We had 9 participants officially, with 3 others who were going to ‘try it’ independently. We scheduled a hike up Bamforth Ridge to the summit of Camels Hump, and returning – 12.5 miles, and about 4400’ of up and down when you consider the various ridge-points.

The hike was listed as ‘difficult-plus’, and the difficult-plus rating plus the long weekend seemed to be a magnet for people to try the hike. Nine people with good hiking credentials expressed an interest, in addition to a group of three enthusiastic hikers with less experience. These last three were not accepted on the trip, but came as their own trip, with an agreement that they would take care of themselves if they did not keep up.

The weather turned out to be good for hiking, with a cloudy morning keeping the temperature down while we were exerting to go up. We headed up at a respectable pace, not overly fast, but the initial 1000’ climb made it clear that two of the ‘other group’ would not keep up. (The last of the ‘other group’ turned back at about the midway point.) All of the ‘official participants’ headed to the top, but it did take a long time – 4 1/2 hours up. Maybe we are getting old. The clouds had cleared, and it was a fine day. We stayed on top to take in the views, then headed down after about 15 minutes, needing another 3 ¾ hours to get down. (We did stay in cell-phone contact with the other group, and verified that they did all get out an hour or so before us.)

We were on the trail from 8:30 AM to 5 PM, about an hour longer than had been hoped.

Official Participants – Scott Springer, Phil Hazen, Grace King, Michael Shaw, David Hathaway, Marc Faucher, Peggy Faucher, Sheri Larsen, Richard Larsen