Every summer a small group of girls and men go on a week long camping trip together. This week is spent working, playing and just having fun. It is called "The Fifty Miler".

This Fifty Miler was a long backpacking trip into the Emigrant Wilderness, as you will see.

This tough group of hikers was made up of some new and old backpacker. The head honchos were Mr. V. Tucker and Mr. R. Bourdett. Then the number one girl backpacker, with over five hundred miles, Mary Anne Tucker. Pam Wigdahl and Cindy Giver were the two others older girls. Mary Anne, Pam and Cindy make up the Groovie Patrol. The newest girl was Jennifer Kirby going on her first Fifty.

All these people are members of a wonderful organization, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A in Santa Clara County. The troop number is 253.

Saturday all the girls got up early to leave for the Emigrant Wilderness. We left from Mr. Tucker's house and drove for about six hours to a cabin at which Mrs. Duca, Mr. Jorgenson, Denise Duca, and Paul Duca were staying at. Then we drove on with them to Kennedy Meadows, our destination. We ate dinner with the Duca's and slept at a campground near Kennedy Meadows.

Sunday morning we ate our last real food meal for a week. There we said good bye to the Duca's and we were on the trail. That day it started raining about lunch time so we stopped under a tree to eat lunch and wait out the rain. We waited about an hour, but the rain never stopped. We then started hiking in the rain, and made it to Saucer Meadow about four o'clock.

The shelters were erected in a dry spell, and dinner was then cooked. This was the best dinner in the week, Beef Stroganoff. We had a small fire, then went to bed.

Monday morning we got up and ate breakfast and were on the trail by eight, if your watch is two hours slow.

This was the wet feet day. We started at about eighty eight hundred feet and went to about ninety two hundred feet and back down to eighty eight hundred feet. At about nine thousand feet snow became very profuse.

Today was also the highest day. We climbed Mosquito Pass and down to Emigrant Lake.

Tuesday was a long day we hiked along the trail but then we had to cross country to get over to another because the one we were on just dead ended at Long Lake.

During the cross country we went over a bridge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in September 3, 1039.

Then we got to camp (Buck Lakes) around one. We lay around for a while and Jennifer went into the water (49 degrees F). We all washed our hair and clothes and felt a little cleaner.

Wednesday we hiked for a long time through muddy swampy areas to get to a little meadow where we went into the trees to camp.

We ate dinner and then had to hang our food because of marmots. The next morning we saw a …. Of a marmot. It was … brown creature about four inches high - very limber and fat. I though it was cute.

Thursday we broke camp and started hiking. We hiked down some very steep hills. Every stream / river we passed we wondered, because the day before we had been told about a river we would have to cross which was nearly uncrossable.

We kept on hiking until about twelve o'clock when the trail was blocked by a river. This was it the famed uncrossable river. All six of us then took off our boots and donned our tennis shoes. Then Mr. Tucker took hold of one end of a rope and Mr. Bourdett held the other and off wen Mr. Tucker to cross the stream. Then with them holding the rope, we girls and finally Mr. Bourdett crossed. Just when we felt we were on safe ground the leaders realized we were on island. Off we went again only this time the water was up to our thighs. Everyone made it so we camped that night at Relief Reservoir.

Friday was a very laid-back day. We didn't break cam until twelve or one o'clock. We made it back to Kennedy Meadows around four. Then we all piled into the cars and left.

I feel that this year's Fifty Miler was fun and enjoyable. I feel that all the other girls and leaders felt the same

A word about the food. The food was pretty good for freeze dried food, but not as good as some. The worst food was the freeze dried Beef Teriyaki. I feel most of the group agrees with me.