Montgomery Bell State Park - February 12, 2000
Arrived last night in pouring rain. Temperature was about 45 degrees and miserable. Got the tents up and went to bed mostly dry. This morning, the Scoutmaster fixed a breakfast of eggs, hash browns, sausage, cheese and biscuits.
I didn't think I was hungry but there were no leftovers. Half of us left early for an 11 mile Hiking Merit Badge trek. The other half are doing their 5 mile Second Class hike and will meet up with us on the trail.
Other than walking, resting was our favorite activity along the trail. Sometimes you just have to stretch out and take a load off your feet. These Scouts certainly knew how to do it. Don't suppose they're at home in the outdoors?
We encountered a lot of wildlife on the trail. The picture on the right is a Wood Badge Owl. It was very good about posing for pictures. On the left are some trees that have been gnawed on either by beavers or hungry Scouts. We hoped it was beavers.
Here we are about half way around the 11.5 mile loop trail. Everything seemed to be a long walk away. At least the sign was good for sitting! We were scheduled to link up with the younger scouts on their 5 mile hike and have lunch. Believe it or not, we arrived within 10 minutes of each other. Although it sounds like good planning, there was a lot of luck to go with it.
When we were nearly at the end of the trail, we found a beautifully kept cemetery and a road. We stopped for a while and checked the maps just to be sure we were still where we were supposed to be. What do you know, we were really almost finished.
HOME AT LAST!!! Talk about hungry, the Scouts ate every scrap of food that we brought with us for supper, claiming all the time that they weren't very hungry. It was into the sleeping bags early that night for a long sleep. The next morning when we woke up, it was raining again. Oh well. Time to leave and start planning the next trip. Maybe with a little less rain?