Evan Quinlan

00:00 Quinlan.

00:01 I'm an Eagle Scout, formerly with troop Twelve in Hollis, New Hampshire. I live in Hollis now. I wanted to talk about a guy who was a scout leader named David Eb Laverde I was. I was a scout from around 1993 till around 2001, when. When I turned 18. When I was very early. Early in troop twelve, we did a hike that it was in around the Lafayette range. One of the mountains we hit was Owl's head. That was actually then scoutmaster Warren Coulter's 48th 4000 foot peak, as recognized by the AMC. Not a very exciting peak to get, but that's why it was last on his list. The hike had split into two groups, one for the older boys and one for the younger. And the older boys were gonna stay out, actually overnight in the woods, whereas for the rest of us, it was a day trip. When we caught up with them at Owl's head, they had a story to tell us. Now, there was. David Laverde was. Was on that longer trip. So were two older guys. One was named JD Barry, the other was named Barry Pellett. I believe they were the two barrys. And they were very good friends and fun kids. And they had set up camp and were in their hammocks. And JD said, hey, bear. And Barry said, yes. And JD said, no, no, bear. You can maybe see where this is going. There was an actual bear that was walking up to their camp, and of course, the boys nearly fell out of their hammock. And the bear grabbed one of their backpacks and began dragging it away into the woods. Now, this is why they teach us to raise up the food in camp, so that a bear can't do that. So the boys were at a loss for what to do. And David Laverde reportedly jumped up and began doing a dance, hopping from 1ft to the other and making all. All kinds of strange gibberish noises, shouting at the bear. And it looked up and just stared at him for a long time, deciding what to do, and eventually abandoned the pack because of Dave Laverda's dancing. And so he was the hero of that hike. And that became lore in our troop. Now, Dave Laverde was the kind of guy that you loved to get stuck on a hike with, because he was always telling stories and reciting poetry. He might say some poem from Lord of the Rings or tell you about the finer points of Frank Herbert's dune, or something fun like that that you wanted to hear about. As a kid. Everyone loved him. He was also an avid hiker, and he led a group called the Venture Crew. And these were much older boys, and they would go on these. These sort of grand hiking adventures. And in the late, mid to late nineties, they went on a trip to British Columbia, and they were all crossing a rather perilous point on an icy trail. And unfortunately, David Laverde slid to his death, fell off of a 200 foot cliff, and reportedly died on impact, leaving these four or five other boys. I believe JD Barry was one of them. I don't know about Barry Pellet. I could be wrong about that. But these boys were left alone. And that was a testament to Dave Laverde and to troop twelve, I think, that those boys were able to hike out on their own. It took them days, if I remember correctly, maybe four days to hike out. That's how deep they were in the wilderness. And then to get help and have David's body evacuated by a helicopter. But they held it together for all that time and got themselves out of those woods. And his, you know, that was always. That was always so important to me. That was one of the first times I really encountered death like that. It was the first wake I went to. But also it was someone who had, you know, died while leading scouts, while being a scout master and doing, loved and set such a good example that he became, you know, a legend in the troop. And we had an award named after him that was given to scouts who would act particularly honorably or pick up trash on the trail. And it was. It was an honor to get that reward. I did not. But. But a lot of other deserving kids did. That was David Eb Laverde