Well, we had a super memorable backpacking trip with our older scouts this past weekend! We planned to hike on Saturday on the Appalachian Trail from Wolfsville Road (9.5 miles south of the Mason/Dixon line) to Devils Racecourse Shelter (4.5 miles from Wolfsville Road), and then to continue on Sunday to the M/D line. We knew the terrain would be tough, so we wanted to keep the distances fairly short.

On Friday evening (we left Sat AM), there were torrential rains.

It was raining and sleeting lightly when we finally hit the trail (Applachian Trail) on Saturday at 10:30. We finally arrived at the Devils Racecourse Shelter at 5:30PM! 7 hours to go 5 miles! Along the way we had to find a way across 3 streams that are usually "1 step" across streams, but which due to the rain were now considerably more.

• The first of these was only about 5 feet wide and still shallow enough that by throwing down some logs we were able to step across reasonably well.


• The second stream was much rougher: about 2 feet of water, flowing pretty fast in spots, and about 10 feet or more across. We hiked upstream and found a very large downed tree across the stream that spanned bank to bank. We rigged up a rope about 7 feet above the downed tree and had each person walk across the tree, holding onto the rope as a safety and balance aid. It took us an hour plus to get across that stream.


• The third stream took us a couple of hours to get across. It was like the second, but a little wider, and we could not fine a real thick tree. The best we could find was a tree about 15 inches in diameter. For that one we had to crawl/shimmy across one as a time without packs. Some kids were scared stiff and took forever to get across as they literally hugged the tree for dear life and then kind of slinked across! To get the packs across we rigged a rope between standing trees on each side of the stream (we were afraid to let the kids cross the log with packs, both because their center of gravity would be too high, and concern about what would occur if they fell in). Then we tied each pack to the rope, tied a second rope to the pack which we used to pull the pack across.

After taking almost two hours to get across the third stream, the trail had become a virtual stream itself. No one was able to keep their feet dry.

Once we got to the shelter, it started to snow! We ate some dinner, packed all 10 of us (7 kids, 3 adults) into a shelter that is supposed to hold 7, and (eventually) went to sleep. We were packed. When one person would roll over, there would be a chain reaction.

Sunday AM there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground, and the sun was out for a while. It was really pretty!

Sunday morning we decided to bag the rest of the hike, as all of the boots were quite wet, and the map showed 3 more streams to cross. So, we hiked down to a road, and 2 folks hiked via roads to the car at the M/D line.

For a lot of the kids (and us adults) it was a pretty tough go at times, but it was really a great experience. There is no doubt that they will remember the trip for a long time.