Our Pioneer Trek
Day Two
| Breakfast the next morning (and each morning) included one biscuit, one egg round, grits, and water for each person. |  |
| We spent the first full day pulling and pushing the carts to where we were to spend the next night. (I say 'we', but I must tell you that the advisors were not allowed to push or pull the cart--we had to leave that up to the youth.) The total distance covered was about 7 miles. That doesn't sound too bad, but I can tell you that 7 miles felt like 27! |  |
| It turned out to be quite a trick to maneuver a 400-pound cart through the South Carolina woods. We traveled mostly on trails, so it was slow going, especially when we came to a stream. |  |
| We found out that all the guys from two or three families had to get together on one cart just to get through what quickly became a two-foot deep mud hole. |  |
| There were a few steep hills to go up and down and there were a lot of rough areas to negotiate. |  |
| With all that, it didn't take long before carts started breaking down. Some carts ended up popping the spokes out of the wheel when the cart tipped too much to one side. Some broke the PVC axle supports and several (ours included) got flat tires. It was a little discouraging to have to pull to the side, unpack everything and do our best to fix the problem. We also ended up losing our 'braking system' for a while when the back of our cart pulled right off as we were going down one of the hills. (Boy Scout lashing techniques came in handy for that one--we really needed the back of the cart!) Fortunately, everyone who had difficulties was able to get going again within about 20 or 30 minutes. It helped that the support staff had a few spare carts to swap out for the ones that needed major work. |  |
| Sometime about the middle of the day (we weren't allowed to wear watches, so we never knew the exact time), we had a two-hour lunch break. Lunch each day consisted of one apple, one granola bar and one little box of raisins for each person. And water of course. We made sure everyone drank a lot of water--it was a typical hot, humid day in the South. |  |
| Finally, after a very tiring day, we arrived at our campsite about 6 pm. We ate dinner (chicken stew with rice and bread) and set up camp. We did our best to prepare for the rain we had been told would be coming. Most of us prepared for the typical Southern rainstorm--thunder, lightening, a little wind, twenty or thirty minutes of 'dumping' and that's it. | |
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Last Updated 6 January 2005