Cub Scouts Journey to the Edge
By Joshua Blankman
15 Feb 2008
My friend Jon and I traveled to Rocks State Park in Maryland to have an adventure and film. There are great trails, a wonderful waterfall, and a 190-foot rock outcrop called The King and Queen Seat. We have gone several times in the past, and on rare occasion there were one or two other adventurers on the rocks and trails. This time there were several....
Jon and I were filming an interview with each other and wanted to have it against the fantastic scenery on the rocks. It was the middle of Autumn and all the leaves had changed to the beautiful yellow and red and every other fall color imaginable. We set up as soon as we arrived, but before we were able to start filming, a group of about thirty kids arrived at the peak. The same day we planned to film, a group of Cub Scouts had arranged to travel to the rock outcrop. Out of all the kids, only a few adults watched over them and, as expected, the kids ran amok. They walked out over the edge, looking off the 200-foot drop-off, put their hands inside every crevice (with snakes very happily living all over the rocks),and jumped over large cracks.
Jon and I made bets on who would fall off first. Fortunately, there was relatively little wind that day, and the children all remained safe. Unfortunately... I lost the bet :-) But I got some lovely pictures out of it.
Personally, I would have died if I were put in charge of a large group of kids walking around on a structure with a 200-foot drop-off point.
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