We have arrived at our destination for day 1. With camp set up and dinner eaten, it's time to relax. The time is 8:00pm and light is fading. Barry, despite the moderate climb has still not burned his daily allotment of calories and so is still walking around. Phil signals that he is a-okay, but Scott has a slight headache hinting at a tinge of altitude sickness- unfortunately not at all uncharacteristic for him.
The group is treated to a colorful scene as the setting sun tints the wispy clouds behind the ridge surrounding Barney Lake a delicate salmon hue. With the slight scent of smoke still in the air from a nearby campfire used to fry up the trout catch of the day, the group retires for the night. It's a long 10 hour night- even longer for Scott whose altitude sickness worsens slightly.
It's 6:45am and Barry and Phil are up and clambering around. Scott, ailed
by headache and now slight nausea rises reluctantly, and can only manage
to consume an apple juice box and 1/4 PopTart for breakfast. Overhead, a
large plane is making passes quite close to the surrounding peaks. It disappears
briefly, then we hear it behind a nearby peak in what sounds like a dive.
Emerging from behind the peak in a shallow dive, it bottoms out only a hundred
feet or so from the ground and spews a massive amount of water(?) from its
belly before pulling back up. It repeats this action once or twice in other
nearby areas before it vanishes for good. We conclude that it must be stocking
the small lakes in the area with fish, dumping them out of the plane at 100
feet and 150mph. What a wild ride that must be, and I mean for the pilot,
not the fish!
Breaking camp proceeds slowly- we don't hit the trail until 9:30am, probably
a record in tardiness. Progress up the switchback-ridden trail also proceeds
slowly due to Scott's substandard condition. For the next 8 hours of hiking,
Scott periodically gives an amusing assessment of his health a la Chevy Chase
in Caddyshack by basing it on a monetary scale of $0.00 to $10.00. Early
on the value varies considerably between about $0.18 and $1.39, with an average
of around $0.40. As a general trend, however, his worth slowly increases
to around the $9.00 level by the end of the day.