Backpacking trip

As if I didn't have enough fun the last time, I took our Priest Quorum into Lost Creek Wilderness on the same loop we did last fall.  I added an extra day to the trip and this time it went much smoother!

 Here is our group at the start.  Yes, that is a school bus in the background.  There was a group of kids who had been hiking in the area for 23 days (they started around Memorial day!)

 Somehow we all got the bright idea that we had to eat an ant to be a man.  Yes, I ate an ant- and it wasn't a small one either.

We had a boy with us who had never hiked or camped before.  I knew that going in, so I planned a lot of flex.  The first day we did not make it as far as I wanted, so we camped near where we had lunch the first day.  I did a lot of double packing that day, and couldn't help but think of Kevin and Travis on our hike- thanks for helping me through.

The second day we made it over the pass (I was so proud of that boy!) and down to the shaft house.  He then hiked out as planned with our teacher's quorum who had hiked in from Goose Creek trailhead below to meet us for the day.

We continued our hike the second day and camped at the far end of Refridgerator Gulch on Lost Creek.

 The next morning part of our group hiked in the creek through a cave while the rest of us went around.

 Here they are on the other side.

 Here is our traditional pose once they came up out of the river.

 Camp Desparation- I felt MUCH better this time!

 You could still see the coals from our fire on the side of the trail.  The weather was beautiful the whole trip, so no need to dry out soggy clothes or morale.

Our third night we camped in McCurdy Park-McCurdy Tower is behind us.  About a quarter mile before we hit this meadow, we saw a moose grazing in some brush- pretty cool.

 An abandoned cabin in McCurdy Park.  The lower meadow was all marshy and it was fun to walk around on the squishy grass.

 In keeping with tradition, we stopped again on top and I told them the story of my having no energy and eating ice cream to keep going.  I then shared some ice cream with them.  You should have seen their faces.  They said ice cream never tastes better than at 11,500 feet!

 Almost there, and no snow this time.

 We made it to the top!

 

They were tired by the end of the trail.

 

All in all, it was a great trip.  I used a lot of the experiences from the first trip and discovered new items this time around.  Adding in the extra day really helped.  The boys were amazed at how far we traveled each day on our fall trip. 

I know the boys had fun as we talked about it around church today.  Throughout the trip, we had a running joke about "jerky chew."  At priesthood, I walked around the corner to 5 smiling boys with their "cha" in their lower lips- (thanks to the other advisor who went with us.)

Brant