Whitewater Rafting Campout April 2014

For this campout, Troop 570 drove all the way to Mulberry River close to Turner Bend in Arkansas. It was a long drive–a good 5 hours–where we only stopped once. But once we got there, it was worth it.

We set up camp around 11 PM, unloaded the Beast and we all hit the hay. It was an early morning at around 6 or 7, and after breakfast everyone got in the cars to go up river where the rafts were. We started rafting around 11 in the morning, led by our river-worn guides telling us how to get around various rapids and giving little tidbits of information about the river.

The river looked like smooth turquoise, but more on the green side. We navigated through the white waters for close to 6 hours before getting to our campsite, and started cooking dinner. I don’t know about the other patrols, but my patrol had bacon cheese burgers with everything cooked in bacon grease, and the adults had Mrs. Vilicic’s spaghetti.

After the campfire and cracker barrel, we all went to sleep again. The next morning we cleaned up camp and rafted for another mile down the river, to where the raft base was. It took less than an hour, with all of the rafts battling through the rain to the finish. My boat finally got there first, and we packed the rafts up a huge staircase leading into the water, a stairway to mulberry, and headed home. I give it a 4/5 Gann rating. -Jack Gann