RA News

RA Trip to Sweetwater Creek Park

We had a breakfast of sausage and biscuits at the church before heading out to nearby Sweetwater Creek State Park.

Clint Collier brought his neighborhood friend Jordan Pinner for the breakfast and trip.

Brandon Hause, Jonathan Jones, Kody Bryant and Matthew Bryant at breakfast.

Ray Collier, Jr. promptly treed Brandon Hause when we got to the park.

We headed out on the Sweetwater trails, with just a few trees budding out like this one.

Brandon got up this tree on his own.

Jason Anderson takes his turn at climbing the knotty tree.

Brandon enjoyed the woods, climbing on everything and exploring.

We made it to the factory, the Civil War ruin from which the Factory Shoals get their name.

The boys enjoyed picking up small mussel shells from the creek bank. Ray collected a crowd when he opened one.

The water was running strong over the shoals after three days of rain.

The shoals are really wide as we approached the falls area.

We came upon this lone Canadian goose, standing out in the middle of the shoals.

When we got past and looked back, we discovered that she was standing gaurd over a young goose, which looked like it was learning to forage in the water.

The boys wanted to be close to the rushing water, so we had to watch carefully.

Jordan enjoyed collecting the small mussel shells. He had a pocket full.

We climbed toward the falls overlook.

The water near the falls was really violent after our welcome rains.

Jerry Jones made his first trip with the RAs with his son. Ray was responding to a customer call after his beeper went off.

Brandon uses a stick to climb a steep slope. We had a total of 4 adults and 10 boys on the hike.

Arturo Hatten and Jason Anderson were the oldest boys on the trip.

These new hickory leaf clusters were a part of the spring growth.

After making the loop hike, we had our traditional lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the trail head parking area. We had a football game in the area before heading back to the church.

We hope to help instill a love of nature and a reverence for the God who made it on our RA outings. We also pray that we as RA leaders can set an example of Christian character and concern for all the boys. Working with the boys in an outdoor setting provides fellowship with the adult leaders, gets us to spend time with them and help them deal with the practical problems you encounter in the woods and on campouts. A breakfast and a day outing are generally planned for the first Saturday of each month, with occasional overnight camping trips.