James Laird - Camping at the Emerald Bay Scout Camp - Page 3

The next event was in the camp grounds at Barton Flats in the Sam Bernardino Mts. This was a much more rugged setting with most camps not even in view of each other. There was also a bear problem as a couple of bears were raiding the camps when they were left vacant for a short while. Poison Oak made its present known on a few of the boy's a couple of days after we got home. This time my patrol did much better.

With a few pointers from the cook at the Boy's Home, we ate well, and had enough leftover to feed our other patrols as well who had not done so well with the bears help. Our troop did not last too long after that for the lack of a scoutmaster. As the senior patrol leader I kept it going while they looked for several months for a new scoutmaster, and when the effort failed we had to stop meeting. The last meetings were held in the old bungalow at the Boys Home. The old barn had been removed and the bungalow moved to that location and completely rebuilt top to bottom.

Jim Laird