Scouts Troop 104, Mission Hills, went kayaking on June 28 and 29 off of Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands near Ventura.
It was a magical experience. The boat ride alone was incredible. Saturday was calm, with a cool wind blowing in our faces as we sped out of the harbor past dozens of pelicans and seagulls resting on the breakwater.
After half an hour, we reached the edge of the escarpment that marks the beginning of deep water where the whales and dolphins like to play.
Wouldn't you know it? We saw three different pods of dolphins that leaped ahead of and behind our boat. Half an hour later we were closing in on Santa Cruz Island and we saw hundreds of small fish leaping out of the water gathering their morning meal of bugs or plankton or whatever it is they eat.
After offloading our backpacks, receiving an orientation talk from the island rangers and moving our kayaks far away from high tide, we hiked over to our campground. It's only seven tenths of a mile, flat ground, and there's even bathrooms along the way. We set-up our tents, ate lunch, changed into our bathing suits and headed back to the beach of Scorpion Bay.
We had a training class on how to handle kayaks and buddied up into our boats.
Part of the kayaking patch for Boy Scouts involves purposefully capsizing your boat to make sure you can right it and get back in. Then we practiced landing the boat back on shore. Finally, we were ready to head out with our life jackets and helmets on.
We went north of our harbor and immediately came upon a couple of tunnels that went through the island rock to the other side of the promontory. My boat buddy,
Eric, and I went through the small one and then went through the larger passage, too. Twice.
We continued north and caught up to a guided group and followed them through another tunnel. Along the water line there were dozens of starfish. It was like being in a marine aquarium, but this was wildlife.
Continuing north, we found a much larger cave, but the waves were a little severe so we bypassed it as well as the deceased seal floating in a kelp bed.
A little further on, we found some smaller caves that were at just the correct height for the time of day so that blowholes were formed that shot sprays of water twenty or thirty feet out to hit some of our scouts as they faced them. Some seals swam beyond us probably trying to figure out what we were doing.
North of the blowholes was a harbor of clear blue water that was so beautiful it was breathtaking. Sea urchins, Garibaldi, and even a bat ray were visible in the crystal clear water.
We paddled around Potato Rock with pelicans, seagulls, and other birds on it and saw them diving into the water in search of dinner. One of the smaller birds was lucky and emerged with a small fish in his beak and flew off with it.
Some of our Scouts needed to head back so we turned around and continued the way we came. We happened upon a seagull nest where a mom was feeding some adorable, fuzzy chicks.
A large sun fish had died and we saw it floating in the water nearby, too. We bypassed the caves since the waves were a little choppier and headed back to shore.
I went out with another of our adult leaders south and saw a nearby tunnel that was huge with birds flying inside.
Brian started singing the theme song to Pirates of the Caribbean and it was a perfect fit. It felt just like drifting past the fort in the Disneyland ride.
We emerged from that cave and paddled across toanother passage that was very narrow. With the waves and tides it felt like shooting the rapids down a river.
We finally called it a day and beached our boats and headed back to camp. Everybody was experimenting with different backpacking stoves and food. We shared our successes, Ramen is always popular with the boys, and failures, Richmoor Backpacker's Honey Mustard Chicken really doesn't cut the mustard.
Some of the troop went on a hike above the places we had kayaked and shot great pictures of the sunset. Others stayed at camp and shot the breeze. The boys even noticed some other campers of the female persuasion that they were able to engage in conversation.
Fairly soon after sunset, guys turned in after all the exercise and we soon had a tarp, hammock and several tents with dozing campers.
Sunday morning, we broke camp after breakfast and took our gear down to the dock. We had plenty of time so a few of us got in another kayaking session. This one was very exciting.
My partner this time was
Liz, who is a member of our new Venturing Crew. We hit a submerged rock going through the first big cave and I bailed out over the side and had a tough time getting back in. Thanks again,
Gunther, for steadying the boat so I could pull myself aboard without dumping my crewmate into the sea.
We saw more seals and went through more tunnels. The narrow one on the way back was especially exciting. The tide dropped at least two feet in a couple of seconds and then came back in throwing our kayak into the right wall. We got a little scraped, but used our paddles to fend off the sharpest points and even managed to stay in the boat this time.
After we returned we had to assemble all of the kayaking gear for loading on the boat. We still had another hour before it arrived so the guys played Frisbee, tossed a ball around, played cards, and talked to girls again.
Finally, the boat arrived and we left although it took a long time because we had an especially large load of campers and kayaks.
The ride back was exciting again with the mist of saltwater and dolphins chasing us. We had a short religious ceremony in the middle of the channel and gave thanks for what we had experienced.
Brian, our newest adult leader, is heading to college this week so this was his last outing with us before entering Louisiana State University. We were happy it was such an incredible one.
The ride back to the Valley was uneventful except for noting that the temperature was about 20 degrees warmer than we had become used to that weekend. Whew! It certainly made us appreciate the stupendous experience of Troop 104's Kayaking Adventure.