One of the secrets to being a good scoutmaster is to accept the training offered by the Boy Scouts of America, go camping in the great outdoors, and above all, try to stay a chapter ahead of the scouts!

During my tenure as the Scoutmaster for a Boy Scout Troop, I used to take the scouts to summer camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. One morning at camp, I awoke early and climbing out of my tent discovered that a light rain during the night had erased all footprints and settled the dust on the trails. Several scouts were already up and building a fire lay for morning campfire. On a nearby trail I discovered the tracks of an animal in the rain-freshened dirt. I called the scouts over and we set out to see where these tracks would lead.

Using a Boy Scout Handbook we identified the animal tracks as those of a raccoon. Oddly each set of tracks included only three prints, indicating the critter had scurried along on two hind feet, but only one front paw. As we followed the trail, the boys began to discuss just what might have caused this peculiar set of tracks. One scout suggested that a trap might have cost the raccoon a paw; another argued that it must have been the result of a predator's attack. At a curve in the trail the tracks veered towards a tall Sugarpine. But how could a three-legged raccoon possibly have climbed such a large tree?

The mystery was solved when we found a torn open snack wrapper discarded at the base of the tree. We burst into laughter as we realized the tracks from our little "wounded" animal friend were actually set down by a healthy four-legged forager who had clutched his stolen prize tightly to his chest with one paw as he'd raced home.

After our adventure with the "three-legged raccoon," I decided that in the future, when tracking animals, the scouts should stick to reading the signs they could see and not fill in details from their imaginations. However a weekend canoe trip with the scouts and several parents on California's Stanislaus River would soon put this vow to the test.

After an early breakfast at the campsite alongside the river, we began to survey the riverbank for a good place to launch the canoes. A scout shouted from upriver, "Here are the tracks from a beaver that came ashore; it looks like probably to feed on willow shoots." Recognizing an opportunity to study the tracks, I challenged the boys to tell me what happened along the riverbank, using only the tracks and signs left by the animals.

The excitement grew as the Scouts followed the tracks and discovered that several more beaver had climbed up the bank to dig into the sandy soil and gnaw on the tender parts of the willow shoots.

A few yards farther on, one of the boys called out, "I found imprints made by the wet fur of the beaver where they quickly slid down the muddy bank into the water." The scouts surveyed the signs, then spread out to see if they could determine what had spooked the beaver into a panic rush back to the river.

Immediately one Scout shouted that he'd found what he described as "the track from the tail of a very large crocodile or alligator-like creature" that had headed straight for the water. We rushed over to where he pointed out wide, staggered patches in the muddy shallows. "That's where the gator's feet had churned up the sand as it rushed after the beaver," he stated with absolute certainty. Several boys exchanged concerned looks as they used these tracks to mentally measure the immense size of the creature.

Again, imagination was pulling ahead of observation, so I attempted to steer the boys back on track. "There are no alligators in California's rivers," I announced as I walked over to where I could see boot prints from humans who had obviously carried a boat down to the water's edge and shoved it in. It was the keel of a canoe that had left the "tail" tracks and the paddles had churned the mud in the shallows.

Unfortunately, before I could guide the Scouts to this logical conclusion, a canoe rounded the river bend with two parents aboard who had been fishing. "What are you fishing for," hailed one of the Scouts. And one of the parents, possibly knowing the chaos he was about to unleash, innocently joked, "Just 'gators!"

..jsfox..