Beaver County Boy Scout troop makes annual 100-mile hike to Fayette County
Editor’s note: This story was changed to reflect the correct Boy Scout troop number.
For 36 years, a Beaver County Boy Scout troop has hiked 100 miles to get to the summer scouting camp in Farmington.
Chester Bealles, scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 496 in Hookstown, said the hike lets the boys fulfill the requirements for several merit badges like camping and backpacking. It also keeps the older scouts interested at an age when things like girls and cars might start to overshadow the program.
“There’s different motivations for everybody,” said Bealles, who was 16 when he took part in the 100-mile trek.
The 100-mile hike starts on a Sunday in Hookstown and goes on for one week. It ended this past Saturday at Heritage Reservation, a Boy Scout summer camp in Farmington where the boys spend the following week.
There were six scouts on the hike this year, both first-timers and those who’ve done it before, like Allen Cox, 17, of Hookstown, who was making the journey for the seventh time.
“My dad and my brothers have done it, so I decided to do it with them,” Cox said of his first hike, which was a challenge. “I sprained my ankle, it swelled up, and I had to miss a day, but it was a good experience.”
For Cox, the hike was a chance to get good exercise, spend time with good people and bond with them, even if it’s just walking on the side of the road.
“It’s all about the lessons you learn along the hike,” Cox said on Friday, as the group took a lunch break at Searights Toll House during a thunderstorm. “It’s all about perseverance, sticking it through even when the skies open up.”
He added that he may come back after he ages out of Boy Scouts to take part in the hike again.
Bealles said while the feedback from the scouts is all-around positive following the hike, it’s often when get into college and are older that they tell Bealles that the hike was more a life-changing experience.
“As adults, we’re looking at the kids at the beginning of the week and at the end of the week and there’s a tremendous amount of growth and maturity,” Bealles said.
Two of the six hikers had never taken part before. Adelenne Reick, 11, of McDonald, is from a different troop that has a mix of boys and girls. She wanted to take on the hike because her brother had recently aged out of Troop 496.
Reick, on Friday, said the hike has been fun, but is challenging, too.
“I’m trying to get other girls from my troop to do it with me next year,” said Reick, who was the only girl taking part in last week’s hike.
Another scout taking part in the hike for the first time is Theodore Patosky, 12, of Hookstown, whose brother and father have also made the journey.
For Patosky, the hot weather, rain and sore feet have been the most difficult parts of the hike. Still, he said, he’s already in for next year.
While the hikers are keeping traditions alive, those along the route have also done the same for years.
“There are people at places who expect to see us,” Bealles said of locations to camp like Mount St. Macrina in Uniontown, or stores like one in Washington County that always gives the scouts hoagies for breakfast.
Those decades-long relationships are a big part of why the route hasn’t changed much over the years.
The group takes precautions like having the scouts walk on side roads whenever they can to avoid busy highways, and they also have support vehicles going ahead of the group and flaggers to slow down traffic if needed.
“We’ve made little changes along the way, but, for the most part, it’s remained intact,” Bealles said, adding that the route and the purpose of the hike keeps kids out of basements in front of video games. “It’s great exercise and it builds relationships with the other hikers.”