Matherly earns ’50 Miler’ badge

TOP PHOTO: Scouts BSA Troop 435 Star Scout Claire Matherly completed a remarkable journey last week, earning her “50 Miler” Badge.

By Charlotte Underwood

LAFOLLETTE, TN. (WLAF)- Scouts BSA Troop 435 Star Scout Claire Matherly completed a remarkable journey last week, earning her “50 Miler” Badge. She, and her dad Daniel Matherly hiked an additional 15 miles, as well as performing trail cleanup along the way, all in five days time.

 In total, the pair hiked 65.06 miles; that’s 114,744 steps.

Star Scout Claire and her father, Daniel, set out on the camping hiking adventure on March 17 and completed their journey on March 21, earning Claire the 50 Miler award. The 50 miler Award is earned by a scout who covers 50 miles of trail by hiking, canoeing, or bicycling 50 consecutive miles over a minimum of 5 days. 

Claire and Daniel camped and hiked to meet the requirements for this award. According to Troop 435 Scout Leader Liz White, she and the rest of the troop are “so proud of their achievement.”

“She did an amazing job; they also completed over 10 hours of trail cleanup along the way and Claire and her dad earned many frost points since they were camping in the the freezing temperatures during that five days,” White said.

Claire said she had a great time on the adventure and detailed the different trails she and her father completed to make up the total. 

“At Norris Dam State Park, we did the Storybook trail, Christmas fern trail, Tall Timbers trail, the Lakeview Trail, the High Point Trail, the Homestead Trail, the Paw Paw Trail, the Marine Railway trail, the ChuckMoore Trail, and the Elkins trail. In TVA land we did the Songbird Loop and the River Bluff trail. In Norris municipal park and Forest, we did the clear Creek Trail and the lower white pine trail,” Claire Matherly said.

While she was hiking, fellow Troop 435 Scouts sent her encouraging messages along the way.

The community was introduced to Claire last Thursday evening when she gave the scout speech for the Good Scout Dinner at Ball Farm.

Claire and her family moved to Campbell County from Texas, and it was actually her siblings who wanted to join Scouts.

At first Claire said she didn’t really want to join Scouts, but 10 months later and she has “fallen in love” with Scouts BSA. 

Claire said it was Scouts that helped her find her love of camping and hiking and that prior to joining Troop 435, she had only been camping two times. Now, she is an avid hiker as well and describes both as her “passions in life.” 

Claire also attributes Scouts to helping her choose a career path in conservation and biology through dual enrollment at the high school and the community college. 

She said she also enjoys the volunteer aspect of scouting, especially volunteering at the food pantry and the animal shelter.

“Scouts has given me a sense of family in the troop, allowed me to meet new people and make new friendships; in scouting we learn to be giving and active members of the community. Scouting has changed my life and made it better in every aspect,”  Matherly said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 3/30/2023- 6AM)