The clocks leapt forward on Sunday morning like an agile Billy Goat leaping from one rock to another. Luckily (note: a little English sarcasm here) for 18 scouts and 12 scouters it coincided with the first of our 10 mile hikes. Surprisingly, given the clock issue and the weather forecast, our attrition rate was low and most made it to the parking lot by 7:30 a.m. (aka 6:30 a.m.!).
Speaking of Billy Goats, the plan was to hike the three sections of the Billy Goat Trail which would total around 10 miles (depending on various GPS devices we actually hiked somewhere between 10.05 and 10.24 miles). We made the short trip across the American Legion Bridge into the wilds on Maryland and got ready to hit the trail. More or less simultaneously with our first steps we were hit with big-round-chilly raindrops. Lordy, only 10 more miles to go and we’re already getting wet. But after about 15 minutes the rain eased and luckily didn’t return until about an hour after we got home! The temperature was close enough to 60 to make this nearly perfect hiking weather.
The plan was to head down the tow path and do the loops in reverse order. C first, then B and finally after lunch the slightly lumpy A. We will be working on lace tying over the coming weeks as several of the boys seemed incapable of keeping their laces knotted. One father told me he puts the blame squarely on the invention of Velcro and the design of young children’s shoes. If you combine that with the amount of texting these guys do to communicate with someone standing right next to them, the outlook for our future is not bright. We will have a bunch of non-verbal communicators constantly tripping up and not being able to tell the paramedics why their knees hurt except by grunting and snapchatting a picture of their injury.
We had a couple of stops for refueling along the way and after lunch headed up to the A loop. In places this part of the hike is rocky and involves scrambles and at one point descending about 100 feet down a 45 degree crack. One of the things I love about hiking are those moments when you either see or hear something you wouldn’t if you were parked in your chair at home watching the telly. This hike provided a classic quote from one of the mothers “just because you paint a blaze on a rock, doesn’t make it a trail!” This will be used in the months to come.
We all made it back to the parking lot intact, a few tired legs and sore ankles but generally in pretty good shape. There are some things we need to work on but overall this was an impressive first outing for many of the scouts. Our next hike will be in Riverbend and Great Falls Park on April 3 (sign up coming out really soon).
The scouts attending were Jack, Luke, Kai, Nick, Braden, Alejandro, Matthew and Jason Harrington, Jordan and Aaron Coopersmith, Sean, Matthew Korade, Ian, Mario and Manuel, Will and Charlie Salt and Christopher. Scouters were Mike F, Matt and Wendy S, Steve and Anne B, Alexa B, Kathy M, Keith F, David H, Jason C, Richard M and Mitch B.
Big thanks to Steve (aka Mr. B) for organizing, thanks to all for being on time, thanks to the weather for holding off and thanks to all the scouts who did a great job by completing a 10 mile hike with little to no complaining.