The Few survive 20 mile hike!

A few hardy scouts survived our hike on the Lake Moultrie dike. Here we see our intrepid troop after the first mile! Fortunately the scouts recovered quickly as we had miles to go before we sleep...


You can see our trail here on the Palmetto Conservation site. We began at Bonneau Beach and hiked to the camp site just past mile mark 16. Up early and on to the finish just past mile 24.


Just after we had picked up a head of steam crossing the railroad bridge on the Santee Diversion Canal, we ran into that rarest of beasts in SC, the dreaded Dike Cattle!!!



















You can see at the top photo that the beasts refused to let us pass at first, but after I called my scout shock troops forward to remove their socks...the beasts left us the high ground and departed for the lowlands in disarray. What a victory and we were only 2 miles from the Swamp Fox's grave at this part of our trail!

Our support crew of Tim Kiel and Rick Hall did an outstanding job of supporting our scouts. Chris Brooks also played a great support role, but a bad cold prevented him from visiting our hike/camp site. After a superb dinner, we had a blazing fire for about one hour, when the heavens opened up and all right thinking scouts and scouters ran for ready shelter. Night operations had begun.

We awoke the next morning for breakfast and to find that a bunch of eager Webelos from Pack 20 had joined us for the remainder of our hike. The scouts crossed the Old Santee Canal seen below and all successfully made it to the parking lot near the Diversion Canal joining Lakes Marion and Moultrie.


















Another great adventure with Troop 20, sorry many of you missed out.

Webelos Invade Troop 20!

Yes, it's that time of year when Webelos (We'll be loyal scouts) begin to prowl scout meetings looking for the perfect troop to join. We had the privilege to host two groups of Webelos on Monday night's troop meeting. Pack 9 and Pack 20 both had a host of Webelos assaulting the scout hut of Troop 20, and asking what do Boy Scouts do?








On this Monday before a 20 mile hike, the Webelos got a chance to practice new skills in caring for sprained ankles and other 1st aid problems common to hiking. They probably also gazed in wonder at these older, larger scouts who would dare to hike 20 miles in one 24 hour period. I believe that the Webelos will be up to the challenge as they seemed totally enthused by their participation in instruction, games and fellowship with real Boy Scouts. Troop 20 is preparing to welcome a new group of scouts and prepare them for adventure, fun and learning...