The hike at Chabot Lake was a great adventure and an amazing experience for all. This incredible hike was enjoyable and contained tons of troop bonding. The trail itself had beautiful views and was an easy 10 mile, with an elevation of 1,115 feet.
The morning of the hike was extremely wet, as rain kept pouring and didn’t seem to stop. Everyone had their doubts about the following day, yet we all continued, wearing raincoats or ponchos. We all started on a paved path, making it just a bit easier to cope with the rain. Alongside, took place an ultra marathon, consisting of 30+ miles. This was a fun and amusing event, which none of us had a plan to see. Since we started on a paved path we walked at a fast pace, covering a long distance in a small amount of time. We were 2-3 miles in the hike when the rain finally stopped.
The hike seemed to be pretty average with a gradual slope challenging us then and there. We were on a steady pace, but soon as our paved path ended and then came the dirt path. Due to the heavy rain in the morning, the path was soaked in water, turning it into slippery mud. This made hiking extremely challenging, as the mud got stuck all over our shoes. All this mud gave us extra weight to carry, slowing our pace.
After a few hours of mud and steep slope we reached the 6 mile point of our hike. We had crossed about 2 creeks already, but now we faced our biggest challenge yet. One of the creeks we had planned to cross, had over flooded, creating something close to a pond. Some thought of taking a detour, but finally we settled on crossing the creek. Every scout helped each other to get on path, and luckily for us the water ended in a short distance. At the end of the crossing several scouts were drenched in water, with water filling their shoes.
At the same time coincidentally we were deciding to have lunch and somehow we found a good resting area around the overflowing creek to eat. We finished quickly, and continued our hike back to the starting point. At about 9 miles everyone was tired, yet we all persevered and finally reached the parking lot.
This hike was an amazing experience for all scouts, as they learned several skills, like hiking in the rain, how to cope with unexpected events, like the mud and overflowing creek.
Even though there were plenty of challenges, the hike itself provided several beautiful views along Lake Chabot. Also, there were several small water falls, creeks, bridges and a dam we got to cross. We were enjoying our hike, surrounded with diverse types of trees, including eucalyptus trees and ferns. This hike was a memorable experience and we are enthusiastic to do it again.
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