4th Level Hike 2012

This year's 4th Level Girls Hike was short and easy. We did a 3 mile walk along the path that wends it's way around Bullard's Bar Lake. It's actually a bike path, well shaded, and mostly level. Took about an hour - not counting getting across the washout (see below). 

This was the washout. Really nothing much. I think if it were a group of 12-14 year old scouts we would have scurried down, then climbed up the other side. With the girls we let all the packs down first, then the girls climbed down holding the rope. We hefted the packs up, then helped the girls. Now surely if it were scouts, there would have been a few scrapes and scratches, and we wouldn't want that for the young ladies, so this was the better way - even if it did take longer.

This was my camp site at Dark Day Campground. All the kids will recognize the camp bucket (no, I didn't pack that in), and the tent is a backpacking tent I borrowed from a friend. I was impressed with it when I saw him use it before, so I asked to use it this time to see if I wanted to buy one. . .  I think I will.

David will remember the hammock hanging up on the left. I brought it along just for fun. It makes a real nice place to nap in the afternoon. I brought along my Old Farmers Almanac and actually got through a few pages before dozing off. Mmmm. 

The food was great as always, and we spent the afternoon in canoes on the lake. I ended up in a canoe with two of the adult YW leaders, unfortunately. Not long after we left the dock one of them leaned over and dumped us all in the drink. But the water was nice, and my clothes dried out quickly. It was a fun day.

The photo below is of a scorpion that crawled across the campground the last morning there. There's nothing to judge scale by, but the whole thing stretched out was no more than 1" long. Just an itty-bitty thing, but then they say those are the worst ones. We had to poke him to get him to raise up like this for the picture.