Day 10 — Cimarroncito to Tooth Ridge Camp
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As advisor to this crew I must brag on them and especially on our Crew Leader, David. This day was going to be relatively difficult even in good weather. It was our longest of the trek, mileage-wise, and had a pretty good uphill (Schaefers Pass) along with a difficult trail across Tooth Ridge. The reason there are no pictures between Cathedral Rock (about 10:30AM) and the picture of Tad in the tent (about 6:00PM) is that it rained torrentially on us for most of that time. Throw in a little thunder and lightning and steadily falling temperatures during the day and you have a recipe for hypothermia. I could feel myself on the verge of it when we arrived in our campsite at Tooth Ridge Camp. I knew I was going to have to get warm and dry soon and figured everyone else did as well. I was going to mention this to David but he was already on top of it. He had a plan, put it into action and everyone spent a reasonably comfortable night. We got a brief respite from the rain, enough to set up our tents and eat a little supper, but a very strong thunderstorm soon came through with high winds, sleet, close lightning and thunder. The winds were strong enough to blow under my tent floor. It dissipated shortly before sunset when Scott and I went out to check on everyone, deal with a few oopses for the bear bag, and marvel at the sleet. About an hour after sunset it started raining again and rained most of the night. I was very proud of our crew that day. The weather was horrible, we walked a tough trail, set up camp under trying and even slightly dangerous conditions, and our guys gutted it out — sometimes with a sense of humor:
Me (While checking on everyone after the sleet/thunderstorm and shortly before sunset): Joey? You guys dry in there? Everything OK?
Joey: Yeah.
Me: Cool. Thanks.
Joey: What time is it?
Me: About 7:30.
:::pregnant pause:::
Joey: Is that morning or night??
— pictures by Kevin Mahoney
