Boy Scouts make 25th annual 100-mile hike through Washington County
Boy Scout Troop 496 took time for a group photo at the start of their hike in Hookstown. The troop has made the 100-mile journey from their hometown to their summer camp near Uniontown for the past 25 years.
Joshua, left, and Scott Thomas of Beaver pose for a photo at the Boy Scout encampment at North Strabane municipal park. Scott Thomas said it might be their last hike together, because he is suffering from terminal brain cancer.
Rain or shine, one thing has remained the same for the past 25 years – the Boy Scouts of Troop 496 have made the 100-mile trek from their home base in Hookstown, Beaver County, to the Heritage Scout Reservation near Uniontown – the site of a weeklong summer camp enjoyed by many Western Pennsylvanian Boy Scouts.
Although the group of hikers was filled with pairs of fathers and sons, perhaps none of them are more appreciative of the memories being made than Scott and Joshua Thomas of Beaver.
“I’ve been looking forward to this trip since I found out about it,” said 11-year-old Joshua Thomas.
The trip had special significance for the pair because Scott Thomas was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a terminal form of brain cancer.
“I likely won’t be around for the next hike,” Scott Thomas said. “We have two weeks together, and it’s important to build these memories, because I don’t have 20 years to do it.”
Since his diagnosis last year, Thomas said he had been through 30 radiation treatments, about 95 chemotherapy sessions and three surgeries. Doctors give him another year to live. When he felt too weak or sick to continue on the journey, he pushed on.
“There’s been times when I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do it,'” Thomas said. “But I thought about it and said, ‘No, I have to do it.'”
Thomas hoped the hike would also give his son a sense of peace.
“Hopefully, he’s not going to worry about me,” Thomas said. “I mean, if I can hike 100 miles, how sick can I be in an 11-year-old’s mind?”
The Scouts’ journey through Washington County gave them great views of the area’s many trails and rural roadways, with evenings spent at campsites in Burgettstown, North Strabane Township and along the Monongahela River.
Many of the Boy Scouts were making the trip for the first time, while some of the adults have been on every hike. But for all of them, surviving a torrent of stormwater during this week’s heavy rains was a new challenge.
“Everyone’s tent was surrounded by water,” said Logan McGrosky, 14. “After that, everyone just got out of their tents and floated them to high ground.”
“We’ve never been flooded out on a hike before,” said 14-year-old Bryce Taylor. “We were all like, ‘Why is this happening?’ But everyone helped out everyone, and that was definitely the highlight so far.”
When the floodwaters came flowing into camp Tuesday morning, the Boy Scouts regrouped. Hikers were given a reprieve as parents gathered campers near the Burgettstown senior care center, got them cleaned up and reconvened in North Strabane later that evening.
“We’re calling this the flood-abbreviated hike,” said Rob Young, one of the three scoutmasters who organized the original hike in 1988. “It might be a little shorter this year, but the rain is not going to stop us. Not on my watch.”
Young, who flew up from his home near Tampa, Fla., for the anniversary hike, said he could not believe there were still Boy Scouts making the trek.
“I said, ‘They’re still hiking?'” Young said. “It’s just wild that something we started that long ago is still going on.”
“If any of us said this would be around 25 years later, we all would’ve laughed,” said Wayne Simkins, one of the original Scout leaders and chair of the anniversary celebration.
Simkins said about 44 people took part in this year’s hike, including about 25 Scouts. Additional adult volunteers helped by being “spotters” – driving support vehicles in order to help resupply weary travelers.
The group of adventurers expected to make it to Heritage camp Saturday morning, just in time for a full week of activities.
“It’s like school, only the classes are really cool,” Joshua Thomas said.
With hundreds of children and young men attending the weeklong summer camp, representing troops from all over Western Pennsylvania, the boys from Troop 496 felt like they would have a special distinction.
“It’s the biggest relief to get to the campsite and you get to chill,” said Dustin Busa, 14. “There’s a lot of people there, but I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones that hike there.”