One Boy Scout hiking badge, more or less complete

I’ve been begging Tim to blog about his experiences hiking with John, and post some of the pictures he took. Some of them are fabulous! He says he will, someday when he’s caught up with his other writing. I suspect you may have awhile to wait, but since this was a big part of our time in Austria, I’m just going to post this one picture, which is one of my top five favorite photos from this entire trip. Taken with a dying point and shoot, no less!

John is a Boy Scout, and since he wants to continue with that, there are certain badges he has to do in order to become an Eagle Scout someday. He has a choice between hiking and swimming, and although he already has part of swimming done, he really prefers hiking. So he and Tim set a goal to complete all the required hikes for the badge during our trip. That’s five ten mile hikes, and one twenty mile! Tim says that all told they probably hiked over NINETY miles. My feet hurt just thinking about it, but I am so proud of them for finishing! They both have some new muscles and excellent farmer’s tans to show for it–not to mention a lot of shared memories, including coming across a snake or two on the path, almost being forced off the road by a rogue herd of cows, taking a wrong turn and winding up halfway up a mountain on a tiny path, which they then had to come down hand over hand, clutching weeds along the way to keep from falling, etc. I’m sure there are other things they know better than to share with me. It goes without saying that they saw some incredibly beautiful scenery along the way.