With seven new tents and a trailer full of supplies, Boy Scout Troop 715 headed out west to Colorado.
Seventeen Scouts and nine adult leaders filled four vehicles for this 10-day trip. The group took a whitewater raft trip down the Arkansas River near Buena Vista.
In the snow-capped San Juan Mountains between Ouray and Telluride, they camped in a secluded meadow about 20 miles off the beaten path and down a dusty, dirt road. While there, they hiked the Dallas Trail that goes to the south up to 11,000 thousand feet to see the lower Blue Lake.
In the early 1980s, Troop 715 established a trail up another mountain, in the same meadow) that looks west over the desert. This trail had grown over with vegetation, but was soon rediscovered by the Scouts on their last day there. Near Ouray, the Scouts toured the Bachelor- Syracuse gold mine.
Outside of Silverton, Scoutmaster McCleary lead them to an old abandoned mine where they searched the tailings looking for gold/pyrite specimens. Nearly all the meals on the trip were prepared by the group (even steaks and pork chops over an open fire).The last major stop was at Mesa Verde. Here they visited the Cliff Palace and Balcony House Ruins of the ancient cliff-dwellers. After dark, near their campsite on the mesa, Scoutmaster McCleary, Eagle Scout (1982) Rick McCleary and Eagle Scout (1984) Bill Bibler blindfolded the rest of the group and lead them down a trail to a cliff that overlooked the city of Cortez.
When they took off their blindfolds it looked like a view from an airplane as they could look out for miles and miles at the twinkling lights in the far distance.
