Who: Radar, Mayor, Ken Higgins, Brian Higgins, Munchkin, Gary Kitchen, Chunkie

Site: Camp Bravo – Tents and trucks.

Weather: Rain Friday, Low 20 deg Fri night.

Menu: Deer Stew, T-bone steaks, big breakfast Sat.

Radar, Mayor, Ken, and Brian arrived and set up camp 6pm Thursday. Planned to get to bed early so we could have luau Friday night. Didn’t work out that way. Radar got to bed about 1:30am and Ken and the Mayor stayed up till about 4am.

Others arrived Friday. Rain for 4 hours during the day. Turned very cold (20 deg) overnight. Ken and Brian left before breakfast Sat to get home to some heat!!! Steaks Saturday night, home Sunday am.

Trip 17 Thurs-Sun June 20-23, 2002

Who: Radar, Munchkin, Chunkie, Rooster, Ken Higgins, Jim Tricky, Bumble Bee, Jimmy Minehart, Terry Lingle, Chase Lingle, Tucker

Site: Bravo 5 Tents, Chuck Wagon, Trucks

Menu: Grilled Chicken, coleslaw, P. sausage, hot dogs, ham, breakfast rolls, cookies.

Weather: Fantastic! Highs 90, Lows 60.

Radar, Chunkie and Munchkin arrived and set up camp 6pm Thursday. Lee arrived 11am Friday. Rooster, Ken and Tricky about 2:30pm Friday. Rest about 2pm Saturday. Lee acquired his nickname Bumble Bee this trip.

Our long standing swimming hole upstream from Bravo was filled in with gravel. Found another suitable spot, but not as deep. There were campers at Alpha and Charlie this weekend. This was maiden trip for Ken H. and Jim T. We gave them the grand tour of the area in the back of Radar’s truck Friday evening. Ken made a big mistake by pitching his tent too close behind Chunkie and Radar’s tent. Ken’s snoring volume was the main topic of discussion the next morning. Radar had to leave his tent at 3am when he mistook a tremor caused by the snoring for about a 5.5 quake. The rest of the group got by with earplugs or were too saturated to care. (Radar)

In our efforts to fill Jim and Ken in on some events of the previous trips the story came up of an earlier trip when Munchkin, Rooster and Chunkie were down below the cave cooling it and ran out of beer. While discussing who would walk back to camp to replenish the beer inventory when lo and behold, Chunkie looked up river and said ‘what’s that in the water?’ After a few minutes anticipation here comes a 12 pack of Natural Light floating downstream. Munchkin waded out and intercepted the passing godsend. Not only were we pleasantly surprised to find cold beer come drifting by within reach, but to make it more pleasant, it turned out to be our favorite brand. (Picture Yakov Smirnoff in heavy Russian accent saying, ‘What a country!’) We finally figured out it was our own beer we had tied to a root wad in the river by camp to keep cool. Regardless, it came floating by at a very opportune time. We laughed at our own ignorance for many trips to follow. So far on this trip Chunky has yet to draw blood – an eagerly awaited ritual usually fulfilled in one form or another. (Munchkin)

When we were at Sutton’s Bluff Saturday Bumble Bee did a double back dive off the bluff – 45 feet. Rooster’s ass was puckered but Chunkie said not to worry, he has his own insurance now. The Mayor said he would cook the chicken but he talked Chunkie into doing the cooking. Lee told Jim he would be back to camp at 3 – Jim should know better since he was having dinner fed to him. He finally showed up at 6:30. (Chunkie)