The Team had the wonderful opportunity to try water-sports at Canyon Lake in Mid-July. On Friday, July 13, a small group of scouts and adults from the Team left Austin to set up camp at the Randolph Air Force Base Recreation Area on the shore of Canyon Lake. The boys woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to review the first aid, life-jacket types, and hand signals for water-skiing, as well as the different stroke-types for kayaking. While some of the guys cleaned up, the rest of us headed down to the water to set up the kayaks and the rest area that we would use to eat lunch.
About halfway through the morning, we were joined by Mr. Mueller, a man who works with my dad, Mr. Reyes, along with his ski-boat. The boys were split into two groups, one of which worked on the kayaking merit badge, while the other group, including myself, tried our hand at skiing. While most of the boys were unable to get completely upright on the skis, Mr. Reyes and Mr. Faulkner were able to get up without a problem, and were even better at making cool "dismounts" for the boys to watch. As we returned to the shore, we all stopped for lunch before switching groups. The other group had much better luck at getting up, while we completed the kayaking merit badge and cooled off in the water. As the other guys reached the shore, the rain and wind picked up significantly, forcing us to pack up most of our gear to take back to camp.
Back at camp, we were greeted by Stefano, an Eagle scout from troop 448 who moved to New York after Philmont last summer. As the storm calmed down, we took Stefano on the boat with us, to try tubing. We took turns on the tubes in pairs, holding on for as long as we could while Mr. Mueller tried his best to run us right into the waves. After both groups tried tubing, we all got one last chance to try skiing and wake-boarding if we wished. As the day wrapped up, we prepared fish tacos and settled down for the evening, saying goodbye to Stefano and thanking Mr. Mueller for the use of his boat. After a small campfire, we all got into our tents, only to get out soon after to avoid the lightning.
On Sunday morning, Pablo got to work on Biscuits and Gravy, while the rest of us began work on setting rocks to make a trail through the park. We took a break for breakfast, finished cleaning and packing, and then resumed our work on the trail before heading home. We set close to 200 feet of rock before deciding that we were done, more than twice the distance that the staff at the camp had said would be satisfactory.
Pictures of the trip are here.
