50 MIler restrictions?
Bob and Rusty Taylor (brtaylor@TELEBYTE.NET)
Sun, 15 Aug 1999 08:49:53 -0700
this posting is long because of background information--sorry to ramble.
we just finished our 50 Miler Hike, very successful in all but one respect;
3 adults and 4 boys went on the trip. we had a 12 year old Scout on the
trip who had just turned 12 a few months ago. his pack did not fit well and
made him miserable for most of the trip. (that's another subject). his size
made it very difficult for him to cover the distance we wanted to cover at
even a slow speed. the boy went on all the qualifing hikes and appeared to
do well on those, but speed was not an issue on the shorter hikes. we were
not planning to cover very many miles/day, but because of his speed, our
days were extended by 2-3 hrs of actual hiking, pretty well shooting having
much time to play after getting into camp for the night.
we kept the group together by putting him in front and he stayed in front
the entire trip except for river crossings, where adults went first for
safety. everyone pitched in to help the boy do the hike, and I am proud of
our Scouts for that effort. do you know how hard it is to hike 50 miles
"off-pace"? (e-mail me if you want to know!)
our first 50 miler we were fortunate; even tho we had young Scouts, they
were all very strong physically, and the issue of keeping up trail speed
was never a problem.
my question; do you impose lower age limits and/or other qualifing
requirements
for 50 miler hikes/high adventure type trips?
thank you for your responses.
Bob Taylor
--- "If you build it, they will come."
/ \
----------- Bob Taylor Troop, 1590 Committee Chairman
(| @ @ |) Chief Seattle Council
| > | WE1-609-97 (A good old Buffalo)
" \_/ " going to work my ticket and always an Eagle!
"""""
""" brtaylor@telebyte.net (home)
webpage: http://pacific.telebyte.com/~brtaylor
