Fri, Dec 11 2009 - Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Rob Garner, Danny Participants: Danny, Rob Garner, Andy Altman, Nikita, Adam B, ~Malisse H~, Rich M, John T, Brian Clements

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Write Up:
Well we got a little bit of everything.  Friday night it was about 27 degrees when we headed out around 10:30 PM into the wilderness.  It got down to around 22 degrees overnight.  Saturday morning it was quite cold climbing up to Naked Ground and then over to Stratton Bald.  We decided to camp at Cherry Log Gap a couple of miles north and a 1000 or so feet lower in elevation.  Firewood was plentiful and everyone pitched in on gathering it which made life easy.  There was an old barrel in the woods that we turned into a burn barrel.  At 6:30 PM it began to sleet, snow, and rain (a wintry mix).  By 8:30 PM it started raining on and off all night long and then on and off into Sunday until about 1:00 PM.  Coming down the Jenkins Ridge Trail, it finally stopped raining and the sun came out.  It was very slippery and muddy and most of us fell down more than once, but nobody was hurt too badly.  One of us got stabbed in the eye with a stick when he fell and another had his hiking pole break and cut a gash in his finger when he fell.  We fell down, but then we got back up again - time after time, but in the end the trip was quite challenging because of the environmental changes.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and kept their spirits up, and that's what good trips are made of despite the challenges that the terrain and the weather throw at you.

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