Fr. Hemmerle quieted the Mess Hall so that he could take a poll on how many campers would go on which hike. There were four hikes: Blue Hole, Morgan's Cave, Devil's Backbone, and the Nature Center. Jeff Braden had already established Morgan’s Cave as the most popular hike and, since the cave could be dangerous, Padre always went on this one. Karl Russ liked to lead the hike to the Blue Hole. The big attraction to this hike was to have a mud ball fight in Otter Creek but, when a camper got hit in the eye the summer before, and had to leave camp to have surgery, Fr. Hemmerle outlawed the mud ball fight and few campers wanted to go with Karl. The hike to the Blue Hole was frequently cancelled. Jeff Frazier liked taking the oldest kids with him and he spent the first part of the week recruiting them to go on his hike. It was call the Devil’s Backbone and, by mileage, it was the longest hike. The highlight of the hike was grabbing onto a thick metal wire which helped to guide the campers down a steep, rock infested, hill. The final hike was with Mike Lott. He liked to take the youngest campers to the Nature Center. It was a short hike and they were always the first back to camp and were fed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bug (grape) juice.
After breakfast the campers were allowed time for a cabin clean up and to use the bathroom. They were given an hour to get ready and then everyone met up at the camp fire ring where each hike was dismissed to go on their adventure. The Morgan’s Cave hike always left first because it was the largest and was unpredictable in terms of how long it would take the campers to get through the cave. Braden made a final count of how many kids were going with him, gave the number to Fr. Hemmerle, and was on his way. Frazier was next and he followed the same routine. Finally, Mike Lott gave his number to Padre and the little ones, most of whom were only nine or ten years old, made the short hike to the Nature Center. Once everyone had left Fr. Hemmerle hustled down the trail to catch up with Jeff Braden. Some of the older campers noticed that he was running late and that is why they thought that padre was the Lone Eagle.
The administration of Otter Creek park had fenced off the entrance to Morgan’s Cave for safety reasons and only Fr. Hemmerle had a key to the gate. Before Jeff Braden allowed any of the campers in he had them place their towels outside of the entrance so that they had a way of drying off once the cave tour was over. The campers had been told several times to bring a towel and a flashlight but because they were so young, inevitably only a few of the campers remembered to bring these basic supplies. After just a few yards of standing up straight, the cave narrowed and the ceiling lowered so that the campers had to bend down to avoid stalactites encroaching from above, or shimmy through a small opening to progress to the back of the cave. At one point, at about half way through the tour, the campers had to wade through a pool of waist deep water. Braden was prepared for this and he told the campers that at this point of the cave tour they were allowed to yell one cuss word once. The boys loved this part of the hike and would yell their curse word more than once. Twelve year old boys had a surprising large vocabulary for their age and used a variety of curse words to express their displeasure at having to wade through the water. Meanwhile, Braden shouted “Numb Nuts” loudly and often.
The campers made their way to the back of the cave and waited for the stragglers to catch up. Once they were all together Braden told a quick story of how Morgan’s Cave was named after the Confederate general who used the cave as a hiding place during the Civil War. Then the whole
group of thirty kids turned around and made their way back to the entrance of the cave. It was remarkable how hot it felt outside of the cave, especially since the campers had been wading through the cold water for a good part of the tour. They laughed as they made their way up the trail, having been through the crucible, and were proud that they had notched one more anecdote on the stick of experience that would ultimately lead to manhood. Slowly they made their way to the river for lunch.
Meanwhile, Jeff Frazier led the Devil’s Backbone hike; or, as the other counselor’s liked to call it, The Death March of Bataan. It had earned that nickname because Frazier liked to hike as far and as fast as the time would permit. The first major obstacle was the steep hill where the campers had to hold onto a thick steel wire to make it down safely. This done, Frazier liked to take the campers so far back in the woods that they were on the edge of the boundary between Otter Creek park and Fort Knox. When the soldiers were practicing their maneuvers, the campers could literally hear artillery rounds going off in the distance. This only added to the enchantment of the hike and campers and counselors felt like they were backwoods explorers or involved in some sort of jungle warfare. To add to the effect, Frazier liked to lead the hike by chanting songs that he had leaned in ROTC. It was for this reason that Frazier took on the nickname of Army Jeff.
After wading through the waist deep water, the fun of the hike seemed to be drained from the campers. They still had a long way to go but now their clothes were damp and their shoes were wet. To make better time to the meeting place on the river, Army Jeff took a shortcut by hiking on the railroad tracks. He knew that Fr. Hemmerle would be looking at his watch and scanning the horizon, waiting to see Frazier hiking down the trail towards the lunch at the campground. Army Jeff was always the last hike leader to make it to lunch so Padre wouldn’t be too concerned if he was a little late. Besides, Frazier loved to hear the campers complain about how hard the hike was; he remembered that it was those same campers who, just three days before, had kept him up half of Sunday night when they were challenging each other not to fall asleep. They would sleep well at the end of hike day.
When Frazier finally arrived at the campground, and everyone had their drinks and hotdogs, there was an expression of relief that the ordeal was over, almost as if they had just completed some sort of campaign in a long forgotten war. Both campers and counselors were tired so it was a long slog to get back to Camp Tall Trees. Heads were bent down, shoes made a sloshing sound as a result of being in the water as a result of wading threw Otter Creek on the Backbone hike or from the immersion into the water at Morgan’s Cave. When they finally made it back to camp, everyone immediately went to their cabins to lie down to sleep. Hike Day was rounded out with time at the pool, ball field after dinner, and finally a movie at the lodge. The general feeling was that everyone had earned a little down time after expending a weeks’ worth of youthful energy in one day.
