LEADER'S EVALUATION, 1989 "50 MILER" IN THE MOKELUMNE WILDERNESS...

On July 8 through 15, six girls, women and men of Troop 253 hiked our ninth annual Fifty Miler hike in the Mokelumne Wilderness (located in the Sierras, near Carson Pass). Originally meant to be our easiest "50", it turned out to be physically demanding. However, it was visually beautiful, a great teambuilding experience and very rewarding to all participants. It taught us (once again) the importance of being flexible and adaptable to the circumstances as we found them. It was unusual in that the weather was perfect, with cloudless, warm days and cool nights. All of the participants returned home renewed in spirit and in our sense of self confidence. A list of participants is attached.

As is our habit every year, our preparations consisted of a series of planning meetings at which the girls approved of the location and route proposed by their leaders, and did nearly all of the planning for the trip. This included finances, prep hike schedule, keeping of the journal and checking out the equipment. At the last minute, the girls who had chosen to plan the menu and buy the food had to cancel, and that duty was assumed (for the first time in nine such outings) by the leaders. Adult participation in the planning was otherwise limited to restocking the first aid kits and filing the various applications for insurance, Council permission for the outing, and camping/fire permits.

As usual, the latter part of June and the first part of July were devoted to a series of preparation hikes, designed to tune up our hearts, lungs and legs. However, this year's "Fifty" was our earliest ever, a situation forced by other commitments Most of us had in late July and August. As a consequence, our prep hike schedule was the shortest ever, with only 50 miles of such hikes available; some of us left for the outing with as little as 18 miles to our credit. Knowing this would be the case, we deliberately chose a route and location designed to be both easy and low in altitude (to avoid any late snow),

On the last night before the trip, each girl and adult brought her (or his) pack to the annual pack inspection for checking and weighing. Each person was required to have everything called out on the troop's 50 Miler equipment list and nothing else (except for six ounces of discretionary material). At the end of this "dump it out" inspection of personal items, the patrol equipment and food were divided among the members of each of the two patrols. The packs were then weighed, and (as usual) we found that several girl's packs were severely overweight. The usual redistribution of food took place, packs were given a second weighing, and they were impounded for the night lest they pick up weight during the night. Girls' packs weighed in at 32 to 38 pounds, with the two leaders carrying 50+ pounds each. Our packs were heavier than we would have liked, mostly due to the weight of this year's food.

We hit the trail organized into two three person patrols (rather than our usual four person teams), each with one troop leader and each entirely self sufficient in every way. The troop leader in each Patrol acted as his team's first aid officer. Because backpacker's freeze dried food is generally packaged for two people, our cooking in camp was done in three pairs of people, a slight deviation from our usual rigid patrol system of organization.

Before describing the route, it is worth noting that heavy business travel schedules and other outside commitments for the leaders created an unforeseen problem for this "Fifty." Because of severe time constraints, neither of us had the ten hours or so required to make a careful plan and proposal for our outing, so we chose to use an old one voted down during the planning for our troop's 1987 "Fifty". In the creation of that plan, we had used a rather poor quality map; the result was what appeared to be an easy hike with no more than 4000 feet of total altitude gain and existing trails all the way through. Just prior to the trip, we ordered USGS topo maps and an updated Forest Service map; both are required, since the Forest Service map contains the latest information on the trails and the USGS topo maps are the most accurate regarding contours and geographical features. However, neither of us had the time to compare the maps to our two year old plan; we simply stashed them in our packs for use during the hike. In so doing, we failed to remember the lesson we learned during our 1986 outing; trails are often not where they are supposed to be and the careful wilderness hiker must take the time to transcribe the Forest Service map's trails onto his topo maps and check the result. Three days into our trip we found that conditions were not as we had expected them to be; trails were gone, and we encountered over 6000 feet of total altitude gain, making this our physically toughest "Fifty" ever (taking into account our limited number of prep hikes).

Saturday's walk went according to plan, except for a little cross country work being required to locate our destination for the night, Scout Carson Lake. Sunday went well, with one of the first-timer girls leading us out in a morning cross country shortcut, using her compass, until we found the trail (about a mile away and right were it was supposed to be). Monday's walk began well enough, with a clearly marked trail down into the canyon below Mud Lake. We could not find the intersecting southbound trail at the bottom of the canyon, and we had to resort to two miles of cross country hiking through a forest heavily littered with fallen timber (once again led by a first-timer, using her compass) until we picked up the faint path. We climbed out of the canyon towards Upper Pardoes, finding the altitude gain to be more than we expected. It was lunchtime at Upper Pardoes when we encountered more problems, failing to find either the spring (which was indicated on our maps) or the trail down into Cole Creek Canyon. Lunch nearly depleted the supply of water in our canteens, and it was a long way back to the nearest source of water, so we elected to cross country hike down into the canyon (led by the leaders, using topo maps and compass). This turned out to be the most difficult hike we have encountered in the 11 years we have been a backpacking' troop. The canyon was steep, with the moderate slopes covered by thick chest high brush and many parts of the route blocked by nearly vertical rock faces. At one point, we two leaders joined two 50 foot sections of rope to provide a security line for the girls descending a steep rock face. We arrived at the bottom of the canyon at 6:30pm, very tired, mildly dehydrated, and with our bare legs scratched up, but proud that we had succeeded in meeting the challenge and grateful to find a clean, flowing stream of water. The following day, Tuesday, we hiked down the canyon and climbed the eastern granite face, once again led by a girl using her compass (and her native ability to "read" the mountain to find the easiest path). To insure her success while she led us, we leaders would periodically refer to our maps, update our location, and give her a fresh compass heading to follow. We crossed a ridge and descended the other slope to break out of the forest (26 hours after beginning our cross country map and compass work) 50 feet from our goal, the Shriner Lake trailhead. We were at Shriner Lake by mid-afternoon. Wednesday, we elected to lay over at Shriner Lake to give ourselves a much needed rest, a lazy day of swimming, doing laundry, reading, playing cards and relaxing. That night, the girls prepared a Scouts Own, and we finished the evening with songs around the campfire. That night, we heard a bear in the brush near our sleeping bags; we had seen bear sign on our hike into Shriner Lake. On Thursday, we made up for lost time, spending a long day hiking 12 miles (including two more of cross country after the trail faded out) and climbing a total of 2400 feet; we arrived at Long Lake tired but satisfied. Friday's hike out to Hidden Lake was relatively easy, and we arrived early in the afternoon with plenty of time for swimming and relaxing; it was here that we encountered the first backpackers with whom we had to share the lake. We slept in on Saturday before our final hike of the trip, and once again we had to resort to some cross country work before we found our cars. We snacked, changed our clothing and made for the first pizza parlor for a hearty meal of "real" food, arriving home in the early evening.

We learned (and relearned) valuable lessons from our experience. The first is the need to check and double check the latest Forest Service and topo maps to avoid as many surprises as possible; because of the skills required, this is a job best left to the more experienced leaders. The second is the fact that backpacking is less popular than it was five or ten years ago, and many trails are being neglected for lack of use; the wise backpacker must be flexible and prepared for any eventuality. Third, the troop's leaders must present a united front to the girls at all times.

Finally, we were once again reminded that an outing such as this one takes us deep into the wilderness, at times finding us a hard two day hike from civilization and help. On this "Fifty," days passed without our seeing another human being. This fact requires that the adult leaders be highly knowledgeable and experienced in working with topo maps and the compass, in wilderness first aid, "bear bagging" of food, and other wilderness skills. Constant vigilance is required in observing the girls; is there sufficient water in each canteen, is someone limping, is everyone in sight of each other, do we need a break to rest? To provide instruction to the girls and to avoid making mistakes, the leaders must constantly communicate with each other, discussing each step of the day's hike. During the difficult passages of our journey, one of us took the lead and the other brought up the rear, keeping all "our" girls between us. The girls commented on our constant chatter and muttering back and forth over their heads as we compared notes, shared observations and ideas, and made decisions.

This had been meant to be an easy "Fifty" and we arose relative late each morning (about 7:00am) throughout the trip. We made our breakfast, cleaned up, packed our gear and were usually on the trail by 8:30am (rather late for us). Because our group was small this year, and the trails were nonexistent in so many places, we always stayed together. Upon reaching our destination each day, we made camp and attended to our chores. Upon arrival, our SPL designated a portion of the forest for women to use and another for the men. On rotation, each patrol gathered fire wood for the evening's fire, with the other patrol picking foil (from the burned food packages) the next morning. At Mud Lake, where we did not find an existing fire ring, we leaders demonstrated the construction of a minimum impact campfire for the girls, teaching them how to dig a shallow pit for the campfire and covering over the cleaned ashes the next morning, leaving no trace of our having been there. Each day, after unpacking and setting up, we bear bagged our food and did our laundry, cleaned our hair and swam. By sunset, our dinner and dishes were done and the campfire was lit. Unlike recent year's, this "Fifty" saw us singing around the campfire nearly every night.

This year saw us adopt the latest recommendation for backpackers, burning used sanitary products. This avoids the problem of having them dug up by animals when they are buried. The procedure worked very well, with no evidence of them remaining when the campfire ashes were examined each morning.

Our weather was ideal, uniformly clear and warm, with cloudless days and nights. One morning, we found frost on our sleeping bags. All other nights saw temperatures in the low 40's. This year, one leader brought a lightweight barometer/altimeter, both to help us find ourselves on our topo maps, and to give us early warnings of any changes in the weather. It turned out to be very useful for the former and of no value for the latter. .

This "Fifty" saw no real problems with equipment.

There were no real medical problems on this hike. We suffered the usual problems of mosquito bites (the mosquito problem was severe this year) and blisters on feet, as well as a host of minor cuts and abrasions on our legs. Monday's hard hike brought out blisters and foot problems even in the two leaders who had never suffered from them before. As usual, our first aid kits and supplies (see attached list) were more than adequate for our needs.

Six members of Troop 253 shared in the challenge and delights of a 63 mile backpacking adventure in the wild and unused Mokelumne Wilderness. Each evening we sang around a warm campfire and each day brought fresh adventures and challenges for us to meet and enjoy. We worked as a team throughout the outing; we leaders both agreed that in many ways, this was the troop's best "Fifty" ever. Unlike previous trips, we didn't wait 'til Wednesday to fall into a pattern of true team-work; it happened right from the first day on the trail. We grew to appreciate each other and shared with each other our delight in the wild and rugged beauty with surrounded us, and we drew a fresh sense of confidence from meeting (and beating) the challenges which the "the mountain" threw up before us. As usual, our enthusiasm was so great that we began to plan for next year's 50 Miler in the Trinity Alps. We two leaders, who put so much importance upon courage, self-reliance and outdoors skills in "our" girls, were so proud to see them once again prove the wisdom of the Roman philosopher Virgil when he observed