Pine Valley, Webelos Day Hike & Eclipse

 For our date this week we decided we would go up to Pine Valley for a picnic (after putting ribbons on plants/trees that Webelos would need to identify on their day hike).  We didn't think the gates would be open yet and planned on taking a hike to get in to a picnic table, but we were pleasantly surprised otherwise.  It was 20 degrees cooler than St. George and almost no one was there.  The only regret was that we weren't camping out.  After dinner we took a little hike.  It was so great we hated to turn back when it started getting dark.

Saturday was more good times.  I had volunteered to be the hike leader again for the District Webelos Day Hike.  Last minute the person who was going to do the fire building class had to speak at a funeral and Paul said he would do it.  I didn't think it could be done any better than last year's guy, but he did a great job and the kids (and leaders) seemed to learn a lot and enjoy it.  He divided them up in groups of 4-5 boys and each group got to build their little fire with no help from the leaders. Most were able to do it with only one match and were so excited about it.  Then they had to put it out and clean it up so they left no trace.    I was just there for back up and whatever needed doing.  On the hike back they tried crawdad fishing again, but again they had no luck.  There were 91 boys in attendance.

Today after Sunday dinner we had our own little eclipse party in the back yard.  According the the paper the last time a ring eclipse was visible from the continental US was in 1994 and the next to be visible from Utah will be in 2023.  It was so cool.  Didn't get any pictures except of the funny shadows different places around the yard.