one for cooking, one for water, within two minutes of camp! Saturday night camp was made another hour and a quarter downstream where a natural tank provided a swimming pool for the hardy.
A 7:30 a.m start and steady hiking in increasing heat, but beautifully clear air, brought us by 11:45 to our cars and the waiting drivers. Most returned to Guadalupe Canyon for swims, while the Hunts discovered the reason behind the old rule "stay together." The usually trusty International would not stay running and we were faced with about 20 hot, dry miles to the pavement. But airplane mechanic Bob Boyd discovered an unidentified problem in the carburetor which luckily responded to the application of a piece of dacron string.
Success of the trip, which took 37 people down an unmarked road and a difficult canyon was due to Bud Bernard. He had hired a Mexican to bring him from Coronado. The driver became frightened at the sand leading to Guadalupe Canyon and left Bud there in the middle of the night. In two days he backpacked nearly 50 miles, first north to Tajo, then up the rough canyon (5000 feet elevation gain), leaving 250 yards of colored paper on Ocotillo, Cholla, and Pinyon to ease our trail finding.
This trip demonstrated again some of the problems of travelling with a group of 37 individualists of varying hiking speeds and ability in a remote area. The leader elected to keep the group together for the safety and success of the whole party. Many, unsympathetic to the responsibilities (and idiosyncrasies) of leadership chafed at the restrictions, unaware of the hours of planning and experience which had gone into the trip. Others, who had learned the hard way the problems of large and unorganized groups, and the difficulties attendant to the loss or injury of a hiker, accepted some loss of freedom willingly, as the price for a trip which would have been impossible without careful scouting and responsible leadership.