Happy Trails: Sophomores Vaughn Davis, Henry Byrd and Maddie Torkelson’s love for hiking led them to start a hiking club this year

During his Boy Scouts summer camp, sophomore Henry Byrd and his group of seven friends were surrounded by shrubs and small bushes as they trekked through the green forest at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation.

After deciding to go for an afternoon hike, they walked for nearly three miles when they passed a mile marker labeled Osage Wilderness Trail — a trail they weren’t supposed to be on. They were lost. 

Byrd and his friends turned around and, with a vague sense of where they were, retraced their steps until they found their way back after five hours, jokingly blaming one of their friends for getting them lost.

“I just remember it brought me close to all those people,” Byrd said. “And it was, well, not in the moment, enjoyable, [but] thinking back on it, it makes me laugh.”

After the disorienting hike, Byrd came up with the idea to start a hiking club at East this summer with sophomores Maddie Torkelson and Vaughn Davis. The club is geared towards students who want to get into hiking. All three of them are now co-presidents of the hiking club.

After having their first meeting on Sept. 27 they decided they will meet bi-weekly to decide which trails to hike at least once a month as well as ideas for events like campfires. In the future, the presidents want to include a rafting trip or a trip to Lake Jacomo to hike and walk around the lake.

East science teacher Joshua Parker agreed to sponsor the club after teaching Torkelson in her eighth grade science class.

“[Monitoring the club] is pretty easy because they just needed a teacher sponsor, and it’s really just been [the students] organizing trips to go hiking,” Parker said. “I wanted to make it student driven.”

According to Torkelson, they wanted a science teacher who could appreciate the beauty and science behind nature while on a hike.

“I love the outdoors and I love the idea of the students getting out and [hiking],” Parker said. “So I was like I’ll definitely be a proponent for [this to happen].”

Currently, their club consists of around 20 students, some who hike regularly and some who have never hiked before. 

The presidents of the club hope to start members with easy and local trails to hike and work their way up to harder ones. 

On all hikes, difficult or easy, Byrd and Davis plan ahead to make sure they have fully charged phones and at least two people carrying first aid kits in case of an emergency.

“Usually me and Vaughn bring first aid kits that are completely stacked,” Byrd said. “We try to have two people have them, one at the front of the line of people and one at the back of the line, just to make sure in case anything happens we would be there to check them out.”

In addition to first aid kits, students bring snacks for the lengthy trip.

Packed with full water bottles and granola bars, 10 members of the club hiked at Shawnee Mission Park on Oct. 6th for two hours — their first hiking excursion. According to Byrd, a good amount of people showed up to hike where they saw a group of turkey vultures circling them overhead.

“[Hiking is] just so beautiful, quiet, and it’s really nice to be away from screens,” Torkelson said.