The better part of a Camp Sheppard summer was spent leading troops on hikes and climbs in the Cascades or Olympics. But not every week was spent leading scouts. Many weeks there were two or three staff that stayed in camp and their time was busied with packing food, trips to Enumclaw to restock food supplies, washing out tarps and tent — making sure everything was ready for next week. These guys really earned their hero merit badge when a leader returned from a hike on Saturday morning and was greeted by the staff that stayed in camp with the news that the food and gear for next weeks trip was already laid out and set to go. Holy Cow, Whoo Boy, those are the weekends we really lived it up!

Another task that was occasionally assigned to the staff that stayed in camp was an exploratory trip. The directive came from Max instructing the group to shoulder their packs and head out into the woods to find a new route that would offer adventure and challenge to a troop of young scouts. Max was very explicit about the objectives, where we were going and what we should look for. Off we went. After several days that usually involved vine maple, devils club, muddy water, loose rolling rocks and something that exploded, Max would get his report. "No way, Max! You’ll never get a troop through there!" Places like the Cispus traverse and Manastash Ridge were too dry or too thick or too exposed to safely include in our itineraries.

Max never said "follow this trail until you meet that trail and I’ll see you on Friday." No, it was always "See if you can cross this bog and get in and out that ravine. Maybe there is a gap in the ridge or the devils club that you can get through. If you hike the extra 11 miles to the backside of the peak the rockfall won’t be so bad." Max called these trips exploratories, the staff members on these exploratories were expected to follow the assigned route come swamps or high cliffs and return with a report on the plausibility of a route.

It was all a big hoax! There were plenty of trips available for all the scouts that could ever come to Camp Sheppard. Max didn’t need new routes. Max simply couldn’t bring himself to say "Why don’t you guys go goof off in the woods for a few days." Instead he called it an "Exploratory."