I can remember the first ten mile hike I did for Boy Scouts almost like it was yesterday. It was in the upper eighties with humidity a thick as could be. What started out as a foggy morning, quickly devolved into a sweaty day, reinforced only by the amount of sweat we accumulated from the previous four days camping at the Dawson farm.

We started our march down Rowe Road towards Fureua Bush, proceeded by our blind scoutmaster and his seeing eye dog. It already was getting hot as the due evaporated off the crops. We occasionally would have a drink of water, as we started to sweat on the long but fairly downhill persuation to the the Connelly residence in Delmar.

We passed junkyards, and walked down shady roads, and long downhills. This part was quite relaxing, especially in comparison when we started out in the hot sun of the early morning. We hiked into Fureua Bush, and stopped at Hotalings’ for some ice cream to cool us down. While many of us where already starting to get tired, we knew the hottest and longest part down Route 32 then onto Meads Road. Hiking along Route 32 was endless miles, along with endless warnings from out scoutmasters to stay in file. This was particularly perilous along the bridge taking the road above the Selkirk railroad tracks. We passed General Electric Plastics, and Ownes Corning, and the pungent smell and toxins we were breathing in still reminds me today. After some dragging we made it to Meads Road.

We sat along a tree for a while on Meads Road, played in the dirt, and started to romp around in a corn field before an Assistant Scoutmaster yelled at us. After 15 minutes of rest and drinking plenty of we proceeded down Meads Road, at an increasingly dragging pace. We were slowing down. Then our scoutmaster’s seeing eye dog collapsed and refused to move on. Scoutmaster Pasquale stayed under a shady tree, and said he would wait until we could get a car to pick him up. Further down the road we went, eventually reaching Meads farm. The farmer there was kind enough to let us drink some water from the faucet at his barn. He joked it hadn’t killed his horses or cattle yet, so it’s unlikely to kill us. We cooled down in the water and refilled our water bottles with some nice cold water. It was amazing how refreshing it tasted, compared the warm icky water we had been carrying all day.

We passed our other Assistant Scoutmaster, Mr. Connelly, who stopped by to check on our progression. He picked up Mr. Pasqaule and his seeing eye dog, and drove them home. We continued onto Connelly’s house, and when we finally got there and put on our bathing suits, the water was so amazingly frigid and refreshing. We had pizza, and all was good. We rode in cars on the way back to the Dawson farm.