Ever since I was a wee lad growing up in the highlands of the Hood River Valley, my Eagle Scout father regaled me with stories of his Boy Scouting days. What a glorious panorama he would paint, too! I can remember long days as a child I spent tramping around in the woods pretending to be a Boy Scout.

I couldn’t get enough camping, backpacking, hiking, cross-country skiing and canoeing with my dad. I reveled in the subtleties of doing each activity well. Coming from the bear-infested Alaska wilderness my father was a strict teacher on keeping a neat camp. Wiping your hands on your pants after dinner was a sure way to wake up with a bear in your face.

I have a vivid image in my mind of driving with my dad in his bright red diesel pickup to my first-ever scout meeting at the Pine Grove town hall. Due to leadership problems and lack of scouts I would end up transferring from troop 378, to 617, and finally to 741 over the course of six years.

In those years I would attend summer camps, Klondike derbies, and camporees. I would learn first aid, knots, map and compass, and equipment care and organization, in order to camp and hike in deep snow, high desert, thick forest, island dunes, caves, and mountain slopes.

Although these activities make up a large part of scouting life there are other qualities that make the program what it is. With the Boy Scout slogan being “Do a good turn daily,” community service remains an important part of the trail to Eagle Scout.

The project that will stay with me the longest would undoubtedly be my Eagle service project. It involved trail restoration on the trail above Indian Creek behind HRVHS. This was my first real experience planning, coordinating and executing anything of that scale. I never realized how much work goes on way before the work project starts! Everything has to be thought through; then once the day comes, everyone is looking to you for direction whether you have it or not.

With the support of many great friends I did manage to complete the project. My crew of 20 volunteers worked over two weekends last spring. We restored a culvert under the trail to allow the wetland to be less impeded, not to mention the trail. All the gravel had to be hauled in by wheelbarrow down to the creek and back up the other side. The project and the paperwork had to be completed by my 18th birthday in May.

People have asked me what it is like to be an Eagle Scout. Beyond the initial excitement of completing my long-awaited goal, I didn’t really feel that different. The transformation does not happen suddenly once you finish your board of review. It happens over the course of the six years with all the activities and lessons. Those are the memories that will become the yarn for my stories.

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