Day 6 – 7-10-99 – Saturday

Today would prove to be the toughest day yet of our trek. We would climb over 3000 feet, and take 10 ½ hours to do it. Our day started as the sun came up. We were packed up and on the trail at 7 am. The trail follows Greenwood Canyon, staying on the north side of the river. About an hour after starting, we stopped and ate breakfast. Then it was on up the canyon.

When we had met with logistics back at base camp, they had told us that there was a route from Greenwood Canyon to Copper Park. We needed to watch for two rock cairns, and a large arrow. From there we where to follow a series of cairns to the ridge above Copper park. They said this would cut off about 5 miles of the route we had chosen. Sounded good. Too good.

At 9:45 we reached the cairns and arrow. We crossed the stream, and headed up the connecting canyon to the south. We spotted two more cairns, then that was it. After an hour and about ½ mile, we stopped to discuss the situation we were in. There was no trail, no cairns, a very steep hillside, and many, many downed trees. It was a miracle that no one had gotten hurt yet. Tom and I were about to pull rank, but the guys decided to return to Greenwood Canyon and take the route we had originally planned on. Our sister crew had also headed up the "shortcut", and we didn’t see them again.

At 11:30, we returned to Greenwood Canyon. We took the trail to the west, and followed the route we had mapped out before coming to Philmont. The trail soon turned into an old logging road, and climbed higher and higher. There were many forks and side roads, and we always took the one that headed up. After a lunch break and a water stop, we climbed on. We were soon off the Val map, and used the piece of the Baldy quad that I’d brought. Constant use of the map and the GPS showed that we were on the right path. I’d read a log of a crew that had done our trek # 28 in 1998, and they had spoken of a "helicopter landing pad" near the top of the mountain, with a "flagged" trail that lead down into Copper Park. At 5:30, we hit the "pad", and were rewarded with views of the Val and Baldy. At 11,300 feet, several of the crewmembers were having headaches, while others of us were feeling great! We soon found the flags, and headed down into Copper Park… Straight DOWN! It was another miracle that no one was hurt. An hour later we walked into Copper Park, and were surprised to find our sister crew there! They had bushwhacked all the way from the cairns, and said that they had a very tough time. I, for one, was really impressed!

We headed down canyon and found the last open campsite. All along the canyon, there were numerous downed trees, still green and fresh. We found out later that a storm that was reported as a "tornado" had gone through the canyon three days earlier. I’m real glad that we were not there then.

We set up camp in the open areas we could find, and ate dinner. No one stayed up late that night. We were bushed, but what a great day it had been!