From: Chris Summers (chrisinhouston@kingwoodcable.com)
Date: Wed Dec 18 2002 - 16:09:41 CST
I only remember hiking one time in what I would consider night, or pre dawn.
We left Uracca Mesa and had wanted to get to the Stockade so that the
majority of the crew could go up to the summit of the TOT and back down and
we could make it back to base camp for lunch. My co-advisor had been a
Ranger and Rayado Ranger and in 1996 I dont recall it being as big a taboo
as it is now, but we felt confident with our mostly 16-18 year old crew and
our experienced advisors and the fact we had been on the trail for 9 days.
We rose at 4am and were on the trail hiking under a full moon so it we had
pretty good conditions. It was beautiful to see everything in that early
daylight and we did fine and made lunch at base camp.
I encourage everyone to follow the rules but every crew I have advised for
has been in agreement that we get up and break camp about 30-45 minutes
before sunrise. We break camp and hit the trail as the sun is cresting the
horizon and hike for about an hour and then as we take a packs off break we
find a sunny spot (often with a view) and eat breakfast. We train hard to be
LNT and we are very careful about avoiding spills, etc at all meals no
matter if in camp or on the trail. I believe the advantage to getting a
start right at sunrise is that you get a mile or 2 under your belt before
eating (not usually a big deal, hunger wise), you often see things you might
miss, you take a packs off break and eat at the same time which kills 2
birds as they say, campsites are sometimes in the forest and rather cold and
damp in the early morning for dining, you get to your next camp by lunchtime
hopefully and avoid the afternoon rain.
As I recollect we never forgot any gear in a camp by leaving at dawn. We
trained for this and we could be on the trail in 30 minutes from the first
call to wakeup. It became a game to see if we could improve our time. Set
high expectations and train for them.
As I recall several years ago when I was given this information, the number
one thing that got people into the base camp infirmary was dehydration. The
second one was sprains and foot injuries. Common sense says you should take
good care of your feet and walking in the dark on an unknown trail can
significantly increase your chance of having a serious injury.
YOF
Chris in Houston
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