Day 1:
We stepped off on our hike the morning of May 22, 2021 at 8:30am. We proceeded North across the parking lot and learned how to cross the road properly with a large group of people. The first point of interest that we encountered the Girl Scout sign. The very first Girl Scout round up was held at Highland Park in 1956. During the round up the participants consumed over 1 million chicken eggs! The seating arena was built by the Army Corp of engineers and was estimated to seat over 10,000 girl scouts! Oscar winning actor, Charleton Heston was flown in via helicopter for the event as well. We continued our hike until we came to a bridge where we stopped and listened to the sounds of nature. I heard several red winged black birds, robins, various frogs and small single engine plane overhead. We continued on until we came to the first of many Domino Hills. We had to send each person down one at a time, to prevent everyone from slipping and falling. The scouts enjoyed calling back to me to get the “puffer out, there’s a big hill ahead!” I call my asthma inhaler a puffer and had it close at hand for the big hills! We crossed under South Duck Lake Road via a tunnel. This trail is used by horseback riders, and they would have to dismount to cross, since the ceiling isn’t high enough for both rider and horse. One of our scouts, Cody, couldn’t see anything inside the tunnel because he forgot to take off his sunglasses! Two hours into the hike we had already experiences a couple of very brief rain showers. With the heat and stagnant air flow, the rain felt good! We continued on, climbing hills and carefully descending until the last hill before our lunch break when Jacob Elbode rolled his ankle. At 12:18pm we stopped for lunch at shooting range/dog training facility. The scouts got to pet some really pretty, but expensive puppies. After lunch and on our return trip, the other scouts saw that their fellow was in need, and they offered to divide up his pack to lighten the load on his injured foot. We made it back to camp just after 5pm. Almost nine hours of hiking and small breaks and we are done with day 1!
Day 2:
We stepped off at approximately 8:17am. Jacob tried to finish out the hike, but his ankle was still hurting him, so he had to bow out at 2 miles in. As the oldest and most out of shape person there I was asked by the scouts to set the pace for the rest of the hike. I asked them to play a song for me, Billy Jean by Michael Jackson. It has a steady 120 beats per minute rhythm and I have trained to that song in the past. I took of at a brisk 3mph and the I could hear the scouts’ amazement at “the old man’s speed!” Even the adults remarked, “Where was this speed and energy yesterday?” From that point on we were flying along. The boardwalk sections were interesting but gave me a claustrophobic feel. The phragmites stood so tall around us that we couldn’t see or hear any wildlife. We stopped near the crossroads to the tunnel and looked for turtles in the swamps. I spotted a moss covered “rope” sunning itself at the end of a log. Turns out that rope was a snake, but we couldn’t determine the species due to the pond scum/algae/moss covering it. Still a cool sight! We stopped again for a short meal and water break near the 5-mile mark. We finished the hike after almost 3.5 hours and came away with only 5 blisters! This was a wonderful adventure and I am very happy to have completed it!
