Spring Break Mini Adventure--Day Three--Monday

We drove back up the Hole-in-the-Rock Road to the road to Harris Wash, where the high-clearance vehicles proved their worth.  We got to the trail head and began the second stage of Getting Your Act Together.  We planned to stay in the Wash until Friday morning, so we had to carry 12 meals, plus crew gear such as pumps, stoves, water jugs, and the first aid kit. Given that we were organized into two eating crews, we had a total of 24 meals to carry, divided by 13 people.  You do the math. 

Deciding who would carry what and deciding what personal stuff to leave in the cars and what to take took 90 minutes.  Parents often buy young Scouts backpacks that are not big enough to hold the boy's stuff AND crew gear.  We finally got everyone squared away and prepared to hike.

The hiking to the slot canyons had been fun.  This was work.  I don't think that some of these Scouts had ever carried that much weight before.  One lad was weeping before we had gone a quarter mile; we lightened his load and he cheered up.  Our crew seemed to stop every 15 minutes;  someone needed to adjust his pack, tie boots, or drink some water.  When one would stop, all would stop. 

One of the challenges of desert hiking, oddly enough, is the water.  The terrain forced us to repeatedly cross the creek, getting our feet wet. 

Then there was the brush.  Harris Wash is filled with willows that scratch your arms and whip back from the hiker in front.  Sometimes there is trail, and sometimes there isn't. It took our Scouts a while to figure out the best routes.  On that first day, the person in front might walk into a patch of brambles, and everyone else would follow his lead. Later, we started getting smart, and selected better routes.

We found a dandy campsite and stopped at 4:15 PM.  The site was at the bottom of a towering wall of sandstone, and it provided shelter from any precipitation.

The boys flung down their packs and unrolled their pads and bags.  They rested for just a few minutes, then sprang up to play in the water.  We gave a seminar on how to use our water filtering pumps, and then fixed dinner.  That night everyone slept out--the tents remained in the packs.