50 miler continued

Before bed, we looked at the sky and considering the fact that we were on the west side of the Big horn mountains, we knew that it wouldn't rain.
I covered my pack just in case.
As the young men tucked themselves under their new shelter, I yelled over to them to not go getting themselves into trouble that night. I think that only one was still awake to even laugh at my bad Joke.
At around 1:30AM the lightning picked up and was followed by rain. I yelled to Todd to see if he wanted to cover his pack. He just mumbled something and went back to sleep.
Morning came, and I found myself awake around 6:00 AM. I couldn't sleep because I was a little worried about the days journey up the hill. We had planned on hiking up some crazy terrain to go fishing, but I thought that Alex would be the only young man that would be able to make it.
The lake was beautiful that morning and I decided to skip fishing and take some time consulting with the big man. Everyone was asleep and would be until after 8:00AM.
I picked up my map and hiked up a rocky hill side to do a little praying and a little thinking.
I thought about the whole trip and wondered if I was a fool to take a bunch of young men deep into the wilderness. From the previous days hiking, I really wondered if they could make it. I knew Alex would make it, I hoped Hayden could make it, If Jamin wasn't so sick, I knew he could make it, and I really wondered if Corbin could make it. I never worried about Todd. He seemed to be keeping his diabetes in check and was feeling pretty good.
That morning my prayer on that rock consisted of some thanks, some questions, and some pleadings for a little strength and morale for the boys. I came off the rock with some answers and a little peace of mind.
As Todd woke up we discussed plans and decided to take a little break that day and to skip hiking the crazy trail to catch some golden trout. Instead we would spend until noon fishing Lake Solitude.
As the boys woke up we all decided to walk down to the lake to do a little fishing. Quite a few fish were caught. Mostly Splake, Lake Trout, and Brook Trout. We decided to keep a number of them and cook them up.
Back in camp, Todd convinced me that we needed a fire to cook the fish on. We had little stoves, but a fire just made it nicer. Unfortunately, in the cloud peak Wilderness Area, fires are prohibited above 9200 ft. We were at about 9250. We built a fire anyways.
Todd and I are good examples.
For breakfast that morning we had oatmeal and fish. I think by the time we were done we all felt pretty good and morale was lifted.
We talked to the young men and told them that we wanted to get on the trail a little early so we could beat the hill and get it out of our way.
As we were packing our bags a Ranger showed up. Our fire was out but very noticeable. I became his buddy quick. We talked for about 15 minutes until he looked over at the fire. He asked if that was our fire. All of my young men looked at me to see if I would lie. I aknowleged that it was our fire. The ranger got serious and asked if he could talk to me off to the side.
To save typing time, I will say that I got out of the ticket. Unfortunately about an hour later the Ranger had talked himself into coming back to give us the 275.00 ticket. The second time he was bound and determined to give it. I pulled him aside and got a little serious. Todd joined in and between my salesmanship and Todd's mind games we got out of our ticket a second time. We made the deal with the ranger to never speak of the situation. We looked at him and said what situation?
After the ranger left we pulled the young men aside and told them that we didn't want them telling anyone about the ranger. That was part of our deal with the ranger.
Alex told the story in sacrament meeting the next Sunday so the secret was out. That is the only reason I wrote it today.

The fish and oatmeal breakfast must have done something because the young men were tougher. Perhaps the previous day's hike had toughened them up.
Earlier that morning Corbin and I had a nice talk about mental toughness, and I think he got it.
I don't think Corbin had spent a lot of time in the wilderness and I don't think he has ever had a dad around to teach him to be a man.
Needless to say Corbin and I didn't need to have any "man up" talks for the rest of the trip.
As we hiked that day he kept up and didn't complain once.
If it is possible for a boy to mentally become a man in one short day, Corbin pulled it off.
Just to put things in perspective, I have written a lot about dealing with Corbin, for a clearer picture, realise that when school starts at the end of August, Corbin will be starting the 8th grade. Show me a pre 8th grader man enough to take on a 50 mile hike with 3 large Rambo Survival knives, a tackle box, 15 lb steel toe boots, and a 40 lb pack with little camping or hiking experience. The only other young-young man was Hayden, Todd's son, who Todd took care of during the Hike. Jamin was about 1 week off of turning 18, and Alex (who is probably the best natural athelete at anything, that I've ever known) is 15 with summers and summers of camping and hiking experience.
I don't want to paint a picture of any of the young men being sissy boys because when taken in perspective every one of them are pretty darn tough.
Another example of thier toughness (off the subject) instead of church basketball the young men wanted to do church boxing. I won't get into that too far, I'll just say it was a blood bath in the church gymnasium, and I may go to hell for it. Needless to say, I did take some pretty damn tough young men on a 50 miler.

Later that day, we arrived at our base camp near Misty Moon Lake. The camp site overlooked Lake Helen.

We set up camp, ate, packed small packs of water and fishing gear and hiked to a few nearby lakes. That evening as it got dark we absolutely slaughtered the fish. Cast after cast we caught them. All Splake. It was awesome.
We retired to bed that night happy to be alive, and happy to be together. The young men enjoyed each others company, and I didn't hear a swear word from any of them the whole trip. I think that I'm the only one who swore the whole trip. Nothing serious just a couple of damns, a few Hells, a puss, and I think shit might have slipped out once while talking to Todd.
Not too bad if you ask me.
That night as we settled in for the night,we were happy. Jamin gave a little spiritual thought, we prayed together and started to settle in.
Corbin was the first to lay down and get inside the shelter that the young men had made. While we were rummaging around Corbin sat up and said: "Sick! Who Farted?". We looked down and reminded Corbin that he was the only one in his shelter, and that he was the inadvertant culprit. We all laughed and went to bed.
Todd and I B.S.ed a little and the young men told stories to each other, quoted television shows, and solved the worlds problems. little did we know what the next day would bring. If we would have known, I don't think that we would have slept as well as we did.


To be continued..