I know, lets go for a lovely little stroll down the Potomac, knock out another 10 mile hike, enjoy Fathers Day and we’ll be all good by lunch time having just walked downhill for the last 4 hours!
Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong! The hike turned out to be close to 12 miles, the temperature ended up verging on oppressive and my downhill promise turned out to be one of the biggest lies of my life. For that I apologize.
An optimistic crew of 40 scouts and scouters met at Roosevelt Island at 7 a.m. sharp looking forward to their Sunday morning stroll. We got shuttled up to the American Legion Bridge (thank you shuttlers!) and then headed south.
The first part of the hike turned out as I expected. A nice stroll alongside the Potomac. After about 3-4 miles we headed inland and up, and then down and then up some more, down a tad and then up a lot more. When we were at the top of the up we went up a little more. Huh? This was not as planned.
We skirted around some amazing homes that as Mr. Kiersz pointed out had more air conditioning units that his house had rooms! We were pinned between the Potomac and the GW Parkway for our entire hike. 80% of the trip was quite beautiful (despite the ups and downs) but some was under bridges with very interesting graffiti or running a long side the parkway.
The guys and girls did really well and when we eventually banked into the parking lot at Roosevelt Island, our August hike to Strickler came to mind, my water was long drained and my clothes a little further along the wet scale than moist.
Congratulations to Andre who has completely the hiking merit badge and to all others who completed this easy, downhill hike!
Enjoy the pictures from this event over here.