Saturday, August 17, 2013

52 Miles

Today Carter completed the 50 mile bike ride requirement for the Cycling Merit Badge.  He did it by riding 52 miles for good measure.  Other boys who did this with him were Nathan Jackson, Sean McMullin, Chase Mack, and Chase's Parent's (Brian *Scoutmaster* and Lydia).

I am extremely proud of Carter and this accomplishment.  Not many young men his age let alone size would even attempt such a challenge but he did and although he was sore and tired (an me too) he finished it with a smile on his face and the pride of knowing he did it.

It reminded me of the first 50 mile hike I completed at age 11.  My dad took me and the two of us completed 50 Miles in 2.25 days.  The first quarter day was on a Thursday after dad got finished with Forest Service work about 3:00 so we drove up to the old mill where we left the truck and set out on our adventure.

The first afternoon/evening we hiked to the Corral Creek Lake covering 10 miles.  On Friday we hiked on to the saddle just below Wyoming Peak *the highest peak in the salt river range* covering 15 more miles.  On Saturday morning we rose early and hiked the the remainder of trail to the top of the peak where we watched the sun rise over the wind river mountain range.  After the sunrise we hiked back down to collect our gear then hiked the return trip of 25 miles to the truck.  I good part of Saturday was done in the rain and Dad penned the song "Oh we're Hiking"  I do not recall all of the words but I do recall how mad I was that dad was so cheerful.  He was singing along and I was grumbling about the weather and how tired I was.  In retrospect his singing made the trip go faster and certainly distracted me from being even grumpier than I was.

I'm so grateful that my dad had faith in my ability to accomplish this feat because I'm certain it helped to influence my faith in Carter's ability as well.

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