Trip Report by James L. (Bear Patrol)
Troop We started out early in the morning but it turned out to be the shortest trip we have taken. Not even time to take a nap. Within 10 minutes we were exiting across the Cabin John Bridge and headed to Carderrock on the MD side of the Potomac.
We parked in a lot and put on our packs and hiked a half mile to the campsite. It was surprisingly secluded although we were right next to civilization. Our camp site was wooded bluffs overlooking beautiful views of the Potomac river and no one around.
We setup camp and then hiked just 100 yard to the C&O Canal trail and went up to carry gear brought by the Quartermasters and set at the foot of a bridge. The heavy items like water and other equipment we didn’t take in the packs.
Once we were done, we broke up into patrols and one left every 10 minutes apart so we could hike as individual patrols. We made our way up the main trail until we reached the A section of the Billy Goat Trail. We started south to north whereas most people were going the reverse direction.
The hike was really fun! It was mostly a rock scramble. We just carried day packs with lunch and in much of the time were using both arms and legs to climb up the rocks. One area was particularly steep and you had to be careful as people were in single file and it was steep. Along the way there were beautiful views of the river and at times we could see kayakers in the river and climbers belayed on the steep cliffs on the Virginia side. In some cases, we watched the climbers fall but get caught by their safety ropes. In one case, the climber had no rope and was free climbing. He looked pretty experienced.
The hike was about 6 miles long and was really interesting and a fun hike. There were a lot of people on the trail as this is clearly a popular place.
Once we made it back to camp, we prepared dinner. Some patrols had foil meals to cook on the fire and others had elaborate meals on their stoves and a few had freeze dried meals.
After the fire, the bear bags were hung from a single rope crossing trees so some scouts had to climb the trunks to put the bags up as an example of how we do this on any backpack trip in bear country.
In the morning, there were sprinkles of showers but we got cleaned up pretty quickly. Scouts were sitting around and so the SPL decided we would take a morning hike while other scouts were having scoutmaster conferences. The morning hike was on the canal trail.
Once we were all done, we put on our backpacks and hike the half mile back to the cars and were back at the library in short order.
The trip was fun as it was really a pretty area to camp and the rock climbing was a lot of fun for scouts of all ages.
