TROOP 253 - 30 Miler LOG - EMIGRANT WILDERNESS

The following is transcribed from the log kept by Chrissy with other contributors (underlined names at beginning of section). The original is on file in the troop archives.

30 Miler Journal July 1995

By: Chrissy, Karen, Shannon, Courtney, Larissa, Melinda, Tina, Anna, & Crowd

Maintained by Chrissy - entries made by the various scouts.

Transcribed (and slightly edited) by Heber Slusser

Saturday - June 15, 1995

Day 1 - Day of Departure

Chrissy

Our 30 Miler adventure started in the car on the last leg of an 18 mile long, and windy road, when the car over heated. So Tina, Genie, and I went out of the car to see what happened. Apparently the coolant got too hot. Tina's mom got out and started fanning but it wasn't going well. So as soon as the needle got down to regular temperature we started again. We only got about 50 feet and it did it again. This time we got water and cooled it off to the point we made it to the trail head. But after 4 hours in a car on windy and semi windy roads none of us felt our best. We sat and talked while we waited for Mrs. Wainrights car over heated. When all was taken care of we set off on the trail. The sights were beautiful, but we had to have a big uphill trek. It was a mile and it was very hard!! We got off to a late start so we were in the heat of the day! The packs were very HEAVY! Chrissy, Karen, Tina, and Shannon saw the cutest little frog. We took a picture of it and named it Phil Fogay. When we finally got close to camp there was a wide creek in our way without rocks to hop on. So we took our boots off and walked across. Then it was a short walk to our chosen camp.

Day 2 - Cross Country

Courtney

Courtney (trail Leader)

Today was a very difficult day!!! There was way too much uphill and we ended in the wrong spot!!! Oh well the scenery was very pretty. We had to go through a lot of bushes that cut up our legs very badly. Courtney got 24 cuts and Shannon got 21! That hurt a lot.

Anna

Today was very tiring. My feet hurt, and I have lots of mosquito bites (I don't want anymore). There was a lot of uphill, and downhill. I got lots and lots of cuts (but not as much as Courtney and Shannon). Other than that it was a great day.

We also watched a spectacular lightning storm over the next hill.

Day 3 - Cross Country/Stormy

Karen

Icy Layover!! That was one bad day! Well, some of it was okay I guess. We got to sleep in until about 9, then we had granola for breakfast (yum!). We put on our wind breakers and started off toward Flora Lake (where we were supposed to be the night before). It poured!!! When we got to Flora Lake, it cleared up a little bit, so we started a campfire. We huddled around the fire drinking cocoa and cider and eating gorp. Here's where the fun part (for me) begins. I was sitting on a log, with my cider in my lap, not thinking much, when I decided I was kinda hungry. I bent down to get some gorp, and ... guess what? You got it! I spilled my cider all over my bare legs. "AACHMYGODTHAT'SHOT" was my immediate response (after that there were just multiple whimpers and moans). Mr. Tucker and Mr. Slusser, canteens in hands, came flying at me and started emptying the canteens on my legs. Man, that felt better! Suddenly there were lots of people offering their canteens to be poured on me. I told Mr. T./Mr. S. where it still stung and they put water there. For a while it hurt to bend my knees or touch my legs, but soon the pain stopped and I was happy again. By then it had warmed up and we went swimming. We dried off, ate dinner, and went to sleep. I forgot something, sorry! One of the times that Chrissy and I were down at the lake, we came back following a cool series of logs that started at the lake and ended at our campsite. Pretty spiffy, huh? Also, we found "Speedy". Speedy was a little green caterpillar that I found on my sleeve after walking through the ferns. I'm done now, bye!

Day 4 - more cross country

Anna - Trail Leader

Today was a different day! I was the trail leader, and wasn't very good at it. I always took the wrong way (or the hard one). Tina and Chrissy were always getting ahead of me, because they scouted for the easiest trail. They nicknamed them selves "spider women". There were a couple of waterfalls that were really cool. There was one that we took off our packs, and put on our aqua socks and waded for 45 minutes.

Chrissy

Today was a hard trail day. Me and Tina scouted ahead and there was one spot where the only way we could find a good spot for the others was to get to the top of a big rock. The only way we saw that was the easiest way was up an almost cliff covered with bushes. To get up it we clung to the bushes and the cliff and climbed up the cliff. But we found an easier way up it for the rest of the group when we were all up it we sat and ate lunch and I cleaned my cuts and scrapes. The next hardest part was climbing up beside a waterfall, that was too hard to describe. Then somehow I pulled a tendon behind my right knee, and I didn't want to complain so I just told Mr. S. and whoever was around us at the time. But I was really hurting and someone always had something for them to do so I don't think anyone realized it hurt. So I had to be a little more pushy and Mr. S. tried to help but I felt crippled the rest of the day.

Day 5 - Boundary Lake

Shannon

Today we got to sleep in a little, then we hit the trail. Karen was our trail leader. We only had an easy mile and a half, so we got to Boundary Lake by lunch. Boundary Lake is at 7,600 feet elevation. After lunch we cleaned clothes, washed hair and went swimming. Then we talked and played cards and got sun burnt (on accident). Karen and Chrissy tried fishing, but didn't have much luck. The lake is beautiful, big and cooold! Sunny, but a bit windy. We also had found a few small patches of snow around us. Then we all had dinner - Sierra Chicken - yuck! Then Chrissy, Larissa and I (Shannon) made the campfire while everyone else tried to bear bag. We had campfire, talked about the day and then went to sleep.

Day 6 - Layover Day

Courtney

Today was a boring day for some of the people that didn't go on the day hike stayed behind and talked. Later on Larissa, Melinda, and Courtney played poker for M&Ms. People went swimming and just lounged around. Tina had a shot at climbing a tree to get a bear bag rope down, but with no success. When the people got back from the day hike they thought that it would be a good idea to hit the other people with snowballs. All in all I would have to say that today was good, but no cheese.

Tina

This day has been one interesting event after another. Right after breakfast, I waded in the lake for a little while. It was really cold! Soon after I had dried off and changed, a group of us went to look at Cherry Creek. It was amazing! White water in many, many places. There was a little pool at the top of the creek and we stuck our toes in. My gosh, the water was practically ice! Even while writing this, I can imagine the feeling of cold water on my toes. After, we had quite an adventure trying to get a rope down from our bear bagging tree but I'll just say we ended up breaking the tip of the branch off, therefore retrieving the rope. Don't worry, it was a dead tree anyway.

We all had a good night's sleep to end the only real lay-over day.

Day 7 - Almost Home

Chrissy

Today wasn't much of a hike. We got to our 1st campsite at about noon and ate lunch. Then we moved to another spot and all of us got out our ensolite pads and found a nice spot to nap. We were next to an old park station but it was all boarded up so the noisy ones got frustrated and stomped away still curious. But while we were napping they decided to move to another campsite. We were all upset. The rest of the day was a lazy one. Larissa and Melinda found a caterpillar and I named it "Spike" so they built a playground for him. Then we went to cook dinner and he crawled away. (We are almost home :-) )

Courtney

Today was a very nice hiking day. It was very easy and good. Larissa was a very good trail leader. The rest of the day went by really slowly, but I guess that's because we are so close to home! :-) A lot of the time we were sleeping and moving around. Moving around so much turned into kind of a pain. We ended up at a pretty good campsite. Everyone is very excited about going home tomorrow. We will finally have a shower and some non-dehydrated food! Less than half-a-day left! Can't wait!!! :-) :-) :-) . Today was also good, but no cheese LaLaLaLaLa LaLaLaLaLa La LaLaLaLa LaLaLaLa Packs are nice and LIGHT [picture of a smiling face here].