September '96 Newsletter

After a whirlwind summer, it's nice to be home for more than a few days. We organized many excellent, action-packed group trips this year and would like to thank all of you who were involved for helping make each of them so wonderful. Although Susan was getting a little burned out by August, we both felt that this year's trips were some of the best we've done. We also mixed in more solo backpacking and river trips this year and enjoyed traveling alone some of the time.

Susan's hiking series kicks off the end of this month with an interesting lava tube hike near Flagstaff. She'll be leading eight dayhikes between then and mid-December and we will be exploring a few future city dayhikes on our own. The daily high temperature is still above 100° here but within the next couple of weeks it should drop into the nineties. Even better, the summer monsoons should end and the relative humidity will finally drop below 30%. Then there will be some truth to the commonly heard assertion "but it's a dry heat". November through March is absolutely the best dayhiking weather in the southwestern desert. If you happen to be down this way, let us show you some of our favorite places, as well as supply you with a place to stay.

Bob expects to be busy this fall, spreading his time between performance upgrading our Micron computer, repairing boat gear, and maintaining the apartments. He's finished polishing up the new Microsoft Access version of our menu program and has had several contacts regarding purchases for next season. After concentrating on the 486 computer system for much of the year, he is now equally proficient at keeping Windoze 95 or Macintosh systems alive and running. Both computers are connected to our Internet provider using Netscape software. We still maintain our home page on the Macintosh because of its ease of use and superior graphics capability. However, our Micron computer has 32 Mb of RAM and the Macintosh only has 12 Mb which makes Windoze the connection of choice when we are manipulating large files.

Two of the many people who stumbled across our Internet home page joined us on trips this year. Both proved to be fun, interesting companions whose presence was enjoyed by everyone. Another couple found our page and approached us looking for a sitter for their house in Urique, in the bottom of Copper Canyon. We would have loved to go but have family commitments right now. They are frantically looking for someone for mid-October through the end of November. Contact us if you're available and interested in being there for any part of this time.

1996 Trip Reports:

Green River Raft (6/23/96-6/30/96):

We met at Green River State Park which had changed substantially since our last visit. The entrance had been moved and a golf course added as part of a number of changes. Apparently, a local effort is being made to increase the income from this facility. All but one of our group arrived by early evening and everyone got a good night's sleep. The next morning most of the group went out for breakfast while we confirmed the air shuttle arrangements and tried unsuccessfully to find our missing participant. We finally gave up and left for the river using the shorter 9 Mile Canyon (Minnie Maude Creek) and backbone route. The road was in good shape this year and there were no tire mishaps. In 9 Mile Canyon we stopped to look at some petroglyphs we hadn't seen before.

At Sand Wash, we rapidly unloaded everything so Susie, Sandy, and Jackie could immediately shuttle the vehicles back to Green River while the rest of us rigged rafts and organized gear. Our hope was that they would be able to return that evening if the winds were calm and our vehicles didn't let us down. The river flow had declined substantially from spring peak run-off to 3500 cfs. This is a nice level for running the rapids but can be a bit slow on windy days with prevailing upstream winds. Since we opted to take-out at Swasey's rather than Green River, our shuttlers left a couple of vehicles there and still made it back to the airport in time for Redtail's last flight of the evening. Garreth landed them on the mesa top with his usual panache and skill, Susie's lunch still intact. They hiked down and joined us for an excellent spaghetti dinner which the cooks had been holding pending their arrival.

There were relatively few mosquitoes at Sand Wash compared to past years but still enough to get our attention. The first night's camp at Rockhouse was somewhat swampy near the boats and we were plagued with bugs. After that there were very few problems. There seemed to be a different bug for each camp, mosquitoes, wasps, no-see-ums, flies, etc. but none were too bothersome. Rob tried his hand at paddle raft captaining the tomato and was a big hit with his crew. Ernie practiced rowing both the 16' and the 18' boat under Bob and Susie's tutelage. He is expecting to top the GC waitlist within the next decade and is hoping to gain enough experience to row. Wanda paddled her packcat fearlessly through all of the rapids. She made a beautiful, gutsy run down the middle at Coal Creek Rapid.

The wildlife was abundant: a wide variety of birds, snakes (none poisonous), lizards, bighorn sheep, a river otter, a spotted fawn, and a black widow spider. In our Rock Creek camp, we had a moaning noise that could have been an owl but could also have been a cat. We didn't determine what it was, as no one wanted to venture out of their tent to investigate. Some of the group suspect that the camp is haunted. Several people hiked up Rock Creek, and later over to McPherson Ranch, from our proximate campsites. It was a little hot for hiking but overcast skies made most of the trip more pleasant than it might have been. Seven of us managed the hike up the Golden Stairs to the highest point above Range Creek. It was a new type of hiking for Leslie and the occasional exposure unnerved Jackie somewhat, but they both did well, and we all made it to the top for the great views. It sprinkled a little during our hike and later that night we got our only notable rain storm. Luckily we had one more day on the river to dry out our gear.

Dean's video cam battery ran down right at the end of the trip but he shot a lot of footage. Living in northwestern Canada, he and Leslie hadn't seen the Southwest deserts before and both were impressed with the beautiful cliffs and rock layers. We celebrated Judy's birthday with candles in the Cherry Cheesecake, the ubiquitous birthday banner, songs, and a card from all of us. We threatened for several days to play butt darts but the game never materialized. Next time Judy! The last night of the trip we celebrated Rob and Jackie's recent marriage with a few bars of Here Comes the Bride, birdseed, and a card. We celebrated each day's river running with evening doses of Dean's "Toejama" Cognac, Judy's Cuervo Gold, Ernie's Old Fashioneds, and Rob & Jackie's Brandy. The full moon towards the end of our trip made for some beautiful moonrises and soft lighting on the surrounding cliffs. Our last camp, about two miles above Swasey's was one of the best for scenery and sand, although none of our camps was a disappointment.

Participants: Leslie Foster, Susan Groth, Ernie Hildner, Sandy Hildner, Bob Marley, Wanda Mattarocci, Dean Nomura, Rob Shellworth, Jackie Sherman, and Judy Stanley.

Anasazi Van (8/11/96-8/17/96):

This was a shorter version of a 10 day trip that we last organized in '90. Several of the group flew into Phoenix and drove to Flagstaff with us the evening prior to the trip. While hunting for a campsite in the national forest, we spotted an elusive gray fox. After locating a plausible camp, we buzzed into Flag for Margaritas and a Mexican dinner at El Chilito. The next morning we met the rest of the group at the airport. In addition to the rental van, Mike and Denise drove their diesel truck, the "walla-walla rig". With two seats out of the van this left lots of room to carry all of the group's food, supplies, and personal gear. Mike and Denise's new rig was filled to the roof with goodies including an elaborate folding kitchen counter with sink and a new folding kitchen table with seats. They also surprised us with a gift of a new red folding table.

Our first stop was Wupatki where we toured most of the major sites and the museum for a couple of hours. With lots of miles to cover, we pressed on around noon to visit the relatively new Monument Valley Tribal Park. At times it was hard to make the miles because of stops at the ubiquitous Navajo jewelry stands. We still managed to arrive with time to take the 20 mile drive through the monuments and check out their visitor center. We camped at Sand Island near Bluff that night and were treated to the best night of this year's Perseid meteor shower. Mike is an amateur astronomer and he pointed out the various constellations. When conversation got intense about the possible existence of other intelligent life and spatial physical constraints on visitation, most drifted off to their tents to sleep after a busy day.

The next morning after perusing the Sand Island petroglyphs, we toured Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding. This excellent museum is still growing and a special treat was their unusual warehouse style display of Anasazi pots. It was sad to see that the accompanying catalog noted the providences were missing for most of the items. No one really knows where they came from anymore. That afternoon we continued on to Hovenweep. We hiked the 2 mile loop near the ranger station and spent some time touring the outliers. The campground was closed due to lack of visitation so we pressed on to Mesa Verde to spend two evenings there.

Mesa Verde was delightful. It was cool at the 8000 feet elevation of the Morefield Campground, there were deer and turkey in the campsites, there were lots of campsites to choose from, and there were showers. A new ticket system to visit Cliff Palace, Balcony House, or Long House has been instituted. Unfortunately, one person from each group gets to spend a bit of time in an early morning line while the rest explore the visitor center. However, the tickets insure you will no longer have to line up for hours at each of these popular sites. To further complicate things you can't legitimately tour Cliff Palace and Balcony House on the same day. We chose to visit Balcony House and Long House, viewing Cliff Palace from the rims. We were all impressed and amazed by the effort that went into creating these sites.

No charcoal fires were allowed at our campsites due to extreme fire danger in the Southwest. Some of our meals had been selected for barbecuing which left us with a bit of a dilemma. Len & UnSun scaled this cooking hurtle by poaching the Mahi Mahi perfectly in the Dutch oven. When we left Mesa Verde we passed through Durango and continued on to Aztec where the largest reconstructed kiva in America can be seen. Chaco Canyon was hot and dry as usual. We hiked up to Pueblo Alto above Pueblo Bonito. Denise found an ochre pot and painted her face. We saw the Jackson Staircase and decided we were just as happy that the NPS has declared it off limits.

When we stopped for lunch at the tribal center beside Window Rock, the afternoon monsoons blew up a light rain shower. We asked for directions at a Window Rock gas station and were assured by both the attendant and a supposed department of highways employee that we didn't want to take Route 7 to Canyon de Chelly. Supposedly it was in terrible shape. Having gone this way before we were suspicious of this assessment and drove over the Chuskas on the usual good logging road to Spider Rock. The next day we hiked down into Canyon de Chelly with an excellent Navajo guide to see Antelope House and the Ute Raid pictograph panel. We had been warned we would not wish to go down the route we planned to come out and it was everything the guide claimed it would be. A hand and toe route which caused one participant to state, "I didn't sign on for this." However, everyone made it out safely.

Seven of us had toured Yellowstone together several years ago. This led to a momentary resurgence of vole jokes ( i.e. what do you call a helpful vole: a volunteer. name a famous Italian song: volare) which then led to some ruin joke attempts but after some rumination (close counts) most of us gave it up. On the way back to Flagstaff we checked out the famous Hubbell Trading Post and briefly stopped at the Painted Desert. We left Flagstaff around 4:00 PM after breaking up the group and saying good-byes. Susan and I had a real challenge to face with less than 24 hours to pack our gear and leave for our third "honeymoon" Grand Canyon raft trip.

Participants: Vesta Downer, Jim Laskowski, Susan Lassiter, Susan Groth, Bob Marley, Denise Mills, Mike Mills, Bill Piez, Mary Ellen Piez, Len Roughgarden, and UnSun Roughgarden.

Grand Canyon Raft (8/19/96-9/2/96):

Mr. Sun woke us at 5:30 and we had the raft set up and ready to go in a couple of hours. A hot coffee donation from AZRA at the put-in saved Susan's life and we weren't even on the river yet. Ranger Blue buzzed through our check-out and we were on the river by 9:00 AM. With about 160 people launching, the ramp was busy and we were glad to leave it behind. We saw a small herd of bighorn at Soap Creek and later learned that they are part of a group that was somewhat recently released in Paria Canyon. Apparently they liked the taste of Colorado River water better and have relocated themselves. Catching the high water and being wind-free, we made almost thirty miles our first day out. Our camp on a small beach just above South Canyon, provided us with a fun hike up the old horse trail to peek into the top of Silver Grotto.

We skipped the big attraction sites which were a little crowded and hiked some of the more obscure areas. Cruising by Nankoweap, we spotted four bucks with velvet antlers near the mouth of the creek. The creek was the driest we've seen it in years. Commercial river traffic was high the first few days but thankfully dwindled by the time we reached the Little Colorado. We caught up with several privates and leap frogged down river with them for a few days. From our camp at Eminence Break, we hiked up the route about 2/3 of the way to the top. Susan had never been up it and is still wanting to organize a backpack there. At our Papago Canyon campsite, while having early morning coffee, Susan had the unique experience of having an emerald hummingbird land on her, not once but three times. Her vibrant tie dyed t-shirt apparently caught his attention. He hung around the camp for about 10 minutes checking out every colorful piece of gear he could find.

From our Papago beach campsite, we could see Hance Rapid camp a mile or so downstream. There were two hikers there in the afternoon but we didn't see them again. We later ran into three backpackers at Granite Rapid but that was it for hikers except at Phantom Ranch. Our Hance run was spectacular, actually perfect and we ran on down to the Ranch to mail our cards. Oddly, our trip was so well stocked this time that we couldn't find anything we wanted to buy there. OARS gifted us with some onions, since ours had accidentally been left in Phoenix at the store. After lunching at Pipe Creek, we ran down to Trinity and hiked up this interesting canyon to a vertical climb we had seen from the top end a few years back.

The NPS river patrol stopped in at Granite while we were lunching there. We were disappointed to see at least one of their party wearing a gun. We have yet to figure out what he was planning to shoot, errant boaters? Granite Rapid was big again this year and we had a somewhat trashy run after Bob lost an oar midway through it. Hermit seems to have grown in intensity also. Moki Mac graciously spotted for us at Hermit and invited us to attend a string quartet concert in Blacktail Canyon a few days later. Unfortunately, with the hiking itinerary we had planned, we weren't able to make it. We camped above Crystal and were joined late in the afternoon by the AZRA trip we had coffee with at the put-in. They appreciated us leaving the large camp open for them and invited us to dinner and breakfast. Their trip appeared to have been chartered by the Sierra Club and many of the group were National Outings leaders. Crystal Rapid seems to have changed again and softened a little. The top lateral wave doesn't seem to have as much kick as it used to have and this leaves more room to make the required tight entry. One commercial trainee from Moki Mac managed to flip there. He had gotten away with a sloppy sideways run in Hermit but didn't get the same lucky break in Crystal. The big hole just rolled him up and over.

Our only violent weather on the trip hit us while camped just below Garnet Canyon. Luckily, we were not in a streambed. It poured buckets and the lightning flashed around us for several hours. We had been running on clear green water but this storm turned the Colorado bright red and it remained muddy for the balance of our trip. We hiked up into Garnet Canyon the next morning, while masses of commercial river traffic passed us in favor of Elves Chasm. We made a brief stop there ourselves, before pushing on to our next camp at Fossil Canyon. Fossil was an excellent, long hike, although primarily dry. We hiked up several miles and must have climbed vertically more than a thousand feet before being stopping by a 20-30' climbable waterfall which was immediately followed by a chock stone. Strong canyon hikers have reportedly climbed in and out this streambed as part of their rim to river explorations. Since the streambed was dry none of their reported difficult plunge pool crossings were present to make the route even more challenging.

With a great number of both private and commercial trips pushing for Tapeats and planning layover days there, we assumed we would be camping on a tiny wet strip of sand or bypassing it. Instead, we ended up in our largest camp on the river between Stone and Tapeats. While scrambling eggs the next morning, we heard a loud crunching sound and looked up to find two rams battling over a barrel cactus about 40 feet from our table. The larger ram finally won, butted the barrel until he cracked it open, and settled down to his own breakfast, while the smaller ram grazed a few yards away. We were surprised that they hung around with the noise we were making cooking but they didn't seem the least bit concerned by our activities or presence.

There were so many boats at Deer Creek and Kanab, we blasted on by, planning to camp somewhere near Matkatamiba. Arriving there, we found we had it all to ourselves so we hiked up to the pools and enjoyed the solitude. Returning to our boat, we stumbled into another private group who had set up lunch in the mouth. They invited us to join them and gave us four beers. We arrived at Havasu late in the day and again had it all to ourselves. We took a swim in the creek and then headed down river, planning to camp at Tuckup. There was already a small private group in the camp so we grabbed a two person sand bank and fired up the lantern. The next morning we had National Canyon all to ourselves. A major rockfall has occurred since last September but it can be bypassed to reach the high pools, which haven't changed.

One of our goals for this trip was to investigate the route out of Stairway Canyon for a future loop backpack involving Tuckup Canyon. We camped there one evening and checked it out early the next morning. There were several bypasses around waterfalls that were treacherous but feasible even with a pack. We didn't go all of the way out but went far enough to satisfy ourselves that it could be done without too much difficulty. An excellent hand and toe route exists to clear the top of the Redwall and it was well marked with bighorn scat all the way up.

We arrived at Lava Falls, planning to wait for support or a more favorable water level if it looked bad. It looked as bad as we've seen it look. First we scouted right. The water was extremely low and it appeared that Prospect Canyon may have flushed more debris out on the left side. Neither side looked particularly forgiving or appealing. While we hung out, a commercial group showed up, scouted left and started running their boats two at a time. When they were down to one paddle raft, we scouted left and followed them. Bob nearly exited the raft when the big lateral off the ledge hole made it buck at a precarious angle. Having already swum Lava Falls in '82, he was not eager for another out-of-boat experience. Anxiety and desperation made him cling onto the gear net and one oar which turned out to be enough to get his upper body out of the water and back into the boat. Susan, believing that he was gone, got in a few boat straightening strokes from the front with the remaining free oar. Water was running out of the boat but Bob successfully rowed the huge tail waves backward and we remained right side up. We pulled over at Warm Springs to fill our water jugs and trade horror stories with the commercial group. They also had some exciting runs but all were right side up. We were again elated to be alive and downstream of Lava Falls.

The bottom end of the Canyon was a scorcher as usual. We found shady walls to hang out under during the mid day and chose camps that gave us maximum shade in the early afternoon. We read a lot and didn't do any hiking to speak of. One afternoon we rowed through a violent hail and rain storm that lasted for an hour or two. The blessing was that the storm cooled things off tremendously.

The Hualapai were rigging and launching a 42 person trip when we pulled out at the Diamond Creek takeout, so it was quite busy. Fortunately, no other trips were taking out at the same time. Our Canyon REO shuttle driver was prompt and after negotiating the rough, recently-washed-out Diamond Creek Road, we headed for Flagstaff. The Labor Day traffic back into Phoenix was a culture shock that we could have done without but we missed the worst of it by being early and arrived home safely.

Rainbow Bridge Backpack (9/15/96-9/21/96):

Four last minute sign-ups, during the month before the trip went off, brought our group size up to a comfortable ten. As each addition occurred, Susan referred them to the rest of the group to share transportation. They all met at the Phoenix airport and ended up with two cars. After searching for Carl, whose plane was two hours late, they regrouped at our place and headed for Manuels for a luncheon conference prior to the long drive. There was much talk of driving up through Sedona, getting hotel rooms in Page, etc. The democratic process can be lengthy and no decisions had been made by the time we headed north. We planned to pull off the road near the meeting place, figuring that everyone would eventually show up.

We camped in the large convenience store parking lot at the Navajo 16 junction and when we awoke, Kay was parked next to us. She had come down from Denver, stopping once to replace a water pump and a second time to replace a blown out tire. To make it worse, she found no room at any of the inns in either Kayenta or Page so she camped at Wahweap and returned to the meeting place early so she would have time to arrange her gear. The other seven were slightly late arriving. One of their rental vehicles, with only 700 miles on it, had blown a transmission just south of Flagstaff. After limping into Flag in second gear and acquiring a new vehicle from National, it was too late to search for a camp spot on the reservation.

After a minimum of introductions, tent sharing agreements, commissary distribution, etc. we hit the road headed for the first car shuttle. We left Kay's Explorer near the old Rainbow Lodge ruins with a nice Navajo family watching over it. The road to the northern trailhead near Cha Canyon was in surprisingly good shape and we were able to drive most of the way to the trailhead. We used the truck to drop off the bulk of the gear and the car passengers walked the last mile and a half with the few remaining packs. After a quick lunch, we hit the trail with enthusiasm. It was a little warm but we had plenty of water and only a short distance to go to our first camp at Bald Rock Canyon. The fall wildflowers were plentiful with scarlet gilia, aster, rabbit brush, sacred datura, a variety of primrose, paintbrush, and what Susan has decided must have been cardinal flower. Carl and Kay had both been into the area by boat, dayhiking, but none of the rest of the group had seen anything quite like it. Three of our recent acquaintances from New York were particularly awed by slickrock country.

Our second camp in Nasja Canyon, provided us with numerous hiking possibilities. As we entered camp, Susan spotted the Navajo horse petroglyph she'd seen on earlier trips. Many of us ran up the canyon a ways before lunch. After lunch, we split up and hiked down canyon in groups of two's and three's. Carl, Lou, and Andrew made it down fairly close to the Lake before running into a series of chock stones that required rope to bypass. In search of a ruin they thought they remembered seeing on a previous trip, Bob and Susan stumbled over an interesting set of Moki steps. Without a rope for the returning down climb, they decided not to try them. Next they found a nice set of petroglyphs in a side canyon. Jim and Susan spooked five beautifully groomed Indian ponies out of hiding as they walked down canyon. Brian and Andrea had missed the morning up canyon hike while bathing so they concentrated their efforts in the upstream direction and made it close to the end of the canyon. Kay stuck close to camp, bathing, laundering, and warbling the afternoon away. A Navajo man who was guiding a party of three tourists on horseback came through the camp during the afternoon. They were headed for a camp in Oak, as they had to be at Rainbow Bridge the next day for pick-up by the 2 PM boat.

Shortly before everyone returned to camp, it started to sprinkle. Luckily, we had erected the big tarp and were able to cook dinner underneath it. The cook team offered to deliver to the tents but everyone donned rain gear and showed up for dinner. It rained quite hard for several hours but by midnight, the stars were brilliant and it stayed clear for most of the night. Towards morning, the overcast rolled in and it stayed that way until we reached our next camp in Bridge Canyon. Lou and Susan formed an unspoken pact and got up at 5:30 each morning to get the hot water started. We're not sure that their motives were entirely altruistic, as they seemed pretty well wired by the time the rest of us arrived in the kitchen.

As we left for our third night's camp, we stopped briefly to take pictures of Owl Arch. This portion of our hike contained several steep grades and we didn't want to dilly dally. Lou struck a bargain with Kay during the day. In exchange for carrying some of her weight, she agreed to entertain us with song at dinner that night. Our Bridge Canyon camp on polished rock shelves was one of the groups' favorites. However, Andrea and Brian didn't sleep well after seeing large cat tracks during the day. Convinced they were being stalked, Andrea, who is small in stature and suspected by all to be the most likely target, sought company every place she went for a few days.

Our next hike to the old Rainbow Bridge horse camp was short. As soon as we arrived, it started to rain. So we moved up to Lou's alcove condo to play cards and wait for the weather to clear. Shortly after lunch, it did and we made our way down to the Bridge. We convinced a houseboat party to take our trash out and they gave us a couple of ice cold beer and a soda. The National Park Service recently restricted people from walking underneath the bridge. We found that the big tour boat groups obey the signs but that some of the small private groups still hike around. We didn't have much of a moon but a group of five still couldn't resist sleeping out on the knoll for good night views. Lou's alcove echoed every snore and fart imaginable. Between the echoes, horse visitation, and a pesky mouse that circumnavigated our heads all night, it was not our best sleeping camp. In the morning, when Lou and Susan met for coffee they cooked up a practical joke for Brian and Andrea, who were out sleeping on the knoll. They packed up their packs and tent and stowed the whole kit and caboodle away in a ravine. The three second double take was priceless. We made a last visit to the Bridge and left camp by 10:00 to assault Redbud Pass while we were still fresh. No one had difficulty with the pass and we were in our camp at Cliff Canyon within a few hours.

Several inspections of the petroglyph and pictograph panels on the Cliff Canyon side kept turning up new ones that someone had missed the first time around. Card playing, bathing, and climbing on slickrock kept us entertained all afternoon. That night clear skies and bedsores from the previous long nights in the sack kept everyone up. Kay entertained us with song at dinner and Lou gave us a demonstration of the Macarena with vocal accompaniment from Brian and Andrea. Lou and Bob entertained the group with a heated discussion about whether the commissary area would again see moonlight, the moon had gone behind a butte across from our camp. The surgeon was eventually proven correct and the engineer found out he had created a new orbital path for the moon and it unreasonably refused to comply. It was reminiscent of a time 15 years ago when he tried to teach a National Sierra Club group how to read a compass backwards. He knew where he was going but the darn compass didn't seem to agree with the group's maps.

The next morning, we left our packs in camp and headed down Cliff Canyon hoping to reach the Lake for lunch. Carl and Andrew led the way, scouting trail and waiting for the rest of us at major obstacles. After Cliff and Aztec join to form Forbidding Canyon, there are several tricky spots where a few people were glad for group support. The entire group made it to the Lake where we swam a bit, bathed and had lunch before returning to camp. Our mileage with packs that day was short and we all made it to the last night's camp within an hour or so. Expecting a killer hike out the next day, some of us rested while others explored the surrounding slickrock.

The weather was cool enough that we ate most of the commisary food. Everyone was delighted, as the exit carry weights were low. We had breakfast early, hoping to knock off the 2000' climb out at Yabut Pass before the sun hit the trail. Bob and Susan had convenient memory lapses of the numerous ups and downs after the pass and were surprised by how tough a hike it was. The group did well and while waiting for the last stragglers, four of us made the run to the northern trailhead to recover the other cars. While the rest of us set up lunch and got cleaned up, Bob picked up the last two hikers at the old Rainbow Lodge in Kay's four wheel drive vehicle, saving them a tedious mile and a half. The group's attention had turned to icy Margaritas and showers, so we quickly packed everything up, said our good-byes and headed for home.

Participants: Andrew Gilchrist, Susan Groth, Susan Lassiter, Bob Marley, Lou Martin, Carl Muller, Brian Plunkett, Andrea Sassa, Jim Squire, and Kay Threlkeld.

1997 Trips:

Please note that we have slightly changed our policy on participant acceptance to a trip when available space is limited. As usual, we must receive your trip deposit and Q/AR form for you to be considered for a trip. In the past, we solely used deposit postmarks to determine who was placed on the trip first. In the future, when a decision must be made as to who is on the trip and who is on the waitlist, we plan to use five criteria. Initial preference will be given to whoever has a current mailing application on file, has paid their deposit, and has promptly returned the necessary Q/AR. If this doesn't allow us to make a placement decision, we will then compare trip deposit dates and lastly Q/AR postmark dates.

We would eventually like to send more information electronically. If you want to be the first to know what's going on next year, send us your e-mail address. We'll continue to communicate unique travel opportunities by special mailings to those who travel with us frequently and who have a mailing application on file.

We especially want to thank the participants who made the trips so enjoyable this year. If we didn't see you this year, we hope you can join us in '97. Best of luck in your adventures, work, and personal life.