For our troops April outing, we went to the Gualala River. The Gualala River is a river located in Northern California and is approximately 50 miles long. It flows through both Sonoma and Mendocino counties. We stayed at the Mill-Bend Preserve, which is a part of the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy. Our Troop, Troop 58 is among some of the first scouts to come stay at this preserve.
The next day we went canoeing. We tried to canoe upstream but the river was too strong for us, so we continued our way together downstream for all of our trip. Like any good trip there were many funny instances: loosing flip flops only to find them downstream, and one scout lost a paddle, while another scout tried to launch his paddle to rescue the lost paddle. During the final stretch of our canoeing almost everyone flipped their boats due to a log, but regardless made a fun and memorable trip.
Later that day, Troop 58 helped the Preserve with environmental restoration work, pulling invasive species such as Cape and English ivies. It was hard work but we contributed toward the restoration of the Gualala River estuary which has a long history of industrial and timber harvest damage.
The final day ended with a tour from the preserve caretakers, where visited their house and Gualala cemetery which was established in the late 1800's by the lumber mill, as the final resting place for many of the settlers of the town of Gualala.
By: Wolverine Patrol Member
