In October of this year, I traveled with my boy scout troop to the United States National Whitewater Center, USNWC, in Charlotte. The experience started in July of 2014; my youth group went to the whitewater center. I had a lot of fun and wanted to bring that experience to my fellow troop members. In August of 2014, it was time for elections and I was appointed to a position of leadership known as Assistant Senior Patrol Leader. This position put me second in charge and gave me a seat at the Patrol Leader’s Council. At our first meeting, we discussed the calendar for 2015. Sharing my experience got all of my friends excited about going to the whitewater center. The Senior Patrol Leader took our suggestions, and the Adult Committee passed them. We were going to the whitewater center. I was so excited that I called and emailed the center and talked about planning my troop’s trip - a whole year before it happened.

Fast forward to summer of this year. At summer camp, we talked about going to the USNWC and told the friends we made from a troop in Florida about it. When the email was sent in July that the RSVP was online, I raced to our troop website. I filled out the RSVP form: Jackson; Nietert; Yes, I will attend; No comments.The submit button was clicked even before talking to my parents. In mid-September, my father saw that I had RSVP’d. Normally, he would be okay with that, - he encouraged me to go on a trip this weekend - but the outing cost $91. Pitching in a few tens, he finally agreed; I definitely was going. Of course my friends were excited, we ended up having 50 people go on the trip. Yet, my best friend tends to forget everything; it was the day the RSVP’s were due, and he had not yet signed up. I sent him a message on my phone on September 28th that said the following: “(i)t is $91 if your mom asks, but if she doesn’t want to pay that much tell her that you haven’t been that active in camp outs and you think this would be a fun one to go to”. The message worked; by 9 o’clock that night, my friend was signed up.
We planned our meals to make the preparation and clean-up easy. We did not want this to be about scout skills; we wanted it to be about fun. Oatmeal, wraps, buttered pasta, and bagels were on the planned menu for our trip. Everyone always seems to shy away from purchasing the food, but I, in fact, like grocery shopping. I took the menu plan and went to Harris Teeter. It took me an hour, but I got the food - and was $40 under budget. When I was packing the Friday before the campout (never a good idea, as you do not have the time to get missing items), I made sure to put a lot of the food in my pack. If most of the food was in my pack, my pack would not have to open to put patrol gear into it. I got to the parking lot and helped my friends put gear and food in their packs. Finally, the wait was over.

The drive was long, and we did not get to Charlotte until 10:30pm. It took us until 11:30 to hike to the campground; did I mention it was raining? It was horrible, especially the hike, but we were able to set up our hammocks, tents, and a tarp for our food and get to bed at 1:00. We woke up at seven the next same morning and started cooking breakfast; we huddled under our tarp as the water boiled. Eventually, everyone had their pick of oatmeal or grits, and we were ready to go at 8:30.”We” meaning my patrol. It took until 9:45 for everyone else to be ready. It took another thirty minutes to hike and get to our cars. We had fifteen minutes to get to our whitewater session and a thirty minute drive. We were very fortunate that they let us go on the whitewater course. At first, we had a safety lesson. You paddle like this and hold on like that. They rushed it a little bit, and we were able to get to our raft at 11:00. Our guide kept the raft steady as we climbed in. Choosing between the first and second rows, my timid self chose the latter. After all, it was October water. When they took us through the first rapid, I realized that did not matter. My friends in the front got more water on them than I did, but that water was freezing. Our guide took us through 5 rapids, and then, we were at the end pond. We took the conveyor belt up to the starting pond and went down again. This time, we stopped at the “Biscuits” section of the “Biscuits ‘n Gravy” rapid. Our guide asked who wanted to get soaked. I overcame whatever fear I had earlier and walked to the front of the raft. I sat down facing my peers. Then we went through “Gravy”. Then, again. And again. And again. It was awesome. I had so much fun. I was completely submerged in the water at one point - while still being in the raft. We got back to the starting pond and went through the challenge course. Everyone got soaked, and we took the conveyor belt again. After that, we beached our raft and got out. This was amazing and lots of fun, but there was one issue. My shoes. I thought that I would be fine, but my waterproof boots were soaked. Failing to dry my shoes and socks, I ended up putting them in my locker. I should have kept them on; as soon as my Scoutmaster saw me he said sternly “It looks like you are barefoot, but I know you are a scout; you must have them on”. Walking away slowly, I went back to the locker. By the time I got back to my group, they were almost finished with lunch. We quickly ate our meal and headed over to the ropes course. I was terrified, but I powered through it. I went on the hardest course and easily traversed the obstacles to get to the finish. Ok, it did not go exactly like that. I might have chosen the easiest course, and possibly, I held on the wire suspending me as I walked through the course, but that does not matter, right? At the end of the course, we walked to the zip line. Again, I was scared. I had chickened out of a zip line course in August;  hopefully, I could make it through this one line. After a five minute wait in line, my friend and I jumped off a platform. We raced towards the finish, and I won. I did not let my fears get the best of me. God to give me the confidence to make it through. When it’s just you and God on a swinging piece of wood or flying through the air, you make a connection. I saw God and prayed to be trusting of the cables over my head; I do not know if I could have made it otherwise.

The experience of the National Whitewater Center is not one that I’ll forget. The USNWC has so many opportunities for challenge and fun that I will hopefully be able to take advantage of soon. Despite all of the activities I partook in, there are still ropes courses, mountain bike trails, and rivers that I have yet to face. The trip I had with my boy scout troop was one of the highlights of my year.