Boy Scouts Experience Tubing on the New River

This weekend Troop 42 headed out to explore the New River for their August campout. We left Friday evening for the 2 1/2 hour drive into the mountains of NC.

We arrived at our destination after dark, carefully navigating the twisty back roads to get to the primitive campground.

We set up camp in the dark, along the banks of the New River. We were literally right on the bank on the river.

We learned that this is one of two rivers in the United States where the water actually flows in a Northerly direction.

After making breakfast on Saturday morning we took the one mile hike to the place where we rented our tubes. A group of 18 boys and leaders dared to tube down the river.

James and fellow scout Daniel are shown here enjoying the relaxing tube float on the river.

All in all it took about two hours to make the river journey down to our campsite.

Everyone had a good time although the water level could have stood to be a little deeper. The dry NC weather had lowered the river level below optimum.

After taking a break to cook lunch in camp. The boys played in the river for most of the afternoon.

It was then time to turn attention towards cooking dinner.

The boys made dutch oven pizzas. James is shown making his special "stuffed crust" pizza.

The adults were a little more traditional, cooking grilled chicken breast and roasted corn on the cob.

The focus was to practice cooking over an open fire, so all of the boys got involved in the meal preparation.

The weather was perfect for the trip and the calming sound of the river made an excellent backdrop for sleeping at night.

Sunday morning, it was time to make breakfast, then break camp and head back home with another successful campout in the books.