We did it!  Eleven Scouts, Six Adults a Walking, Three Moms in Cars, One Dad on a Bike, One Dad in a Tesla and a Dog finished our 20-Miler.

Weather was fantastic and in the 50s.  There was some slight drizzle in the beginning with the threat of rain and ominous clouds.  But the weather was perfect.  No rain and it wasn't hot and it wasn't cold when we were walking or taking breaks.  The trail itself followed the shore of Lake Washington and then the Sammamish River.  Trail was paved and flat.  It was about as good as it gets.  

We started at Magnuson Park and stayed on the Burke Gilman Trail and then switched to the Sammamish River Trail in Bother.  Our finish was the Marymoor Totem Pole in Marymoor Park. 

Our Roving team dropped of food and snacks as well as shuttled vehicles to the finish point.  When we got to Marymoor, our vehicles were waiting for us and saved us another 45 minutes of driving.  

We had two planned break points and a scheduled lunch at Wilmot Gateway Park.  Our roving team brought pizza and hot drinks.  We also had cookies and chocolate at our break point.  We had extra water, food and sports drinks, clothing and medical supplies in the rover vehicles. 

Race to the Finish!

Gear

This trip was intentionally designed to be gear light.  We wanted all Scouts to be able to participate and had First Year Scouts start and complete this 20-miler.

Personal Gear

• Appropriate footwear

• Appropriate clothing

• Water Bottle

• Snacks

• Lunch

• Extra Socks 

• Blister kit

• Way to carry this stuff

Most participants used less than a liter of water for the first half of the trip.  There is a refill station at the lunch point and our rover team had plenty of water.

We had Scouts and Adults change socks at the lunch point.  Everyone seemed to be doing well. 

Team Gear

• Printed out maps with checkpoints marked in ziplock bags.  We also had checkpoint descriptions printed out

• Lead and Trail adults had walkie talkies

  • The lead group of older Scouts and lead Adult ran a good portion of the trip - far ahead of rest of group

  • Younger Scouts and most Adults trailed way back from lead crew

  • At one point, someone lost a cell phone and had to stop the lead group

  • Radios helped a lot, even though we had cell phones

• Most participants had Google Maps set up with route to track progress

• Group medic had blister kit - which wasn't used on this trip

  • Mole skin

  • Tincture of benzoin

  • Scissors

• Extra water and snacks carried by Adult Team - which weren't needed since we had a rover team

• 20-Miler Patches to give out at the end

Rover Team

• 2 dedicated vehicles

  • One Scout did need a pick up

  • Rovers were used to shuttle vehicles to finish point

  • Food, snacks and water at break and lunch points was REALLY nice

• 1 extra vehicle on standby

  • Brought in Hot Drinks and water melon at lunch - SO Nice

• Case of water - NOT used

• Case of Gatorade - NOT used

• First-aid kit with moleskin and duct tape - NOT used

• Bag of clothing with extra jackets, socks and running shoes - NOT used

Lunch and Snacks

• Original plan was to pack your own lunch

• Some of the Scouts finished their lunch at the first break and were ready for more

• One Scout dropped his lunch in the dirt and looked really sad

• Our rover team brough 4 pizzas - which was perfect (Scouts also had their own lunch and snacks)

• One parent dropped by at lunch with watermelon and several insulated bottles of hot water for cocoa and hot cider - this was really good!

• Snack from the rover team included a big container of cookies and a giant bag of good chocolates

• Rovers were stocked with water and Gatorade, which wasn't used

Magnuson Park to Marymoor Park - One Way with Totem Pole Finish

This is a fantastic Hike the follows Lake Washington to the Sammamish River from Magnuson Park to Marymoor Park.

Notes on this trip:

• We started at 8 AM, but took over 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot as Scouts waited in line to use the bathroom

• There was a short delay after Scouts searched for a lost cell phone early in the trip

• We had another delay at the first park as Scouts looked for a bathroom but found they were locked.  A Scout went to parking lot to get shirt from mom, which also extended our stay at park.  We were now 1.5 hours into outing and have traveled about 2 miles.

• At the first scheduled break, many of the Scouts devoured their lunches and snacks.  Our rover team had cookies, chocolates and water.

• Lunch at Wilmot Gateway Park was great: parking lot right next to tables; covered area; plenty of seating; bathrooms; water refill station

• Rovers and parents brough pizza (announced), snacks and hot drinks.  This was huge since many of the Scouts had already eaten through their food and were hungry

• Following lunch, the rover team collected keys and shuttled vehicles to the finish point

• The group progressively slowed down after lunch.  The team spread what looked like a mile as the lead Scouts and adult leader were running and the trail team with younger Scouts and Adults moved much slower.

• Breaks progressively got longer and longer as the lead team waited for the rest of group to catch up.

• Several Adults opted to not sit or even stop at breaks since getting up from the seated position became harder and harder and to reduce the gap between the lead and adult trail team

• Having a finish point other than a parking lot was fantastic.  Scouts raced to get to the totem pole

• We passed out awards at the end

• Since vehicles were already at the finish point, we were able to drive straight home after the event - this was huge

Would we do this route again?

• YES!

• Timing in the year seemed to be good - not hot and not cold

• Location was good - not too far from home - 30 minute drive on a weekend morning

• Trail was nice - flat, paved and with nice scenery 

• Having a real destination (opposed to a there and back trip) make this event special

• Supported lunch was really nice, especially with surprise pizza and drinks!

• Of note, this was a grueling event for most of our adults - it should NOT be attempted on a Sunday before a Monday workday