by Lauren Bogart

Well let me just say that we had a lot of fun besides the rain. But however if it had not been raining, Bob Baker would not have gotten his new handle. Big Top Bob. He saved us on our last day by creating this huge tent that kept us relatively dry. Anyway, eleven of us met at Winchells at 6 in the morning on Saturday. We started off and ran into some slight problems early in the day, but all was well after breakfast at Lenny's. Our waitress was a little fruity but the food was good. I won't dwell on the ride there because that wasn't the fun part. We finally got near the trail head and we stopped for a potty break, and Victor and Keith realized that they had frozen the worms in dry ice. My Dad and Keith drove back into town to get more worms, while the rest of us drove on to park. Baker said that he might not be able to continue because his clutch was going out, but with a little help from his friends he decided to keep going and try the trail without a clutch. My dad and Keith got back and we aired down. The trail started over this reservoir that was really far down on one side. The trail got fun pretty fast. Chicken rock was a lot steeper than I thought but we all got up it relatively easy. Paula was freaking out because she doesn't like slick rock but when we got to the top you could tell everyone got a rush. There were some big rocks after that but nothing compared to later on. We found a lake ad we (with a lot of coaxing from me) camped on the beach. It was one of our only opportunities for a shower. I have to say that it was very beautiful but in the morning, boy was it COLD!!

Sunday was Thompson Hill and I think a few of us (some more than others:)) left a little of themselves at the Hill. The tough part started about half the way up. The first part was bunch of loose rocks and the only way to get through successfully was to walk over the Big ones. I had a little mishap, but I was directed by my father to blame it on the spotters :). Baker used this opportunity to get stuck on purpose so that he could use his new winch. Don't worry we have pictures. We found this beautiful meadow where we spent time exploring and the dogs decided to go for a swim. There was this really weird face that showed up in the mountain and everyone said that is was old man Ershim saying that we were going to get out of the trail in one piece. Keith found us this really nice campsite and we were going to stay for two days but everyone wanted to hang out by the lake so we decided to do the Ershim trail instead. My dad had a drivers meeting at the top of this hill with a really nice view. Everyone was about to kill him but he said you could get a wheel on it. The day was fairly easy wheeling. The only bad part was the rain. It started to pour on Monday when we found this Beautiful Meadow with a lake and BEAR tracks. Everyone hung out for a while and a few of us took baths. It started to rain so we all hurried to try and find a campsite. My dad actually started a fire in the rain! In the morning we had another drivers meeting down by this lake that Keith thought was really pretty. The morning hikes were becoming a habit. I had left my car turned on the night before so we had to jump it with a little help from the Roughwheelers.:) The first obstacle of the day was this tree we had to crawl over. Dad got high centered and had to winch himself off, and I in turn got high centered and had to get pulled off but we showed everyone else how to do it and they made it over without any problems. I think I am slightly confused on the days but everyone who was there knows what days these were. We saw some awesome views that day, and we also did some pretty hard wheeling. I broke my brake don't ask me how and so my dad had to fix it for me. The last few rocks were pretty tough and Victor and Steve and Keith decided to have some fun and choose some different ways of going because there were so many choices. We found some cows and took some pictures by the lake. We found the end of the trail and drove a little ways on t he highway where we ate dinner. All of us girls were embarrassed because there was a lot of guys there and they were making fun of us. The menus they have us came in very handy. We stayed at Motel Six and then headed home in the morning. I may have left some stuff out, and I am sorry this didn't show up in the newsletter and if I get Phyllis Diller I will understand. :) I had a blast and will definitely be seeing Steve for Angle Iron.