NATCHEZ &045; Huck Finn would be proud.

As the sun sets on the Mississippi, 10 teenage boys, 14 to 18, hurriedly work to get their 16 foot by 30 foot raft to a suitable docking place on the banks. They set up camp for the night on land offered by a townsman and rest up before the next day’s journey begins.

Before dawn they are up again, packing up camp and chopping wood to last until their next stop.

The only sign that it is 2004 and not the late 1800s is the digital camera around the chaperon’s neck and the motor on the back of the raft.

It’s been more than five weeks on the river for the campers from Pennsylvania’s Bald Eagle Boys Camp, and it will be two more before they reach New Orleans.

Natchez, and Peter Trosclair’s riverfront property, were merely an overnight stop on a long journey. A short stop at the Natchez Visitor’s Center, a viewing of the Natchez Story and a hike uphill to Homochitto Street for gas led the boys to good hamburgers at the Malt Shop and Trosclair, who offered up his land for the night.

Trosclair and a handful of others since the Sept. 24 launch from St. Louis are something the boys and their three camp counselors say they will remember forever.

&uot;It’s been great; an adventure of a lifetime,&uot; 15-year-old Kevin Kirkpatrick said Friday. &uot;The best thing is the people we’ve met along the way who offer us things.&uot;

Planning for the trip started in January with counselor, or chief as the boys say, Wes Sensenig’s lifelong dream.

So the boys from the Mennonite camp, one for those with emotional and behavioral problems, started work. The first step was a lot of research including letters to the towns along the river where they’d stop. They also mapped their route and planned the daily menus, most of which are cooked aboard the raft. Then they started the fundraising to buy the supplies necessary to make a raft fit to hold 13 and supplies and stay together on the mighty Mississippi, Dustin Westwood, 16, said. Lots of donations later the boys started construction on the raft which actually only cost them around $6,000.

The group did two test runs on a lake and river near their camp, constructing and deconstructing the craft each time.

Though they have a motor, they spend most of their time floating, Sensenig said. The boys take turns working large steering oars in the front and back of the raft and all know how to work the radios and read the maps that tell them what is ahead.

The raft has a tent-like roof on top with flaps on the side that can be lowered to protect them from the elements, but they are still outdoors non-stop and that’s the best part for some of the boys.

&uot;We were motoring into a campsite and a fish jumped onto the deck,&uot; said Ken Layton, 14, of Colombia, Pa. &uot;We filleted it. But another one jumped up and slapped him (Westwood) in the face and got away.&uot;

Stories like slapping fish are just some of the entries the boys will keep forever in their daily journals from the raft. Each boy is required to write a story a day of their adventures and most say writing is how they pass the floating time on the river.

Other stories include surrounding a beaver and combing his hair and many memories of what they call butterfly-sized mosquitoes.

Some brought schoolbooks, though traditional education is not a part of Bald Eagle. The campers usually stay in the alternative education program for 18 months. Sensenig said the idea of the camp was learning by doing.

&uot;We try to make education a part of life,&uot; he said. &uot;There is a lot of writing and they do the planning and budgeting. It’s life-wide education.&uot;

The group traveling the Mississippi is only one of three groups of 10 at Bald Eagle.

Sensenig said so far the trip has been very successful and there have been no safety issues.

&uot;Safety was something I thought of,&uot; he said. &uot;But with a raft as large as this, it is pretty stable.&uot;

The boys use detailed navigation maps and radios to communicate with other traffic on the river and wear lifejackets while on board.

So far the raft has made stops in New Madrid and Cape Gerardo, Mo., Memphis, Tenn., Greenville, Vicksburg and Natchez.

Upon arrival in New Orleans the group will attempt to sell their river-craft and will return to Lock Haven, Pa., by bus.