Sunday, May 23, 2010

Scout Jamboree at Bonelli Park

This weekend a swarm of San Gabriel Valley boy scouts (the SGV Trib story said it would be thousands) converged on Frank G. Bonelli Park. The park is home to Puddingstone Reservoir and is in San Dimas, which is East of Allen.

First, a little history about the park and that funny name "puddingstone."

In 1928, Puddingstone Dam was built and a reservoir was created from water from a stream that flows through San Dimas Canyon. According to the San Dimas Community News site, the dam and reservoir were named "Puddingstone" after rocks in the area that looked like raisins in pudding. In the 1950's the reservoir was stocked with fish and Los Angeles County began adding purchased water to the reservoir to keep the water at a consistent level. Somewhere along the way the park was named for Frank Bonelli, who was a county supervisor.

Back to the jamboree, which is why we were at Puddingstone. My son had a great time. I did too.

The jamboree's main event was the Plywood Regatta -- with dozens of homemade plywood and canvas kayaks. This picture was taken early Saturday morning as kayaks started arriving at Puddingstone Reservoir. A couple of scouts are already in their kayaks ready to get out on the water.

Making the kayak was a memorable experience. Fortunately our troop has some folks who know their way around a shop and helped the rest of us put these together. Basically, the kayaks are four sheets of shaped plywood held together by strips of canvas and lots of contact cement. Our kayak worked well and weathered more than a few collisions.


The park has some beautiful scenery. I had a chance to walk around late Friday and caught some hillside color as the sun set.

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