July 19, 1996Day 11 - Urraca Camp to Shaefers Pass CampAn early start for us today. We'll be having a long day today, as we are changing our itinerary slightly - but without the blessings of Philmont Scout Ranch. We are scheduled to stay at Miners Park Camp tonight, but that leaves us with a very long day tomorrow. Up to Shaefers Pass, and then over the Tooth and into base camp. So we are going to change it slightly. We left Urraca Camp at 6:25 AM, and climbed back to the top of the mesa. Then over to Stonewall Pass, down to Lover's Leap Camp, and then on to Miners Park Camp. We got into Miners at 9:45 AM, and after checking in, we went immediately up to the rock climbing area. 7 of us climbed, the others staying back to rest and shower. The climbing is done in two parts - the climb up, about a 40 foot climb, and then we rappelled down. All of us made it up, but Pat B. froze on the rappel. He couldn't lean back from the edge. It's a very natural condition. So the climbing staff roped him up, and he down-climbed back to the bottom. All of the guys really enjoyed the climbing. Maybe we can do some within the Troop. After we finished climbing, we went back down to Miners, ate lunch, filled up all of our water containers, and at 2 PM, left Miners Park Camp. We then climbed up to Shaefers Pass, arriving at 4 PM. A long day, but this will allow us to get into base camp by lunch time tomorrow. We have one Scout, Scott C., who has to leave early, in order to catch a plane. His folks will pick him up on Saturday around noon, and take him to Albuquerque. After we rested from our climb, we set up camp and ate our second lunch of the day. The guys went to hang the bear bags, but the next time we looked they had fixed up a swing from the bear bag cable. Being on a hill, they could swing out 12 to 15 feet off the ground. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, until Mike J. took a swing, and the piece of wood he was using as a handle broke. Mike fell about 10 feet, and landed on his left shoulder. We checked him out, and nothing was broken, but he seemed to be in a great deal of pain. We gave him some aspirin, and put him to bed. We'll see how he's doing in the morning. The weather looked really good, so we slept under the stars for our last night on the trail.
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