The fifty-miler

Group A

Leaders in Patrol: Gore, Tom                                Patrol Leader: Mark S.
     Walsh, Todd                    

Assistant Patrol Leader: Matthew H.
                                                        

 Trail Leader: Mark S.
  Assistant Trail Leader:Charlie S.

Scouts in patrole

Ryan D.

Josh G.                                         Scribe: Matt H. 
Matthew H.
Adam L.
Eric L.
Matt M.
Mark S.
Charlie S.
Ryan W.

8/9/06, Wednesday:
At 4:19 the Patrol left the parking lot taking the Foothills Trail.  At 4:54
the Patrol found a tree on the path of a trail intersection.  We cleaned up
the trail and cleared the tree, which took about 5 minutes as a conservation
project.  The Trail Leader and ATL consulted the map and saw which way on
the trail to go.  The Patrol hiked for another hour to arrive at Thompson
River.  We stopped and refilled our water bottles with Matt M.s filter.
We arrived at camp by 6:45, which was just across the Thompson River.  We
hiked a total of 3.3 miles Wednesday, and arrived at a camp with an
elevation of 1650 feet.  There were a total of four bee stings that day.
The stung Scouts were: Ryan D. (1), Matthew H. (2), and Matt M. (1).  Four guys swam in the Thompson River, including: Ryan D., Matt M., Charlie S., and Ryan W.  Matt M. decided to take a bath.

8/10/06, Thursday:
Happy Birthday Ryan D.!  Today Ryan celebrated his thirteenth birthday.  All the Scouts had their tents up and gear packed by 8:45, while
the Leaders just sipped coffee and leisurely packed up their gear, and took
a half-hour longer than everyone else to finish repacking their gear.  The
Patrol didn’t know that the Leaders were going to hold the Patrol up by at
least a half-hour each day.  We left camp at 9:20.  The Patrol found another
tree on the path around 10:15.  This Conservation project took 50 minutes to
complete.  After finishing the Conservation project and hiking father down
the trail, the Patrol stopped at 1:00 and enjoyed lunch.  We then packed up
lunch and hiked until 5:00, where the Patrol decided to set camp at Bear
Gap.  We hiked a total of 7.3 miles that day, and camped at an elevation of
1600 feet.  Mr. Walsh and Mr. Gore enjoyed a steak cooked over the open
fire, which Mr. Walsh admitted he had stuffed down his son’s pack when he
wasn’t looking.  The Scouts found a baby water moccasin at Bear Gap, which
Adam L. flung into the bushes with a stick.  The bees did not sting anyone Thursday.

8/11/06, Friday:
Once again, the Leaders held up the Scouts, this time for over forty
minutes.  The group left Bear Gap at 9:45.  We stopped at Toxaway River at
1:00 to enjoy lunch.  The group then started back on the trail around 2:00,
and stopped to set up camp at Laurel Falls, where we met up with the other
group.  Our group hiked a total of 12 miles today.  So far, we have hiked a
total of 27.2 miles according to Mr. Walsh’s pedometer.  Laurel Falls had an
elevation of 1500 feet.  Bees stung several guys today, including: Matthew
H. (4), Matt M. (1), Mark S. (2), and Ryan W. (1).
However, Jordan H., a scout from the other group, had already been stung a total of seventeen times!  The guys who went swimming from our group
today were: Matthew H., Adam L., Eric L., Matt M., Mark S., Charlie S., and Mr. Walsh.  Most of guys who went swimming also bathed themselves.  The two groups found that most everyone’s filters
were not working properly.  Jordan H. then offered us to take his filter, which we quickly accepted.

8/12/06, Saturday:
We left camp at 9:15 today, which was very early compared to when we left on
the other days.  After being on the trail for maybe an hour, someone stepped
on a bee’s nest, and everyone scattered.  Josh G., Mr. Gore, Matthew H., Mark S., and Mr. Walsh were the only ones who didn’t stay on the path or with the group that ran ahead with the bees in pursuit.  From
the group that was behind, Charlie S.s screams were so loud that it sounded as if he ten bees that had stung him.  It turned out that Charlie S. didn’t get stung, but three bees were on his shirt, which Eric
L. killed when he swung a stick.  The two guys who did get stung were Ryan D. (3) and Ryan W. (1).  After lunch, the group found a road
that was supposed to have a water source nearby according to the other
group.  Mark S. and Charlie S. found the water source and started pumping.  The filters were now so bad that it took three guys over
an hour to refill all the personal water and fill up the two platypuses that
we also had with us.  While the three scouts were refilling the patrol’s
water, a couple spotted the group that was resting by the road.  As it
turned out, this couple was hiking a total of seventy miles on their
honeymoon.  When they started, the husband’s pack weighed only 20 lbs. with
water, and the wife’s pack weighed only 10.5 lbs. with water.  This was
amazing to everyone, seeing that our two leaders’ packs weighed 45 lbs. and
63 lbs. when we started on the trail, and none of the scouts in our group
had a pack weight less than thirty pounds before we left the church parking
lot.  The couple advised us to visit fanaticfrienge.com and Google
“ultralight hiking” to find a lot of creative ways to save on pack weight
since we had such heavy packs and supplies.  We reset out onto the trail
around 5:00, and reached the top of Sassafrass Mountain around 6:30.
Sassafrass Mountain is the largest mountain in South Carolina, with an
elevation of 3354 feet.  Today, the Patrol gained a lot of mileage, for us,
by hiking 12.9 miles.  The Patrol decided to set up camp on top of
Sassafrass Mountain.  Mr. Walsh built everyone a mammoth campfire, which we
were thankful for, and he did so because he said that we were so high up
that the risk of hypothermia should be watched out for.

8/13/06, Sunday:
Charlie S. held a Sunday service for us after everyone was packed up.
We sang songs “Amazing Grace” and “America”.  The service itself asked what
it meant to be a friend of God, compared to being a servant of God.
Everybody then participated in cleaning up the campsite for ten minutes,
leaving camp better than when we arrived.  Everyone then loaded up and left
camp at 10:00.  At lunchtime, all three filters failed.  Everyone then
resorted to Mark S.s purifying pills, which we stirred in a five-gallon jug of creek water that was provided by Matt M..  Mark S. barely had enough purifying pills to clean out the five gallons of
water, which wasn’t wasted.  At 6:00, after being on the trail for a while
again, Mr. Gore got the twenty-year-old iodine-filter working again.
Everyone refilled on water, and the Patrol continued hiking again until
seven-thirty and stopped at Matthews Creek, which was the last accessible
water source.  The Patrol then filled the two platypuses with water and
headed off to Raven Cliff Falls, where we camped for the night.  Today on
the trail we met: two copperheads (one was on the trail in striking
position), a turtle, a baby water snake (which Adam L. actually picked
up), two watermelon-sized bees’ nests, and ran into what seemed like a
hundred spider webs.  We crossed the state border several times today.  We
also hiked a total of 13.1 miles today according to the pedometer, and
camped at an elevation of 2500 feet.

8/14/06, Monday:
The Patrol left Raven Cliff Falls at 9:30 and hiked for three miles at a
leisurely pace; we even took time to admire a waterfall.  We reached the
parking lot after we hiked the three miles, and got lost once, at around
11:45.  In total, with walking around camp, we hiked around 60 miles, and
the group was stung a total of sixteen times on the way.  Our patrol joined
the other group on the road and stopped to eat at a Golden Corral around
3:00.


Sincerely,
Matt wit da dbl t