Chapter 10

Buffalo City and the Cub Scouts

When I landed on the boat ramp there were two men and three or four boys milling about. They were part of a Cub Scout Troupe from Houma, Louisiana. One of the Dads was a really nice guy. He came over and remarked on my jacket and how cold it could get and how fast it could happen. About this time the sun was out it was turning hot, very fast. I couldn’t peel the jacket or pfd off fast enough. The Scouts were busy unpacking their canoes. The rental company was on the way to pick up the boats. It seemed they had come down the Buffalo. Each of the boys had earned a Merit Badge. The Louisiana man said there had been more kids but they had taken out upstream where the merit badge requirements had been met. Those dads’ needed to get home a day or two before this group. All had gone well with a couple of exceptions, according to the man from Houma.

They had only one mishap with the canoes. He chose the wrong side of an island and tipped over when the canoe got caught in trees and vines. They swam for the gear and only lost one bag. He said it scared him more than his son.

His other adventure on the five-day trek was the big rain from the night before. I mentioned I had been in Cotter during the late afternoon storm and he asked about the wind. I told him as far as I could remember it was fairly unremarkable because I couldn’t remember much about it like I could the volume of rain.

He said, where he was on the Buffalo the wind was so strong it tore his tent apart. He illustrated by pointing to a soggy tent fly hanging from a nearby tree. The boys then became animated and gathered round to tell me all about the ferocious storm they had survived. It must have made quite an impression on them because they all had a story to tell.

The Scout leader from Houma was interested in my GPS problem. By this time I had figured out which of the gillion storage bags I had the batteries. He was a GPS savy guy and I had come to the right place. I told him of my plan to put new batteries in now that it wasn’t raining and hope that would solve my problem. He said it might be something that needed to be reset. By taking the batteries out and replacing them it would be akin to rebooting a computer. Either way it wouldn’t hurt to replace the batteries. I was fairly sure it wasn’t a battery problem because I had three hours on the brand new set sent from the factory. I had charged them all night so I was certain we had a good charge.

We pulled the rechargables that came with the unit out and replaced them with cheap AA’s that I use in my on camera flash. Shazaam, it came right on and was ready to go to work. Apparently the factory batteries didn’t hold the charge as well as they should of or I just didn’t know what to expect out of them. Whatever the case three hours just was not going to cut the mustard.

Note: I have since requested and received a new set of batteries and charger from the factory gratis. I charged the new set and drove to Texarkana working the GPS on the way. The batteries went out again in less than three hours. I will use only cheap double AA batteries in the future. They last longer and are more dependable. DeLorme has a problem best I can figure.

The man and his merry little band of Cajun scouts were as happy to be at Buffalo City as I was. They were now seasoned little river rats and proud of it.
The canoe livery man showed up and the troupe got busy. Soon they were gone. Nice kids. Nice people. I like Cajuns. Always have.

I shot a few pictures of Stair Bluff then pushed off toward the nights’ campsite on Smith Island.