6/28 Saturday - GPS

GPS does not make you invincible.

We missed a sharp turn on a trail and followed a path we thought was the right bearing for over a mile before we realized the trail was gone. We were 300 feet too low but we thought we were only 100 feet too low so we proceeded to meet the trail further down. We ran into a sheer cliff of a rock slide. Perhaps 2 of our crew could have made it without injury. I became afraid we were running out of ridge with steep sides all around and no way to go but back to Baldy Town to find the trail we lost. It was late and we were at risk of being forced to bushwack in the dark. God blessed us with a moderate slope to get down and back to camp but a 1.5 hour hike turned into 3 hours. Richard wanted to lead our group right out onto that rock slide. This portion of today was miserable after we were already tired from Baldy. Baldy was such a high but it wasn't ruined by this low. We failed at navigation. We failed to go back and fine the trail when we lost it. One of our adults wanted to put our group in harm's way because he thought he could make it and he seemed to care not for the others in our group. In fact he was 1/3 the way down the rock fall demanding we follow. Note to self: get through this trek and avoid going anywhere with this particular guy again.

Chris had hypothermia on Baldy and fell once up there, now he fell two more times trying to make it through this miserable bushwacking. Danny was saying "I'm done". I was thinking it. Thank you Jesus for getting us back from Baldy. Mountains are nothing to mess around with. Between the quick hail storm, Chris's hypothermia, our getting off our trail, we narrowly missed becoming an evening news item and made it back to camp just as it was getting dark. 5:30 am to 8:30 pm. A 15 hour day. Not exactly what I signed on for. I'm in my 50's not my teens. Not all of the 15 hours was on the trail. We did stop and eat at French Henry and some of the guys tried blacksmithing. Then we chose an unfamiliar trail to return to camp and didn't practice rigorous techniques to stay on the trail. NEVER AGAIN. Known trails, frequent map, compass and gps checks.