Sunday, April 5, 2009

AT Hike - Race Mountain


What a hike! After moving the start of the hike from Friday night to Saturday morning to avoid possible thunderstorms, Troop 137 went full gusto right into snow squalls and rain, oh yeah! The morning hike was great, the boys made great time and managed to stay mostly dry. The scouts broke for a long lunch break around 11:15 and hung out in the beautiful Sages Ravine, right along the stream. What a view!

After lunch, the hike paralleled the stream for about a mile, when suddenly the trail crossed the stream. Well, sort of crossed, it was more like the trail went through the stream. The stepping stones for crossing were about 6 inches under water! Their really is only one way to hike in these conditions - march on through and the boys did so in great spirits! Trying to find another way, rarely yields positive results and can result in injury from slipping on wet logs or dealing with another hazard. Wet feet and boots are easily dried.

Next up, a tease of sun, then a steady light snow! The hike up Race Mountain was gradual, but slow as the long day wore on. Just as they got to the 180 degree view from the ledges of Race Mt, the clouds totally enveloped the scouts and the only view was snow in the face! They hiked on along the ridge line and the higher they went, the shorter the trees became. The boys walked a long ridge-line and over the summit of Race Mountain through a beautiful alpine forest, where the trees were all of about 3 feet high and lightly sprinkled with snow - gorgeous! In fact, the varied terrain offered a beautiful mix of pine stands, deciduous trees waiting for spring, awesome streams and water falls. What a place!

On any trip, how many times do parents hear, 'how much further? ... are we almost there?'. Magnify that times 11 and you get a feel for what the end of the hike was like! Finally arriving at camp at 5:30pm, the boys went about setting up their tents, breaking out dry clothes and sleeping bags, and crawling inside for warmth. Suddenly they were all happy again. Leaving one brave scout, Adam B., and the adults to start a fire and cook dinner, the boys got warm and waited for dinner to be ready. They crawled out for 5 minutes, ate, and back in the tents they went. Who can blame them. The adults huddled around the fire they took so long to build out of the cold wet logs and headed to their tents at half past hiker midnight - 9:30pm. What a day.

The wind howled all night, sleep was fit-full, but somehow listening to the wind was quite magical when you are bundled up in your tent. What wasn't quite as magical was waking up to a dusting of snow on the ground in the morning! After a quick cold breakfast, the camp was packed and the boys headed down the trail to complete the journey.

Finally, the weather turned and the boys had a partial view to the east at one lookout, giving them a tease for what they missed on top the day before. The real treat was walking along race brook and after a long switchback, standing at the base of a huge waterfall - what a treat.

A short while later as they continued down the mountain, the sun suddenly broke through and the boys had to stop and de-layer. A beautiful day ensued. Snow and dampness became a distant memory as the boys began talking about the great hike and how they would like to come back here again... when the weather is much dryer and warmer, of course!

The boys had a great hike and showed tremendous perseverance in the face of adversity - a great lesson for all.