Another warm night. I slept much better and didn’t need the bag as a blanket until 3:30am. I stayed awake from 3:30am until 4am. At 4am I began my chores and got the crew up at 4:15am. The crew was on fire this morning, getting the jobs done quickly, and we walked out of our campsite at 5am.

We walked past the cabin and dropped packs at the mesa trail junction. From there we hiked up to inspiration point for a devotion and the Wilderness Pledge from Tim, and for sunrise. The sun peeked through at 5:58am and was fully up at 6am. We took pictures then headed back down to our packs. After we loaded up, we said “Goodbye” to Tim and he prayed for a safe trek for the crew. There were a few very minor things that I thought Tim could have done differently. Other than that, he was a great ranger.

We began our hike up Urraca mesa at 6:30am. We ate breakfast just before beginning the hike down to Stonewall Pass. The navigating by Sofie was very good – we had many trail crossings to negotiate, and Sofie made the correct choice on all of them. The first part of the trail downhill from Stonewall Pass towards Lovers Leap was steep (it turns out we took the old trail instead of the new, switch-back trail) and then came out on a beautiful meadow bisected with a line of trees down the middle. After a talk with Scott at Lovers Leap we continued on, beginning the uphill climb into Miners Park. It was already warm and was turning hot very quickly but a breeze was blowing. Most of the hike offered shade, but in places we walked in full exposure to the sun. Sarah began complaining of her feet hurting about a quarter-mile from Miners Park. Elmer convinced her we were close to camp and she hiked on like a trooper. I also found out she was out of water, having drained her platypus earlier, so I loaded her up with the rest of my water.

We got to Miners Park at 11am and checked in at the cabin – again, first crew to arrive for the day. We saw James Burt on the porch. He was suffering from an intestinal problem and was waiting for a chaplain’s ride back into base camp. We also learned here that Elmer J had left the trail at Crater Lake. Travis was given the choice of dropping packs and climbing then or setting up camp and climbing at 1pm. Travis and the crew chose to set up camp now and climb later. The staff at Miners Park let Travis pick our campsite since we were first in camp. Travis picked a campsite back up the trail a bit, but it was on our way out of camp the next morning.

We got the bear bags up quickly and ate lunch before our 12:15pm deadline to depart in order to make the 1pm climb. It took about 30 minutes to walk up to the climbing area affectionately called “Betty’s Bra.” We all grabbed hard hats near the site and continued on to the climbing area. We were climbing after a very short instructional talk about proper terminology including “rope,” “rock,” “climbing,” and “slack.” As we began to climb, we could hear the sound of distant thunder. The clouds were nowhere near us at the time, so we were able to continue climbing. Marshall and Rhys both attempted the harder of the two climbing roots known as “Snakebite.” Marshall could not get past the hardest part of the climb, but Rhys made it to the top. Sofie, Travis, Elmer, Robert, & I attempted the easier climb “Weenie Roast.” This was the same climb I made back in 1981. Travis didn’t make it up, but the rest of us did. Elmer flopped around on the rock a bit, showed some shake-leg, and did the beached whale over the top to the laughter of his audience. I thought the climb was fun. I jumped once reaching for a big handhold the staff called “the chalupa” and fell about 4 feet before being caught by my belay. After the fall I made the climb pretty quickly (the audience said I also showed some shake leg and Marshall said I had the biggest calves he’d ever seen, but I did not do the beached whale over the top…). The rappel was fun, but was over way too fast. I didn’t have any of the fear of leaning back and trusting the rope, and went down quickly.

After climbing, we returned to our campsite to finish setting up camp. The clouds that had brought the earlier distant thunder were approaching, and thunder could still be heard from time to time. The clouds also brought a fairly dramatic drop in temperatures – from hot to mild. Our campsite was beautiful with level tent sites and plenty of space. After we finished securing our tents and personal gear, we hit the shower house for showers and laundry.

The camp had propane heated water – no Tabasco donkey for us! The hot water and campsuds worked their magic and refreshed the crew. After we showered, we taught the crew how to use the washboards to launder clothes. I think they had a really good time doing laundry – seeing how dirty the water got from their clothes after just 4 days on the trail. While we were doing laundry, the skies opened up for a tiny rain shower and a little more thunder. We finished the laundry and carried it all back to camp to hang out on clothes lines.

After showers and laundry, Elmer and I walked over to the cabin to enjoy the porch and to take staff up on their offer to write post cards home for us (they wrote a 25^th anniversary letter for an advisor the week before). I was going to have staff write one to Jessica & Chelsea. The staff writers were still up at the climbing area, so we said we would return for advisors’ coffee to give the writers our cards. I wrote a postcard to dad and journaled a bit while enjoying the porch. Another tiny rain shower came through while we were there, but it wasn’t enough to get us up and back to camp to take clothes down from the lines. Staff had installed a hummingbird feeder on the porch, and we were entertained by the confrontations of four hummingbirds. Around 6pm we walked back to camp.

The kids did a great job on dinner. The mashed potatoes got mixed in the pot, but the meal was very tasty nonetheless. Rhys and I did KP, then Elmer led a devotion on the trials of trail day 3 before an early TB&R. Elmer and I walked back to the cabin to drop off our postcards, then returned to camp. We went over the remainder of the trek with the crew, then we got the crew into bed early. I got into the tent at 8:30pm and journaled the day’s events before sleeping.

The crew was great again today. No complaints throughout the day.

(journal of Shane Hoffman)