As is our habit each year, our preparations centered around a series of planning meetings at which the girls approved of the location and route proposed by troop leaders, and did nearly all of the planning for the trip. This included finances, menu, prep hike schedule, keeping of the journal and preparation of the equipment. Smaller teams and individual girls performed much of the preparatory work for the outing outside of these meetings, at which they would provide a weekly report on their progress. Adult participation in the planning was limited to restocking the first aid kits and filing the various applications for insurance, Council permission for the outing, and camping/fire permits, as well as obtaining maps and backcountry restrictions. We got an early start this year, with signups held in March and weekly planning meetings beginning in April.

Despite the early start, we did not begin soon enough. At our April 24 meeting, we chose Ray's proposal for a trans Sierra hike and elected to begin our trip at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. Since this trailhead (like all others along this segment of the John Muir Trail) is under a quota system, we applied the next day to the Yosemite Wilderness Office for reservations, only to learn that the quota for July 13 was already filled! Reservations are accepted beginning on February 1, and that is when we should have put in our request. However, a series of telephone calls to two "pro-Scout" rangers resulted in our being given a portion of the quota which was being held in reserve. We sent letters to those rangers to express our gratitude for their time, and for their help in obtaining our wilderness reservations.

Not having forgotten the lessons learned during our 1987 "Fifty" when we were a mob of 18 on the trail, we had attempted to restrict this year's outing to 12 people at the maximum. A system of deciding whom had priority in the event that more than 12 applied was established in March. At the time of the first planning meeting, we had 13 on our roster, and we voted to override our limit in order to accommodate that extra person.

All of June and the first week of July were devoted to a series of Wednesday evening and Saturday (all day) preparation hikes, as well as our traditional week-end 22 Miler, all designed to tune up our hearts, lungs and legs. 98 miles of such prep hikes were scheduled, and each participant was expected to complete at least 35 miles before the "Fifty" began. Traditionally, we have done our Wednesday evening hikes up "Prasek's Ridge" (a tough and dusty 1200 foot climb along a ridge above Saratoga Springs). This year, we substituted a hike at Rancho San Antonio for two of our Wednesday walks. What this location lacked in challenge was more than made up by its charm. Our Saturday hikes included ten or eleven milers at Mount Madonna County Park, Monte Bello O.S.R., Henry Cowell Redwoods S.P., and Rancho San Antonio. Our 22 Miler was from Big Basin Redwoods S.P. headquarters to Waterman Gap and back, using a somewhat circuitous route.

On the last night before the trip, all girls and adults brought their packs to the annual pack inspection for checking and weighing. Each person was required to pack everything called out on the troop's 50 Miler Equipment List (see attached) and nothing else (except for six ounces of discretionary material). At the end of this "dump it out" inspection of personal items, we divided up troop furnished equipment, supplies and food between the members of each of the three patrols. The packs were then weighed, and (as usual) we found that several girls' packs were overweight. The usual redistribution of food and equipment took place, packs were given a final weigh-in, and they were impounded to prevent them from picking up additional weight during the night. Girls' and women's' packs weighed in at 32 to 46 pounds, with the male leaders carrying as much as 55 to 60 pounds each. Our packs were a bit heavy this year, due to the weight of the special food (see below).

We hit the trail organized into three self-sufficient patrols. Each patrol included at least one troop Leader and one man skilled in mountaineering. We would have liked to have each patrol include one person skilled in wilderness first aid, but we had only two such on this outing.

Participants (and their assignments) were:

Carrie Reese, Senior Patrol Leader

Karen Voisinet

Genie Moore, Equipment

Paula Flaugher, Food/Menu

Ray Waugh,* First Aider, Troop Leader

Doreen Luther, Ass't Senior Patrol Leader

Julie Pew, Finance

Barbara Abbott *

Vem Tucker,* First Aider, Troop Leader

Kim Wulfhorst,* Troop Leader

Samantha Spring*

Sunshine Whitehurst

Charlie Moore*

* indicates an adult

In years past, we have hit the trail with a set of specific campsites to be reached by the end of each day. In recent years, we have begun to abandon this practice, since we have sometimes found ourselves struggling late into the day to meet some arbitrary objective, having been slowed by some unexpected problem. This year, we left the trailhead with no other plan than to come out at the Devil's Postpile around noon the following Saturday. This proved to be a wise decision, as we found many portions of the outing to be a bit more difficult than expected. The plan included a little over 5000 feet of altitude gain for the week. Since we had climbed more on previous "Fifties," we thought it to be a reasonable goal. However, much of the outing was spent at altitudes above 9500 feet and the thin air made climbing difficult for all of us.

Each of the three men in the party carried a set of USGS topo maps, as well as the latest Forest Service map and the listing of camping and fire restrictions which are in effect.

We left the trailhead in Tuolumne Meadows on Saturday, the 13th, punching out 8 miles of nearly level hiking before choosing a charming camp alongside Lyell Creek. Sunday was a hard day, requiring us to climb over 2000 feet up through Donohue Pass. All of us were fatigued when we reached the top, so we abandoned our goal of making it to Waugh Lake that day and hiked instead until we had dropped down to tree line (about 10,300 feet) and could locate a nice stream side camp where we could safely bear bag our food. We were compensated by the fact that our camp afforded us sweeping views of the mountains around and below us. On Monday, we made the short walk down to Waugh Lake where we set up camp well before lunch, giving us plenty of time for laundry, rest and fishing (the girls, women and men hauled in 11 trout that day!). Tuesday provided us with an easy hike over Island Pass, past Thousand Island Lake and up to a lovely camp at Emerald Lake. This was the first day in which we were really in the shadow of the rugged and spectacular Ritter Range, and all of us were delighted by the scenery. On Wednesday, we had a long and tiring hike past Garnet Lake to the trail junction where we left the John Muir Trail to hike up to dramatic Lake Ediza. Here, the girls chose to camp along the lake without a campfire (due to backcountry restrictions) rather than camp alongside the creek below the lake with a campfire. That night we experienced the only negative event of the outing. Around 3:30am, several horses and mules (turned loose at the lake by packers the evening before) wandered through our camp, waking everyone. Thursday was to be the highlight of our trip, and we were not disappointed. We began by avoiding a climb up and around a lakeside bluff by wading through the shallow perimeter of the lake. We then took the easy climb from Ediza up to aptly named Iceberg Lake, with huge sheets of ice floating on its surface and fields of snow on the steep rocky slopes dropping to the water's edge. At this point, the trail ended and we began our day of cross-country work. We spent hours working our way carefully around the south side of the lake, the entire length of which consisted of broken rock sloping very steeply down to the water's edge. Where fields of snow covered the rock and made the footing dangerous, we rigged safety lines for the girls and women to hold. Our efforts were rewarded by a late lunch at Cecile Lake, a lunar seascape of water, ice, rock and sky bracketed on two sides by the wild and rugged minarets of the Ritter Range. After lunch, we worked our way across the usual broken rock to the little pass overlooking Minaret Lake below. Here we found our path blocked by a cliff. However, we located a chimney in the rock with a vertical drop of no more than 15 or 20 feet with adequate toe and finger holds, and sent one of the male leaders down with the other holding a safety line from above. We lowered all of our packs down first, then each of us followed, secured by the safety line. Most of us enjoyed practicing our rock climbing skills! Wanting a campfire that night, we hiked past Minaret Lake to a very nice streamside camp below it. We hiked four miles in seven hours that eventful and exciting day; we arrived in camp feeling a bit tired. Friday, we slept in late, did our laundry, looked at the wonderful scenery and generally took it easy until we packed up and left camp at 2:00pm. Hiking through light showers, we arrived at our destination for the evening by 4:00pm, a streamside camp below Johnston Lake (an hour's hike from "civilization"). We set up shelters and occupied ourselves by reading, relaxing or playing cards while we rode out the afternoon's rainstorm. That evening, our last on the trail, we had our Scout's Own. Saturday saw us on the trail early, and we arrived at Red's Meadow in time for showers (provided by the natural hot springs) before catching the shuttle bus out to the Mammoth Mountain Inn (and our cars).

As is our tradition, we changed into fresh clothing at the cars so as to be presentable when we stopped for dinner (pizza, another tradition) on the road.

With the exception Of the 1986 "Fifty" in the John Muir Wilderness, all of our previous ten summertime outings have been loop hikes. This trip began in the western Sierra and ended on the eastern side, requiring that our vehicles be shuttled the 65+ miles from Tuolumne Meadows to the Devil's Postpile. We are indebted to Paul & Rosemarie Jorgensen, Jim and Beth Masch and Jason Wulfhorst for making the long trip and moving our truck and two cars. One vehicle was moved on July 13 and the other two on the 20th, providing us with at least one set of wheels at each end of the hike, a necessary safety precaution.

Except for four hours of light rain on Friday afternoon (and plenty of rain during the drive home), we had virtually perfect weather for the entire outing. Throughout the hike, we enjoyed alpine conditions, with daytime highs in the 60's and night time lows in the high 30's and low 40's. We awoke on Sunday morning to find frost on our sleeping bags, but nobody complained of the cold. Snow and ice at Iceberg and Cecile Lakes were typical of what is called the "early season". Had we come that way a week earlier, our chosen route would have been impassible.

As mentioned earlier, bears are a very real problem in this area. We saw fresh bear tracks in the mud at several locations, and listened to reports from other backpackers about food stolen during the night. One group leader told us how their food had been taken by a "kamikaze bear" of the type described by the National Forest Service people. This type of bear, often a cub, will climb out onto the limb of a tree from which food has been properly bagged, and will dive to the ground, catching one of the food bags on the way down. There is no bear bagging method which will save food from this type of bear. Nevertheless, our luck held and our largest "critter" problem turned out to be the voracious mosquitoes. At several locations along our route, we encountered the season's first hatch, with clouds of the bugs circling everyone. Several of the girls found our REI Jungle Juice to be ineffective against these starving insects.

Deer were spotted at several locations in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. As mentioned earlier, we were awaken by horses and mules in the middle of the night at Lake Ediza; a letter of protest to the National Forest Service is planned.

Along most of our route, wildflowers had just begun to bloom; in another week, they would have been much thicker and more colorful.

In general, we had no significant medical problems this year. Because the hike was a strenuous one, many of us lost weight during the week; one male leader shed six pounds.

The difficulty of the hike and our heavy packs during the early part of the week took a toll on feet, and a number of the women had to have blisters treated (using our usual method). One girl, who had developed problems with heel blisters before the outing began, suffered from painful and deep blisters all through the trip. By Tuesday, she began to show signs of a deep infection in one heel. After consulting Forgey's book (see References below), we put her on antibiotics (generic Keflex, three times a day) for the balance of the outing. The infection promptly subsided.

The very high altitude combined with lack of shade above treeline (which describes more than half our hike) produced some sunburn despite the generous use of sunblock on everyone's part. One girl developed a small second degree sunburn, which was covered with antibiotic ointment and bandaged. Within two days, it had healed over nicely.

For the first time, three of us brought water filters to use in place of iodine tablets to purify our drinking supply. We discovered that the taste of the resulting product was much nicer, but using the pumps was a bother. Most of us fell into a pattern of using the filter only for water which was to be drunk "straight" and using iodine tablets in the stuff which was to be flavored with Kool Aid.

Having adopted the advice in Meyer's book as a troop regulation, we made sure that all used sanitary products were carried in our backpacks until they could be burned in the evening's campfire. For the first time, the troop furnished each girl and woman with a quantity of little disposal bags of the type found in motels. Since they were made of glossy paper and not truly moisture-proof, this experiment turned out to be a disappointment and most troop members saved ziplock bags for the purpose.

It wouldn't be a Troop 253 "Fifty" without some novel adventure in first aid. One woman had severely lacerated the top of her foot less than two weeks before our departure. She arrived on Saturday with four of her seven stitches remaining, with doctor's orders to have them pulled during the week. Accordingly, we successfully pulled her stitches at Waugh Lake (using proper antiseptic procedures).

For the second year in a row, we ate food different from the commercial stuff that we (and other Fifty Miler troops) generally use. Paula, with help from her mother and armed with the experience of last year, did a remarkable job of providing us with "supermarket" backpacker's meals. In the main, the food was delicious and well chosen, and we generally had enough to eat. Very little of the food was freeze dried, and all of that was purchased in bulk from local stores (rather than our usual freeze dried Mountain House meals). She prepared several batches of jerky which were nothing short of terrific, and prepared several different kinds of chewy bars for lunch. We packed along plenty of dried milk (Milkman brand) for use in our meals. If we leaders had a complaint, it was that the breakfasts were too light for backpackers who do most of their work before lunch. Lunches were quite heavy and nourishing, generally the best meal of the day. Dinners were simple and more than adequate.

An additional advantage to this year's menu was the money it saved, compared to commercially prepared freeze dried meals. Paula provided food for one week (21 meals) for 13 people, or a total of 273 meals, for about $479 total or $1.75 per meal. This compares very favorably with the $2.50 per meal cost of the commercial food we used in 1989, and the $2.32 per meal she spent last year. Once again, the downside of our use of "real" food this year was the weight and bulk which it entailed.

Having learned in previous years of the importance of energy-packed drinks flavored with sugar, we packed sufficient quantities of lemonade and Kool Aid to make 182 quarts (two quarts per person per day). As was the case last year, the pre-measured drink envelopes were not bundled in with the meals; each person was separately given 14 envelopes to use at her or his discretion. Since some days placed heavier demands than others on our water intake, this worked out better than the old system.

In keeping with our decision to abandon daily hiking goals, we did not designate our meals by day this year. Thus, each breakfast, lunch and dinner saw the three patrols eating different meals, according to each team's preferences. This worked out well, allowing some teams to consume their heavier meals first, thus quickly reducing the weight being carried by the girls.