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once in a while. Finally, we caught up with the rest of the group as they were waiting further along the trail. I found out that 1 scout and two of the adults had kept going because the scout sprained his ankle and had to keep it from locking. I checked in with everyone to see where they were at with their water supply, only to find out most of the scouts were at the bottom of their bottles. Peter and a couple of the kids had begun to complain more as we started to hike again. After starting with 20 total people on the hike, we were now down to 13; 1 adult and 12 scouts.
Again, there was a separation of our group, but this time it seemed that something was wrong. I was in the back again with the same 4 as earlier, but as we were hiking along, nothing looked familiar. We were waiting to get to Mt. Wilson, which was the halfway point between our campsite and Mt. Baden Powell. It was around 3:00 PM as we tried to figure out where we were. Lucky for us, the rest of the group was waiting for us up ahead, we thought we were still on the same trail since the rest of them were here, but that wasn’t that case this time. There were only four of them, we were still missing three. At this point, we had to figure out where we were before continuing along. I tried to find a high spot nearby to get a signal on my phone. I couldn’t find exactly what trail we were on, but it was definitely not the Pacific Crest Trail we were suppose to be on. As we kept hiking, I tried to find a road so my group and I could figure out how to get back to camp. The only problem now was that there was an even smaller amount of water and six younger scouts who were scared and exhausted.
It didn’t take too long to find the road, but it was tough trying to make sure everyone was able to stay together. I started to feel dehydrated and all I could think of was the younger kids who were dehydrated, but starving as well. I evenly dispersed my snacks and the remaining water I had left to the kids in my group. We tried catching the attention of a couple of drivers that drove past us; anything to try and get help from anyone. I tried calling the other adult leaders that were up at camp. I was hoping we could get some type of signal to them, but no calls made it through. The only person that pulled over for us was an Angeles National Forest ranger, but she could only take one person to the base of the campsite, and that was the adult leader so he can get his car. We had to wait about 30 minutes for everyone to be driven to the base of the camp. At this point, the only water left went to Peter and 2 of the other youngest scouts who looked like they were about to faint. I had to hike a mile to get to our campsite and climb 1000 feet in elevation.
We began to hike up the last hill before reaching the final trail. After about 8 hours of hiking we could feel excruciating pain in the soles of our feet and in our heels. The lack of water and food was hitting all of us, taking breaks every 5 to 10 minutes trying to get up the hill. This trek was all an uphill climb to the campsite. The sun hadn’t set yet, but it was on the other side of the hill so it began to get colder as time went by. I’d never been put in that type of situation before until that day. As a scout I learned what steps and procedures to take if I ever found myself in such a situation, but I never thought I’d be stuck in one. So many thoughts were running through my mind as we hiked up the hill. Every turn we made on the trail, we were hoping to see the campsite up ahead.
Finally we were able to see the campsite, and I’d never felt so relieved. Though we were excited to be back at camp, it felt as if we were dead inside. I remember some of the scouts heading straight to their tents to get their food out and laid by the campfire. I checked to make sure my brother made it back safe, and all he said to me was, “You guys were walking slow, we made it back a couple hours ago.” And I just replayed everything that happened in the past four hours without him. My scout master hounded us because no one spoke up when they were low on water. She went over how dangerous it was for all of us to continue on that hike with low water and especially since the majority of the group lost track of the main trail. Ever since that incident, I always make sure to speak up, and communicate any problems with everyone on hikes.
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