PLAN, PREPARE, ADJUST

Great. Only a couple of miles into a multiday trek, and it’s getting late and there’s already a water crossing.

A wide one.

Sure, it’s not that deep, and there are spotters ready to help. But it’s wide. It’s fast. And it’s not exactly bathwater warm. Not even close.

“There was no turning back,” says Anton Boyce of Troop 65 from Morgantown, West Virginia. “We came to California to do this hike. [The water] was cold. I did not expect it to be that cold. There was nothing else I could do. I took my shoes off, put on my river crossing shoes and went across.”

Colin Petsko might have been a little anxious he thought. But once it was done, the 12-year-old says, “I felt proud of myself. I’d crossed a river!”