Always Stay Together - Lessons from the 50-miler
It seems like I have an entire lifetime of memories from the one and only 50-miler I went on as a scout. I think back on that week in the backcountry of Yosemite, and there were so many events that helped me better understand myself and the world around me. This is the story of splitting up.
I must have been 14, because Aaron was along, and he would have been at least 12. I was one of the older kids, and we hiked circles around everyone else on the hike. We were young and fast. The first few days of the hike went like this: Before we started hiking, we would all look at the map(s), find our trail, set a destination (usually the next fork), and start hiking. The fast group, (myself included) would hike as fast as we felt comfortable. We were a bunch of Type-A personalities, so we were really big into leaving as many people in the dust as we possibly could, and being sure to let them know we were faster than they were. On a typical leg, we would hike for an hour or so before we came to the predetermined resting point, ditch our packs and rest for an hour or so before the group gathered all together again. As soon as they got there, we would put our packs back on and hurry them along so that we could get back hiking as soon as possible. Now the slow group wanted a rest. They thought it was only fair that if we got a rest, that they should too. As far as we were concerned, they had been taking their rest for the entire hike, so they weren't in need of any more.
Most of the leaders (my father included) decided that this wasn't working as well as it could, so they devised a plan to help us all out. The plan was this: We would divide into two groups, A and B. Group A (the slow hikers) would wake up at 6am, fix a quick breakfast, and get hiking before group B even woke. Group B would spend the day trying to catch them. Personally, I thought it was a great plan. I looked forward to beating them to the next camping spot.
The note here is that the Cardinal Rule of hiking is this: THE SLOWEST MAN SETS THE PACE. This way your group stays together. Nevermind that we hadn't followed it the previous days. Now it was the adult leaders who were sanctioning the split.
The next morning I woke up and Group A were gone, according to plan. Of the three leaders, my father and Brother Coe went with the early group and Brother Payne stayed behind with the fast group. Aaron went with the slow group. In his defense, he could have stayed with us if he had wanted, but I think he enjoyed the time with Dad.
We got breakfast going and started putting our things away. It didn't take us long to realize that Derek Payne wasn't himself. In fact, he was just plain sick. He had the stomach flu and was puking all over the place. In normal circumstances, we would probably have stayed put for a day or two or plotted the fastest route back to civilization and taken Derek home early, or just camped out for another day or two while the sickness passed. With Group A out on the road, we had no option but to hunt them down as quickly as possible. With only one leader in our group, we weren't even able to give Derek a Priesthood blessing.
So off we went. Even if Derek hadn't been sick (and us carrying his load), it still would have been the hardest day of the trip. In had the highest elevation changes of the trip, including one particular long and steep climb that we referred to everafter as "Cardiac Hill". Derek puked on that hill a few times.
We never caught up to Group A that day. We camped near a ranger station, where we thought they would have stayed. We got up early that next morning, and after a few miles, we came across a recently deserted camp, with a note. The note was from our group. It said they waited as long as they thought they could and then broke camp and left. It noted a time that they had left, which was only a handful of minutes (20??) before we had reached their camp. We stuck our hand in their fire, which was wet, but still warm. Brother Payne showed me the map, told me to dump my pack, and run to catch the group and bring them back.
It didn't take me long to catch them without my pack on. I quickly explained the situation, and brought them back, where they leaders were able to give Derek a blessing before we continued on - this time as a group.
We had broken the first rule of hiking, and had all been taught why it's the first rule. There are strength in numbers. Keep your group together at all costs.
Other memories from the 50-miler:
- The 20-year rule (Dad sits me down for a talk)
- rescuing Craig Carl
- Brother Coe eats a frog
- carving walking sticks
- Craig Carl gets drenched
- skinny dipping
- Matt Mollard gets angry (he hikes better when he's mad)
Other scout memories:
- boner rock
- B.A.S. (where we saw the bares)
- first time on half-dome (Brother Fairbanks)
- rapelling into Moaning Caverns
- getting 'tapped out'
- trading t-shirts with a girl at Jambo
- idiot scoutmaster at Jambo
- Brother Mollard and the horse hike (Henry Coe State Park)
I must have been 14, because Aaron was along, and he would have been at least 12. I was one of the older kids, and we hiked circles around everyone else on the hike. We were young and fast. The first few days of the hike went like this: Before we started hiking, we would all look at the map(s), find our trail, set a destination (usually the next fork), and start hiking. The fast group, (myself included) would hike as fast as we felt comfortable. We were a bunch of Type-A personalities, so we were really big into leaving as many people in the dust as we possibly could, and being sure to let them know we were faster than they were. On a typical leg, we would hike for an hour or so before we came to the predetermined resting point, ditch our packs and rest for an hour or so before the group gathered all together again. As soon as they got there, we would put our packs back on and hurry them along so that we could get back hiking as soon as possible. Now the slow group wanted a rest. They thought it was only fair that if we got a rest, that they should too. As far as we were concerned, they had been taking their rest for the entire hike, so they weren't in need of any more.
Most of the leaders (my father included) decided that this wasn't working as well as it could, so they devised a plan to help us all out. The plan was this: We would divide into two groups, A and B. Group A (the slow hikers) would wake up at 6am, fix a quick breakfast, and get hiking before group B even woke. Group B would spend the day trying to catch them. Personally, I thought it was a great plan. I looked forward to beating them to the next camping spot.
The note here is that the Cardinal Rule of hiking is this: THE SLOWEST MAN SETS THE PACE. This way your group stays together. Nevermind that we hadn't followed it the previous days. Now it was the adult leaders who were sanctioning the split.
The next morning I woke up and Group A were gone, according to plan. Of the three leaders, my father and Brother Coe went with the early group and Brother Payne stayed behind with the fast group. Aaron went with the slow group. In his defense, he could have stayed with us if he had wanted, but I think he enjoyed the time with Dad.
We got breakfast going and started putting our things away. It didn't take us long to realize that Derek Payne wasn't himself. In fact, he was just plain sick. He had the stomach flu and was puking all over the place. In normal circumstances, we would probably have stayed put for a day or two or plotted the fastest route back to civilization and taken Derek home early, or just camped out for another day or two while the sickness passed. With Group A out on the road, we had no option but to hunt them down as quickly as possible. With only one leader in our group, we weren't even able to give Derek a Priesthood blessing.
So off we went. Even if Derek hadn't been sick (and us carrying his load), it still would have been the hardest day of the trip. In had the highest elevation changes of the trip, including one particular long and steep climb that we referred to everafter as "Cardiac Hill". Derek puked on that hill a few times.
We never caught up to Group A that day. We camped near a ranger station, where we thought they would have stayed. We got up early that next morning, and after a few miles, we came across a recently deserted camp, with a note. The note was from our group. It said they waited as long as they thought they could and then broke camp and left. It noted a time that they had left, which was only a handful of minutes (20??) before we had reached their camp. We stuck our hand in their fire, which was wet, but still warm. Brother Payne showed me the map, told me to dump my pack, and run to catch the group and bring them back.
It didn't take me long to catch them without my pack on. I quickly explained the situation, and brought them back, where they leaders were able to give Derek a blessing before we continued on - this time as a group.
We had broken the first rule of hiking, and had all been taught why it's the first rule. There are strength in numbers. Keep your group together at all costs.
Other memories from the 50-miler:
- The 20-year rule (Dad sits me down for a talk)
- rescuing Craig Carl
- Brother Coe eats a frog
- carving walking sticks
- Craig Carl gets drenched
- skinny dipping
- Matt Mollard gets angry (he hikes better when he's mad)
Other scout memories:
- boner rock
- B.A.S. (where we saw the bares)
- first time on half-dome (Brother Fairbanks)
- rapelling into Moaning Caverns
- getting 'tapped out'
- trading t-shirts with a girl at Jambo
- idiot scoutmaster at Jambo
- Brother Mollard and the horse hike (Henry Coe State Park)
Labels: 50-miler
posted by ronny at 21:48
1 Comments:
Aha! Now I see why you always said "you go ahead of my, Liz, and we'll go as fast as you want." I was the slowest hiker! Truthfully as I started reading this I felt disappointed in you--I thought "is this the guy that I've always credited for getting weakling me to the top of Half Dome?" And then I realized that 14-year-old Ronny is not the same as 16 and 17 year old Ronny who was my fearless hiking coach. How could I have judged so quickly . . .
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