The Fages Hike (20-mile makeup hike)

We got up early, got ready, and drove to the hike in Siyona's car. Although we were excited about the hike, we were a bit nervous....we were hiking 20 MILES! And this was a hike offered by BSA, which meant the only people coming on the hike were me, Siyona, and my mom (Surbala Auntie). We drove to the hike, but when we finished submitting our forms, we realized my mom didn't have one of the forms needed. This means we could either go alone, join a girl troop, or a guy troop with a female adult leader. There was one girl troop (Troop 126) doing the Fages 20-mile hike, but they had left long before us and we would not be able to catch up on our own. So they checked the list to see if there were any other guy troops with female adult leaders. They found a combination of three guy troops going on the hike together that had a female adult leader named "Kristen". So Siyona and I were pretty much waiting on the bench for some adult leader named "Kristen", who we didn't even know, to save our 20-mile-hike.

But when the group arrived, the scouts and adult leaders were both very polite. Kristen was actually from a girl troop for which she was the scoutmaster of. She joined the hike to support her son but was debating whether she wanted to quit or not. Luckily she didn't! This hike was a true scouting experience; we didn't end up using a compass but we had to use a map because of all the crossroads and forks in the trail. There were also many animals- Siyona almost stepped on a gopher snake and I let out an ear-splitting scream when I saw a gopher pop out of a nearby hole in the ground.

Our hike was not a walk in the park. In fact, it was quite the opposite! In the beginning, there were many ups and downs, though they lessened towards the end. One hill, in particular, was almost vertical and it was hard to keep our balance. Towards the end of the hike, the trail started to even out, mostly. The weather was also pretty chilly and we were under a lot of trees.

We had many small stops to keep the group together, but there were two main stops that were planned ahead of time: There was a stop (about 10 minutes) for water, snacks, and bathroom usage and another stop for lunch. Apart from our group stops, BSA occasionally had checkpoints with water and people who kept track of troops and adult leaders hiking. We basically just had to tell them the troops in our group, the scouts, and adult leaders, and they checked off our names on a piece of paper (presumably a list of the people hiking). We were entertained most of the time because of our humor and the adult leaders who had both humor and entertaining stories to tell. One of the adults was going on the 20-mile-hike in preparation for a hike that was 55 MILES!

The beginning was easy, but towards the end, our feet started to get sore and we wanted to take stops more often. But we kept going and we were overjoyed when the trail ended! We received a special patch for the Fages Hike and were treated with momos for lunch and boba. :)

Overall, the hike was very enjoyable and a great learning experience!