Camping with the Cubs

I always thought the idea with the Scouts was that you handed your kid off to them, they went camping and you put your feet up and chilled out. Alas, not so in America. If your kid goes camping, you go camping with them (which is probably just as well, given that Alexander is only 6). And so it was after 20+ years I went camping once again, this time with my son.

The cub scouts borrowed the San Jose Peace Officers camp ground for the weekend, off highway 9 near the summit. Getting there was kind of scary, since the place was a little like a Libertarian stronghold with signs all over the place saying we where trespassers and would be arrested. Still there was plenty to do for the kid and Alexander had a blast.




There wasn't any hiking involved. You just drove up and pitched your tent. Here is our little yellow and gray tent beside our little and yellow and black car.


After a dinner of boiled beef and carrots Alexander flaked out, but was determined to stay by the camp fire until the marshmallows got roasted. Two "Smores" down he finally admitted he was tired and we headed for our tent. "I'm scared!" he sobbed, "What if there is a deer?" I spent some time explaining that deer didn't hunt people and that it was the other way around. Once we were in the tent with lamp on, the outside world disappeared, and he was quite happy. So happy in fact that he woke me up to tell me just how happy he was with camping at 5:00am. Needless to say we where the first ones to break camp and headed down the hills to Los Gatos for a fine breakfast at Gillies, stopping only briefly to look at a deer at the side of the road that took one look at us and bolted.