The Crew's reputation for Wood Badge just can't be contained and has spilled over the local Council's borders.  This time, we drove down to Camp Thunderbird, on Powell Lake outside Olympia for the Pacific Harbors Council's course WE1-612-11...the Crew's fourth WB staffing in as many years.  We were joined by Maddy Z from Cottage Grove in Oregon Trails Council.

In case you aren't familiar with Wood Badge, it is is a Scouting leadership program and the related award for adult leaders in the programs of Scout associations throughout the world. Wood Badge courses aim to make Scouters better leaders by teaching advanced leadership skills, and by creating a bond and commitment to the Scout movement.  Wood Badge lasts 6 days.  On Days 4 and 5 of the course, councils try to find Venturers to come and augment the staff.  The Venturers lead the 8 "adult patrols" (usually with 5 or 6 adults in each) through the practical applications of what they've learned the previous 4 days.  Our Crew has been fortunate to be recruited into WB duty several times...probably because we have so much fun by turning the tables and leading the adults for a change.

Here's the list of Wood Badge courses we have staffed.  Decoded, the W means Western Region, E means Weeekend (two 3-day weekends vs a 6-day contiguous course), 1 for Area 1 of the Region, the 6nn local Council number, and 1n for the year.  A 1 or 2 indicates if it was a 1st or 2nd course in a year that had more than one course for that Council.

The Crew's first Superactivity for the 2011 summer season was a kayaking expedition into Desolation Sound Provincial Park in British Columbia.  Located beyond the northern end of Highway 1 in Lund, the Sound lies to the east of the fabled Inside Passage between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland that leads to Alaska.  The scenery is breathtaking, with deep, calm water punctuated by small but mountainous islands with steep cliffs, forest, and pristine wilderness.

We drove up to Port Angeles and sailed the Black Ball ferry to Victoria, then continued up Vancouver Island to Comox.  At Comox, we took another ferry to Powell River, then finished the drive to the Malaspina Peninsula and camped for the night.  Our fleet was a mix of personally owned sea kayaks and some good rental boats from an outfitter in Penrose Bay.  We put in on Monday morning and paddled up to our first campsite on the Gifford Peninsula at a protected anchorage called Grace Harbor.  Our tents were placed in various flat spots wherever we could find them along the cliffs overlooking the anchorage.  There was a trail that lead to a waterfall for primitive showers.  The trail continued up to an unnamed fresh water lake; we named it Leech Lake after discovering what lived there.

Although it has a 15 foot tidal differential, the Sound's currents are minimal but very predictable.  On an ebbing tide, we continued our trek north out of the Malaspina Inlet, paddling between rocks and estuaries that only a shallow draft kayak could navigate.  The rocks were dotted with pink and blue starfish, usually 9-11 inches across.  We stopped for a meal on an island in the middle of Galley Bay just as a storm arrived.  With no suitable sheltered campsite in Galley Bay, we braved an open-water crossing at the mouth of the Sound and entered the lee side of Mink Island.  The crossing was a true adventure, with 3 foot swells, 15 knot winds, and driving rain that reduced our visibility to a quarter mile or less.  The value of a compass, a good sea kayak, and multiple "workouts" paid off as we made our way along the south side of Mnk and on to the Curme Island group.

Curme is a gorup of 3 islands in the middle of the Sound with some exposed campsites and a pit toilet.  Unfortunately, we spotted some tents as we approached and knew we wouldn't all fit.  Instead, we altered course and headed east into Tenedos Bay, where we pulled ashore and found more than enough room for all our tents.  There was an established fire ring, and it was only a five minute walk up the trail to Unwin Lake for fresh water swimming.  We decided to make Tenedos our base of operations, and would paddle out on daily trips.  Given the cold, wet weather that arrived with the storm and lingered for the rest of the week, it was a good decision.