Around that time President Kennedy was actively promoting 50 mile hikes as a way to get the country in shape. Karl and I managed to get a 50 mile hike approved for our school. The plan was to go from the high school to Pt Reyes Station and back which worked out to about exactly 50 miles. It was scheduled to start the next Saturday morning.
That Saturday at 4 in the morning Karl, my brother Chuck who was only 12 years old, my friend Laura, and I started out. We alternated between walking and jogging - we would walk for about 15 minutes and then jog for about 15 minutes.
At that time our family had a 54 Ford 9 passenger station wagon. My mother and her friend loaded our car up with 2 large water jugs, 3 packages of paper cups, a first aid kit, and the 50 sandwiches they had made. The spent the whole day going along the hike's route stopping to help the hikers. They gave them water and sandwiches, massaged legs that had developed cramps, and used the first aid kit to deal with blisters.
When they came across hikers that wanted to give up, they loaded them into the car and took them back to the high school. Mom and her friend did a really great job of supporting the 50 mile hike. Without them it could have turned into a catastrophe.
The guys from the school's cross country track team finished first in 11 1/2 hours. Karl, Chuck, Laura, and I came in second in 12 1/2 hours and were really sore for about the next 3 days.
In retrospect, it was a pretty stupid thing to do, but what's the point of being young if you can't do a few stupid things once in a while.
