James E. West HOST Hike
By Jason J. (Bears Patrol Historian)
On May 23, a group of scouts participated in the HOST hike. We started at St. Francis Church, and we all grouped together at L’Enfant Plaza. Then, we started the hike with each of us having an answer sheet and an information packet to answer questions during the hike, like a scavenger hunt. During the hike, we appointed a patrol leader and an assistant patrol leader. We also had three navigators. We have to follow the rout they planed. We started off looking for building, and saw cool structures. We went in a big circle in a part of D.C. In the middle of the hi
ke, we even had to pick up trash for our civic good turn. We stopped for lunch at the hotdog stands, and then continued the rest of the hike. We hiked about 8 miles. In the end, we stopped at the Washington Monument and took pictures. We didn’t have enough time to buy the medals, so one of the parents bought them another day. It is about 6:00 pm. Then, we left from D.C. and went back home. It is such a LONG hiking day!
James West History of Scouting Trail (H.O.S.T) Hike
By James Y. (Scorpion Patrol Historian)
On a Saturday, May 23rd 2015, a handful of second year and new scouts went to Washington D.C. to do the James West History of Scouting Trail (H.O.S.T.) Hike. There was also two cub scouts. Even though it was supposed to 5.5 miles, we ended up doing around 8. We went to the L’Enfant Plaza 8:15am, some of us went by metro, some car-pooled. We received out answer sheets and packets and set out to solve the 21 clues.
The first few took an extremely long time. We read a clue from packet, hiked to the destination, and solved the riddle. After the first couple, we grew hungry, even though we barely made any progress. We stopped at a stand for hot dogs and popsicles.
Some questions weren’t always riddles. For one, we needed to learn how to make “fire by friction”, and another, we needed to say “S.O.S” with flags. Some of them needed pictures of different monuments and activities. We needed a stamp for one of them.
Soon, we needed to hike even less. Finally, the car-pool team went home, while the metro group went to metro to buy the medals and then go home. However, the metro broke down, and the group needed to walk to the L’Enfant Plaza, take the other metro back to the parking lot, and then go home. In addition, we didn’t get our medals and badges, so they had to be ordered again on Monday.
The H.O.S.T. Hike was pretty fun and even though we may have had some “setbacks”, it was fun to complete the riddles, and best of all, eat some delicious ice cream as a reward.
