COLORADO SPRINGS — Teens Rebecca Clark, Jordan Wilson and Tristina Altman began preparing for their Aug. 23 hike to the summit of Pikes Peak long before the first step.
As Girl Scouts, they knew never to take nature — especially at altitude — for granted. Weather is stormy and mercurial, and the slog to the top up Barr Trail, with its 7,400-foot elevation gain over about 13 miles, is physically punishing.
The three 15-year-old girls from Troop 931 saw how dangerous a lack of preparation can be on their way back down the mountain, when they met a couple of young Kansas hikers holed up at a campsite without the food, water or knowledge to make it through a night in the wilderness.
One of the two high school-aged boys had obvious signs of altitude sickness. The other had spilled his water, was wearing wet clothes in 40-degree temps and struggling to start a fire of damp branches. He was clearly disoriented from hypothermia.
The Girl Scouts helped the hikers start a fire, then shared their food and water with the group — three teen boys and two adults — once everyone had trickled in to the Timberline A-Frame shelter about 3 miles shy of the summit.
“They certainly were not expecting it to be this bad. They just figured they’d go for the weekend and have a good time. But they didn’t look far enough into it to know what to expect,” Rebecca Clark said.
The next day, both groups — Girl Scouts and the grateful Kansans — made it down safely to the trailhead.
“They were saying over and over again on the way down, ‘We’ll buy tons of cookies. We promise,’ ” Rebecca said.
