Adventures with teenagers

The gang at the "summit" of Mount Taum Sauk

Well, my gig of parenting eight teenagers has come and gone. I spent three days with eight of the boys from church and two other leaders on High Adventure. I'd looked forward to it for several months, and it seems like it was over in a flash. We planned a lengthy hike and a 10-mile canoe trip.

We were supposed to leave at 5:00am Thursday morning, which would have worked had one of the boys not left his sleeping bag at home and had to go back. Much to my surprise, all of them honored our demand that they leave all electronic gadgets (cell phones, PSP's, etc.) at home. The two we suspected would have smuggled their cell phones are actually experiencing life without a cell phone right now, though, since their parents had the service discontinued due to over-usage. Therefore, not even a temptation because what good is a disconnected cell phone?

We planned on a 10-mile hike in the Ozark Mountains (yes, Missouri technically has mountains). We got to Devil's Toll Gate (where the toll is your soul) and had already had our fill of bellyaching so we turned around there instead of continuing to our planned turn-around. All said and done we hiked probably six or seven miles. The mountain we hiked was Mount Taum Sauk, the highest "peak" in Missouri. Funny thing is that the trail head is at the "summit", an elevation of .... 1,772 feet above sea level. Luckily no one got altitude sickness. Other funny thing is that the parking lot/trail head is at the summit, so we actually descended the mountain then had to hike back up. It was a very rugged trail in several places, and very beautiful.
A few of the boys at Devil's Toll Gate

The second day was canoeing. A few of the boys had never been in a canoe before, so that was an amusing sight to behold. I shared a canoe with one of the leaders, a guy who had been in the Priest Quorum, but is now getting ready to go to BYU. It took us about five hours to go the 10 miles, but the river was awesome. It is the Current River which is a totally spring-fed river. The water temperature was between 55 & 60 degrees; even the spots where the water is 15 feet deep you can see all the way to the bottom! We stopped quite a bit along the way to swim and just relax. Yes, the water was the coldest I've ever been in, and I don't see how in the world people do things like Polar Bear Plunges. There was even a tree swing at one point. All the boys were impressed that I gave it a couple of tries. The other leader took a movie of me doing it with his digital camera, and I'll post it if I can figure out how. Let's just say - backflop in two feet of water. The boys said mine was the best. Glad I could impress them with my sweet skills.

Coming back out of Cave Spring. This spring is 120 feet deep at the back at the cave. Early explorers found two wood canoes made by Indians at the bottom of the spring.

We had planned to take them to the George Washington Carver and Harry S. Truman birthplaces on the way back in Southern Missouri. I thought it would be good for them, many who are from families that struggle, to learn about some men who also came from humble beginnings, but with hard work and education went on to do great things. We ran out of time, though, and didn't make it. I'm sure they were disappointed..not.