What’s up everybody!
It’s your Webmaster Aaron Chang back at it again with another banger of a post.
Today we’re going to be talking about Camp Emerald Bay, a trip so treacherous that it requires a multi-day trip — switching between different forms of transportation — just to get there. First, you’ve got to languidly sit in an ~8 hour car ride as you enjoy the beautiful, breathtaking, yellow grass-drought landscape of SoCal. Next, you’ve got to take a ~1 long belly-lurching ferry ride off the coast of L.A to Catalina Island. I highly recommend standing at the bow(front) of the ship. It’s quite an exhilarating experience.
A mile long strip of dirt uphill with sticks and stones greets you as you arrive to the island. One troop brought wheeled luggage’s. Pro-tip: Don’t do that.
Anyways, the festivities could finally begin once we arrived there. Our day activities were split into two groups: Merit badges, and the scuba certification program.
The merit badge program is quite similar to that of Oljato — 5 merit badge shifts with some time in the afternoon activities. Notably, one can take merit badges such as Motorboating and Oceanography, in addition to other classic merit badges(shooting sports, nature, handicraft etc.)
So those guys sounded like they had a fun time, huh?
The scuba certification program, while “fun”, had me GASPING for air. Let me tell you, reader, if you ever plan to do the scuba program at Emerald Bay, be in for a real doozy. First off, we had 10 hours of learning material to go over. Take this advice—skim over it. It’s so much content.
Everyday, I went through a perfunctory ritual. First, a wrestling match with my wetsuit to get into it. Next, setting up a heavy air tank, BCD, and respirator in the blazing sun. Finally, the 400 foot trek with a ~60 pound backpack down to Doctor’s Cove, before you can even go under the water.
Despite the clear differences in activities between the two programs offered, we ate all our meals together by the oceanfront lunch area. While most the meals were tasty, the water from the water station was curiously salty.
Another highlight of the trip was the War Canoe. Or. more aptly, War “Hike”, because no canoe was in sight as we marched our way over to Parson’s Landing(apparently the winds were too large and canoeing was unsafe). We had a great time there reading, cracking JOE-kes, and swimming. Nothing else happened ;).
So yeah, that was Emerald Bay. If it sounded fun to you, I highly recommend going. It’s like Oljato, but more buff and with a six-pack
Until next time!
-Aaron Chang, Troop 57 Webmaster