I have been camping with the family and scouts for as long as i can remember. I couple of summers back was my most memorable and exciting trip to say the least. We planned and went on a 7 day 50 mile high adventure hike on Isle Royal National Park. This Park is a completely cut off island 10 miles off the shore of MN and Canada. It may be father, its a full day fairy ride. The rules for the park are as strict as they get. No fires, No garbage, everything packed in and packed out. There are outhouses that were built in the 20's when the park was opened. All water has to be hand filtered. There is a maximum amount of people allowed on the island at a time. There is no cell phone reception and there are 2 ranger stations at either ends of the island. Other then that you are on your own. You have to give them a little bit of a plan and then you get a permit for the stops you will be using etc......

So anyways, i went with a group of 7 people, i was 17 at the time, two 15 year olds, a 20, 17 year old and two adults. One of the adults was an obese man who has had heart surgery and is also a diabetic (just the type where he watches what he eats) . He claimed to have gone and saw a doctor who gave him the thumbs up to go. But boy did he get over his head in a hurry. I tend to be a pretty intense hiker, i like a good pace, and i like to take most of the weight. Day 1 and 2 were light days as we hiked 5-7 miles and were done well before noon. The larger gentleman did okay, but we were making a lot of stops. Day 3 was when the serious problems started. This was the first hard day. It was supposed to be a 9-11 miler with a good elevation gain. Well we start up and the gentleman starts getting more and more tired. He drinks more and more water. Before we know what happened, he and his 2 sons (also bigger guys) are running out of water and we are stuck on top of a ridge with no stream nearby. Then he can't keep down food and throws up. We finally get to the ridge top and he is about gassed. The next camping spot is down the ridge (500 ft drop straight down to a lake). We get him there and he more or less passes out. The other adult and i have a conference and try to figure out what to do. We have a diabetic who is in no state to travel and the adult is responsible for the well being of the whole group. Our itenerary is hosed because we will never make it. We need medical help, but have no way to contact a ranger. I was up for hiking the rest of the way nonstop to get help, but the adult wanted to keep people together for the most part. So after a lot of stressing we decide that he and i will head out early in the morning and head for shore and the nearest campsite hoping to find a ranger. The other group will get up and just hike the 4 flat miles to water.

We set out and set a good pace and make the small campsite next to shore. We run into a group of hikers and ask they send out the news to a ranger if they see one. Then we set out to the next spot approx 7 miles away. Climb back up the ridge, continue on and we lucked out. We located a volunteer biologist/ranger who called in a boat to pick up the other group. They get them and check the larger gentleman and his blood sugar was around 220. They then get us in contact with the fairy so we can get picked up and returned. Thankfully it all worked out and everyone was okay. It was a good test of some of my leadership and decision making abilities. It fried the other adult and i dont think he is planning on going back anytime soon. Just shows what being unprepared can do. I want to go back soon and have at that island my own personal style. Hike the crap out of it and kick its butt!!

Sounds like the best outcome you could aim for in that situation.

I went on the west coast trail (Vancouver island) and it sounds very similar to yours, except we all had a great time and no injuries. Was one of the hardest places I've ever hiked, but also the best. Was great having whales just off remote beach campsites every night.

You know that's a tough question, scenery, adventure, or company.

I'd have to say though having Rambo show up at camp after dropping his Ranger Pack on the trail using his tricked out M4 barrel down in the dirt as a walking stick then later seeing him become the internet survival expert was pretty darn memorable.

Tj

Sounds like quite an adventure NDS. I usually make it a habit to go out with guys at least in similar shape ands experience. But that is not always possible as you found out.

My most memorable trip was in February 1971 while in college in Durango, CO.

We left Ft. Lewis college and hitchhiked to Rockwood, Colorado with 70 pound packs. We cross country skied along the Durango Narrow Gauge tracks to the Needleton Bridge. That took 2 days. One place on the tracks had an ice flow that blocked access and we had to carefully cross it. On one side of the tracks 5 feet away we had a cliff 100 feet high, on the other side just 6 feet from the tracks the cliff dropped over 100 feet into the icy Animas River below. We roped up and strangely enough this was the most dangerous part of the climb in many ways.

We finally left the tracks at the Needleton Bridge and headed East in to Chicago Basin. We discovered our food cache had been wiped out in the fall floods so now we were going to have to stretch things. Shoulda buried it a bit higher. We had also cached extra coleman fuel for our Optimus 8R stoves. We did not want to carry all that in so we cached it along with extra food the previous fall.

Our plan was to make the first winter ascent of Mt. Eolus 14,080'. The last Colorado 14, 000' summit that had not been climbed in winter.
The trip into Chicago Basin from the Needleton Bridge took another 2 grueling days. 6 miles all uphill, a narrow trail and in deep powder snow with heavy packs. Keep in mind the cross country and backing industry was not as hi tech as it is today.
We arrived at base camp at the base of Mt Eolus's South ridge right at timberline.

Next day at 4:30 AM we left camp by headlamp. Headlamps were big heavy Ray O Vacs that held 2 D cells and put out probably 25 lumens. The ridge was hardpacked and required ice axe (I had an Austrian stubai wooden shaft) and crampons (we had army surplus 10 pointers without front points). It was steep and exposed and required a rope in a few places, not terribly technical. It was slow and just at the point of no return about 3/4 of the way up, a storm started moving in. We arrived on the summit at about 6:30 or so IIRC. Just about dark and we had to get back. The ascent route was out of the question-too technical given the conditions. So we headed down the west side of Mt. Eolus hoping to swing back to the South to our base camp. The storm was now full blown, 20-30 MPH winds and visibility about 50 yards or maybe more. Our gloves were iced up and frozen as were our boots/toes. My goggles were frozen to my face. We found a small sheltered area where we tried to light a Sterno stove just to warm our hands. Pretty futile. Finally about 1:00 AM the storm broke and off to the distance we could see lights of civilization....while still at 13,2000 feet. The temps dropped but at least we could see...sorta as the bright stary nite on the snowy slopes was pretty decent light once your eyes adapted.
On the descent, we kept getting cliffed out and had to change direction. I had little feeling in my toes at this point. I slipped once and my ice axe caught me just before a 40 foot cliff. We stumbled into camp around 5:00 in the morning and slept until the afternoon. The warm sun felt good in our tents and my toes...which were all tingly.

We left the next day and it took 3 days to get back to Rockwood where we could hitch back.
My toes were numb for many months and extremes of hot or cold they felt wierd. Fortunately I did not get serious frostbite.
While on the summit, we discovered that the climbers from the Colorado School of Mines had made the first ascent of Mt. Eolus over Christmas break. But they went up the more pedestrian east slopes route. So we claimed first dibs on the South route, a bit harder. Oh well...

My parents were worried and my roomate said we had been gone over a week. We called the sheriff just as we were checking in, as one of the workers at the Rockwood station was alerted to 2 climbers that might be lost and he was on search and rescue.
Naturally my parents were pissed and worried. I also missed a Botany mid-term test and got grief from my professor.

Being only 19 at the time I am amazed the crap I could pull off and stay safe. Gotta love youth. Just enough brains and common sense to stay alive.
Here is a pic-looking SSW of the route we took (left hand skyline in fog) and the face we descended (right lower part of pic in the gullies) in the dark. This pic was taken years later in the late summer from North Mt Eolus.


Stay safe NDS!

wow, what an adventure! I would love to go backpacking/mt. climbing like that! Sounds like the trip of a lifetime!

let see been shot at /very close by, nude people dancing around a fire, getting 13 inches of rain during a week of summer camp,

Isle Royale is FANTASTIC[size="3"][/size] Been there three times! trying to go again once my daughters can carry packs.

This post has been edited by dupa220: June 12th 2009 5:03 PM

Yosemite is awesome, hike to the top of Yosemite falls if you get the chance.