2013 Day 4-Little River Trail Hike

Hey there people of the internet. It’s your two favorite scouts Will and Patrick bringing you the story of the best day of hiking in the history of the outdoors.

It was the best hike any of us could possibly imagine. After waking up a bit later than usual (late being relative. It was 7:30) we had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and bacon expertly prepared by our five star chefs here in troop 820. Then we all piled in the car and headed for Hurricane Ridge for some serious mountain hiking.

After stopping by the ranger station for some much needed advice, I (Will) decided to take the boys up the Hurricane Hill trail. I will be the first to admit, it was not an easy day even though it was awesome because I planned it. We hit the trail at 1:15. The first two and a half hours were spent executing a hill climb of 45° and even more in some places.

Once we broke free of the woods we entered a meadow with beautiful wildflowers and views of the surrounding snowcapped peaks. After enjoying the view for a while we went up to scale some nearby rocks for a better view and then headed out to finish up the trail. Continuing on the trail we got, wait for it, more hills. Luckily this was made better when Seamus and I found a large snow bank. Obviously there is only one thing that can be done with a giant snow bank in the middle of the summer. The following twenty minutes were spent having snowball fights, making snow angels, and skiing on our boots. Finally deciding to finish up our hike we once more traveled up some more hills until reaching Hurricane Hill.

There we saw some of the first wildlife yet. There were multiple deer and marmots scurrying about in the meadows, some no more than five feet away. After enjoying some nature we finished up the final one and a half miles and went on our way back to base camp. It was 8:30 when we got back to the van!  On our way we stopped by McDonalds for the dinner of champions, burgers.

While I have the chance I would like to add a correction to Saturday’s blog. Wiley and I were in no way lost, but sometimes you must get “lost” so the new scouts won’t follow you. Also, I would like to add how proud I am of the boys and adults on the hike today. This was in no way an easy hike and even the senior scouts were having some serious trouble. The terrain was some of the toughest I’ve ever seen and being in the woods for so long just going up can be very discouraging, but they all held in there and persevered to the top. I have great hopes for this group of guys and know that I can leave this troop in very capable hands.

Editor Note: There are many, many pics in today's post.  I grabbed Mr. C's chip and it had 478 photos, just form today!  That right there tells you how stupendous our hike was!  I have also heard form at least one mac user having troubles seeing the flash-based slideshow, so here is the direct link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/bsatroop820/2013Day4LittleRiverTrailHike?authuser=0&feat=directlink