and uneventful. Upon arrival at Fish Hatchery road, there were smiles and high-fives all around. Congratulations to all the first-timers and thank you to everyone for a wonderful trip.

AWARDS:
The trooper award goes to Sara for keeping up with Shaun for the entire trip
The toastmaster award goes to Wes for being a toasting machine
First injury was Shaun, ripping the nail off his left middle finger while closing the back door of the minibus in the parking lot of the Church right before our departure on Saturday.

Goodfellows

2006-12-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Wes, Sarah, Danielle, Jacob, Jessica, Matt, Christi, Shaun, Chris

Canoeing

2006-11-15T23:53:00.000-05:00

Adventurers: Sam, Wes, Sarah, Danielle, Christi, Matt, Chris

Firearm Safety Day

2006-10-15T01:04:00.000-04:00

Adventurers: Jas, Sam, Hannah, Danielle, Wes, Sarah, Christi, Matt, Chris