Girl Scouts on a hike at Leader/Daughter Weekend. 2009

It was decided that we wanted to check out a trail at camp Pamunkey. Funny I think I was the only one who did not notice the "Experienced hikers only" sign. We thought if the troop in front of us could do it so could we! We took our group picture at Overlook. It was beautiful. Two leaders stayed behind and two of us took 5 girls down the trail. What a start! I felt like we should have been rappelling! We finally make it to the bottom and take a quick rest. We admire the beauty of the Pamunkey River. We then start down the trail. After a while we rest and then it starts to sprinkle. Rachel ever the prepared scout had her poncho! The girls had fun with that! We run across what we think are deer bones and the girls take them for souvenirs. A little while later we see tracks in the mud. Lots of different animals! I was grateful my co-leader Paige knew what they were! At this point we were not sure our trail was going to go where we thought. The troop ahead yelled out to cross over the puddle and go up at the sign. We decided that was a good plan. We crossed the puddle found the sign and looked up. Well it didn't look as bad as what we had come down so we were happy. We started up. We came to what we thought was the top. Nope. Climbing higher we plateaued again. STILL not the top! Finally we reach the top however we still were not quite sure where we were on the trail. No sign of the troop ahead only the stillness of the forest! Paige states that when in doubt go right... so we did! We came to a huge soy bean field. Ahhh!! We see civilization!! We stop under a tree for a quick break. We have done some hiking. We receive a call from our co-leader Noreen who is just "Checking in" with us. She states that they will send out helicopters for us if we need them. Two minutes after hanging up the helicopter shows up. No faith is our leadership apparently! However the rescue pilot does not see us so on we march. (We stopped by to say hello to the neighbors and have a quick photo opportunity!) We finally reach a road and must hitch hike the 3 steps to camp. Finally we have made it!! As we go down the road to camp we learned we cannot trespass. We also must only go 5 miles an hour. No problem at this point. Were tired! Cookie Lane here we come! They "rescued" us with a golf cart inside the camp. What luck!