Photos courtesy of Dr. Charles Wakefield
in my rain jacket were filled with water, now you never dry out the
rest of the trip, but all were in a positive good mood. Conversations
on the trail, in camp and in the mess tent get very personal on an
isolated trip like this. Reminded me of some of the adventures I
had during a 21-year U.S. Army career. On this day, we saw the
unique giant senecio trees, only found here. Awesome. Some people were feeling the altitude, but the philosophy of hiking high, then
sleeping low, was carried out with precision. We would hike over
15,000 feet, then descend to 13,500 to camp. Medical exams
showed that most of us were responding physiologically as we
should. Some didn’t do so well. Once above the Lava Tower camp,
we all had broken our altitude records when w