Members of Boy Scout Troop 482 tramped and paddled their way through a Montana wilderness recently in a rafting/hiking outing.

Members of the troop spent July 2 through 11 at the Boone-Crockett Club on the Teddy Roosevelt Ranch outside of Great Falls, Mont.

The Boone-Crockett Club is a private conservation group providing this program to Scouts looking for high adventure, said Scoutmaster Rob Deemer.

Six scouts and four adults flew from Pittsburgh to Seattle and then to Great Falls, Mont., and then took vans to the ranch in Depuyer, Mont.

Deemer said the Scouts and adults spent two nights at the club getting dinner and training to use bear spray.

“Bears were a big concern, black and grizzly bears,” said Deemer. The Scouts didn’t see any on their hiking, rafting trip, Deemer said, except “for one little black speck on a hill.”

Deemer said the next day the Scouts packed their one-man rafts onto their packs and had a “shakedown” hike of two or three miles to judge how prepared they were.

Deemer said each pack weighed between 40 to 45 pounds.

“That was all their gear plus camp gear and the raft and the paddles,” he said. The rafts were one-man craft made out of thick rubber and able to be inflated for trips on the river and then deflated and repacked for hiking.

Chase Black, the senior patrol leader, said the party had to take swift water training.

Chase said, “What they had to do was flip the boat and then be able to get into the boat or get the boat back to shore.”

Deemer said four guides traveled with the Connoquenessing Scout contingent.

The days were divided between hiking and rafting in the Sun River.

The party from Butler County started the first day with a five-mile rafting trip followed by a five-mile hike to their campsite.

The Scouts were in the Bob Marshall wilderness complex, said Deemer.

“That’s a million and a half acres of woods and rivers and snakes, bears and horses,” he said.

Deemer said the first day was hard hiking even though the terrain was relatively flat with little change in elevation.

“We used paddles to hold up a tent-like structure,” Deemer said.

All six of the hikers slept crammed shoulder to shoulder under the improvised roof, but they were glad to have protection since it rained every other night. And being close to the river meant the temperature dipped a little more than expected once the sun went down.

The Scouts’ sleep was disturbed when free-range horses from a nearby dude ranch wandered into their campsite at night, said Scout Trip McCaslin. The bells on the horses’ harness would jingle, and one sleeper was awakened by an inquisitive snout shoved into the sleeping space.

Troop member Noah Lind said the Scouts’ two days of preparation included prepping dehydrated and freeze-dried meals and packing them into individual bags. Lunch and dinner consisted of adding boiling water to create meals such as peas, chicken and rice, although everyone agreed the meals tasted better once the bags of spices were located.

Their food was supplemented with fresh-caught trout for a few of their meals.

The possible presence of bears affected food storage.

“Anything that was smellable had to be put in a food bag and elevated in a tree,” Deemer said.

In addition, guides, Scouts and adults were all issued bear spray in case they encountered one in their travels.

Deemer said that on July 6, members of the group decided to hike to the top of the Prairie Reef summit, notable for its exceptional views and for the fact that its summit is the highest point in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Deemer said the hikers making the attempt had an “Alpine start,” leaving at 3 a.m. The peak’s elevation was 2,700 feet, and at the top was a United States Forest Service fire lookout.

“The ranger and his wife, they stay up there all summer. He looks for lightning strikes,” McCaslin said.

Deemer said that July 7 the Scouts and their party had their most fun paddle: seven miles of white water.

“The rocks come up in the middle of the river. You’ve got to be aware of getting stuck on a rock. The rocks you didn’t see, you’d hit them with your butt,” McCaslin said.

The rafters also had to look out for snags of dead trees either submerged under the water’s surface or tumbled on the river banks with branches hanging over the water.

After the party had made camp, several did some fly-fishing, landing more than 100 trout most of which had to be thrown back because they were cutthroat trout which are in danger due to declining population numbers.

But enough unprotected rainbow trout were reeled in. The party agreed warm fish for breakfast was better than rehydrated peas.

The next day, the party moved a quarter mile and set up camp in the Elbow Gorge on the Gibson Reservoir, a 60- to 120-foot-deep body of water created by a hydroelectric dam on the Sun River.

On July 9, the group broke camp and made a seven-mile hike to a pullout spot where it was met with vans which took them all back to the Boone-Crockett Club. There the group spent its last day in Montana cleaning gear and deflating rafts.

“They are very, very serious about conservation in ‘The Bob.’ If you pack it in, you pack it out. So, we were putting garbage into bags and bringing it out with us,” Deemer said.

On July 12, the group flew from Great Falls to Seattle and then, after a layover, back to Pittsburgh.

Noah said his favorite part of the trip was “the view at the top of Prairie Reef and chilling out at the camp.

“It was also seeing the strengths and weaknesses of the troop members, them reaching their limits and pushing past them,” he said.

For adult volunteer Jon McCaslin, who’s son Trip was a troop member, it was a worthwhile trip.

“I was experiencing a whole different environment that I had never experienced with my son,” he said.

Deemer said the fundraising to pay for fees and buy gear for the trip as well as preparatory hikes at Moraine State Park and McConnells Mill State Park and the year spent preparing for the trip were all worth it.

Deemer said Troop 482, which has been in existence since 1932, is making plans for another.