4th Year Hike

We’ll start with the 4th Year Hike. July 11-12, 2008
Spencer and I, well I guess it was me, volunteered to take the 4th year girls of our stake on their overnight backpacking hike. We decided to make it small and close, trying to get all the girls there we could. We decided on the Silver Lake Trail up American Fork Canyon. It was about 2.3 miles up and back, about 5 miles round trip. It did have like 1300 elevation gain in just 2.3 miles, so that was where it challenged us all. We ended up with 8 girls and 7 leaders. The hike went very well. We did not hear any complaints, except the heat. We made it to the top and the girls were so happy to have that behind them, and felt great about what they accomplished. We taught the girls how to filter water, then set up camp and made dinner. We had a beautiful view of the valley on top of the rocks where we were camping. After we hiked down we took the girls to the “Alpine Butt Slide” which is a natural water slide in the outskirts of Alpine. The girls loved it. Overall we had a great time and I think the girls had a really nice experience. We heard a lot of the girls say they felt accomplished with it all and they would like to go backpacking again!