Weeklong Backpacking: Day 3

We were all woken up by the leaders, singing some kind of song meant to get us up. I groggily shook Austin, because he didn't hear. I quickly yelled that we were up and got out of the tent, to see Steven walking towards the dining fly, he got the stoves going and we all packed our bags. We had a quick breakfast because the rangers had come to visit and we needed to take down the camp and sweep it, showing them that we can "Leave No Trace". After we all took down the tents and the dining fly, We lined up at one end of the camp. Colin said, "Go!" and we all slowly walked to the end of the camp, picking up trash and pocketing it on the way. The rangers told us we had done a good job and wished us luck, and then we started hiking out to the next destination, CB Flats.

Being seperaed by speeds was the norm now, as we hiked up the bestepped hills. Once we had gotten to Heart Lake, half of us went to clean the campsites that were there. It was a long process, but we needed all the service time we could get. This was because to get the BSA 50-miler award we needed ten-hours of community service. The best way to get it would be to clean campsites. Those who stayed behind needed to catch up to the lead scouts, and so they hurried off. The map said only 4 miles to hike, and it looked easy altitude-wise, but seemed to drag on forever. On the map they were supposed to go past Bogachiel peak, and so they were supposed to climb that after lunch. Sure enough, the lead scouts were waiting just past Bogachiel Peak, and the time was 12:15 when we got there. Lunch was pita and tuna, and after the 2.5 miles we had just completed, it tasted terrific. The lead scouts had already climbed the peak, so everybody else climbed while they moved on.

It didn't really count as much of a climb. It was .1 miles to the top and wasn't very steep. But when we got to the top, the clouds parted and we could see a lot of lakes. The place was really full of them. They were many different shapes, and some were shallow and teal, while others were deep and blue. It was a beautiful sight, cut short by the mosquitos, who apparently had not heard of bug repellant and therefore were not effected.

Once we had gotten back down, we shouldered our packs and moved on, eager to see the most beautiful lake of them all, Hoh Lake. Hoh Lake was a quarter mile from CB Flats, and we had heard from others that it was the most beautiful thing they had seen in the whole park. As we got closer, we started going down swichbacks in a forest. Suddenly, the trees gave way to the sun and a beautiful view of Hoh Lake. It truly was beautiful. It reflected the trees and mountains, but also gave room for us to see its majestic deep blue. We could see little ripples appear as fish jumped, but they quickly disappeared in the vastness of the water. It was a great reward, and when we got to the bottom, everyone ran to the water and dipped their hands in. Some scouts even caught some tadpoles, but quickly returned them to the lake. Once we had all rested and taken in the beauty, we continued to the camp, where the two fast scouts had sat down. Once we had got there, they told us that they had just come five minutes ago, which meant that we made good time. We set up the dining fly above some benches, but next to this was a tent spot that was covered by the dining fly. Steven was quick and grabbed the spot, and I was his lucky tentmate. We were completely covered so we had no need to set up the rain fly. This made the tent lighter and we could see outside, where the stars winked at us as we fell asleep.