This was the graduation hike for our Fall 2001 Wilderness Trekking School class with the CMC. I was an assistant instructor, along with Bob, and Don was our lead instructor. Along on this hike were Pam, Tove, Carmen, Dan, Ken, Bill, Margaret, Leila, Lori, and Lisa. Donna came along to make up her graduation hike, which she missed last Spring while she was in Australia.

The students pretty much did all the planning for this hike. They picked the time to meet, found the directions to the trailhead, researched the weather and the type of terrain we would encounter, and picked the route. We instructors were mostly along as a safety net to make sure we could reach our objective in a safe and timely manner. Most of the students met down in Lakewood and carpooled up to the trailhead, picking up Leila, Donna and myself in Conifer.

We started out from the trailhead at about 08:30 - I can't remember the exact time. We followed a good trail along a creek, and gradually gained elevation. When the trail left the creek the students decided to cross the creek and bushwhack up the slope toward the summit of Royal Mountain. All the students took turns at leading the group, and a rear "leader" was always established as well. With a large group like ours this is a good way to make sure the group stays together, especially in thick woods.

As we neared the summit, the steep wooded slope gave way to large, stable talus. We gained the ridge after a lot of talus-hopping, and waited for the rest of the group. Lori was new to scrambling and was a little out of her comfort zone, so after some time Don decided to send the rest of the group ahead to summit, then we would all rendezvous at a point to the south. Bill had a sore ankle and went with Don and Lori. Bob and I continued with the rest of the group and reached the summit.

For the third hike with this group, we had great weather. I kept thinking we would get some rain, snow, heavy wind - something! Oh well, we still have to do Snow Day, our last hike for this class. There's always a chance for some good crappy weather. We descended to a nice spot south of the summit, out of the wind, and had lunch. Carmen brought a box of great chocolate and some other goodies, and Donna had some leftover Halloween candy. Don, Bill and Lori joined us and we all hung around for a while, relaxing.

          
Fotos ©2001 by Bob Dawson

We still had to descend, and it was getting late in the afternoon. I was unsure that we would make it out by sundown, but it would be a full moon night and the sky was clear. Our goal was to hit two more points on the descent, to force the group to use a different path on the return than we used on the ascent. On the way down Lori told us she had some altitude symptoms: nausea and spots in front of her eyes. I had the vision symptom myself on the summit of Mount Princeton, so I suggested she take some ibuprofen and that we descend quickly, and we could monitor her condition.

We thrashed around a little on the descent, and I wasn't sure the leaders were taking us to the right spot to hit those last two points. Lori was feeling better, so she must have been right on the edge of altitude sickness. Since the sun was getting lower in the sky, Don took the lead and we hauled out of there pretty quickly. At one point he told the group that he would guarantee that we'd make it out before dark. To his credit, the rest of the route was easy and we made good time. We rested for a while on a nice grassy slope dotted with aspens.

          

Sure enough, after a sharp descent to the creek we were in sight of the vehicles. One more obstacle: the creek crossing. There was just one skinny log high above the creek, and Don and Bob helped the students across. A couple people wanted to hike upstream and cross at the better log bridge at the trail, but Don said it was too far up. They gathered up their courage and made the crossing without incident. I was the last to cross, I used my trekking poles for balance and didn't fall in.

We stopped at the Woodside Inn near Pine on the drive back, and had food and beverages. This is a homey log building that serves Chinese food - I found it kind of surreal. The food wasn't bad, anyway...