Today is our biggest day of the trek -- the day we summit Mt. Baldy! Dominic got us up at 4:08 am, and we were on the trail by 4:39, hiking by headlamps in pitch darkness. We filled up all our water bottles at Miranda at 5:10, then continued until Blackhawk camp, where we ate breakfast at 6:10.

We were enjoying the views (and a rest) further up the trail when another crew from Florida stopped to chat. They were all decked out in sweatshirts, jackets, gloves, and hats, and were surprised to see us all stripped down to shorts and T-shirts by now, due to our speedy hiking. When they found out we were from Wisconsin, they said, "Oh, so THAT'S why none of you are wearing any clothes!"

With lots of slow and steady climbing, we made it to the TOP by 9:25 am! We celebrated the early arrival (and great weather) by lingering and goofing off for a solid two hours at the top. Magnificent views in every direction! It was quite an emotional time for some. We ended our time at the top by taking a video recording of us singing the Philmont Hymn in four-part harmony.

We headed back down and hit Baldy Town at 1:30, where we picked up food for the next few days, bought snacks, and enjoyed long, hot showers. We filled up water again in Miranda (for the next day's journey), and cooked supper when we got back to our campsite in Maxwell. Poor Samuel Zwickel, however, was feeling sick and skipped supper... he thinks maybe it's Lyme's disease?!

We all were sawing logs by 9:00 p.m., exhausted but elated at our accomplishment. (Total distance: 12.47 miles, avg. pace 30:43 min/mile.)

(NOTE: This day's album has a lot of redundant photos. Hope it's not too tedious for you to go through, but we really wanted several good pictures of each person for their own use.)

Here are a some photos I took with my new Canon 70D camera.

- Tom Arneberg (toma@arneberg.com)        

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