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The storm on Sunday night didn't last, and everyone slept well. The next morning, Manu and Colleen led lessons on cooking and foot care, and laid out the plan for the day's hike. We would would split into two groups and hike about 2 miles northeast to Blueberry Lake.

I set out with the first group, hiking under Manu's guidance. After about 30 minutes, we hit a fork in the trail. After consulting the sign at the fork and our maps, we chose the left fork, leading due north.

After about an hour, the trail was heading more and more in a northwesterly direction, opposite to where we needed to go. We stopped to rest and decide on our next move.

Manu headed up the nearest ridge, and returned with bad news: we were definitely on the wrong trail. None of us were crazy about backtracking to correct our mistake. So we talked it over, and put together a plan to continue on our current trail to a plateau, where we'd turn due west and hike off trail to Blueberry Lake.

When we hit the plateau, however, we discovered that our course to Blueberry lake was covered by deadfall. Imagine a vast, giant-sized game of "pick up sticks" played with burned-down trees.

The distance from the point where we turned off-trail to Blueberry Lake was only about 2 miles, but those 2 miles took about 5 hours of work to cover. By the time we reached the western shore of Blueberry lake, we were all low on water, hungry, and very, very tired. Manu mentioned that the day's terrain would go into his log as "heinous deadfall."

It was tough going, but the effort really gave us a chance to gel as a group. To my surprise, we all stayed, in Manu's words, "super positive." Nobody freaked out, nobody started questioning the plan. We were all comitted to following through, and Manu regularly scouted ahead while we rested. His efforts kept us on course through the maze of fallen trees.

We expected to find Colleen's hiking group waiting for us at Blueberry lake, but they were nowhere to be found. So, we set up camp and discussed NOLS SOP for a lost hiking party.

If a hiking group does not make it to their destination for a given day, the other group will wait until noon the next day for them to catch up. If they still haven't appeared, a "runner team" of four hikers with light packs will be sent back along the planned hiking route to look for them. At noon on the second day, NOLS headquarters is notified of the missing group, and search aircraft are deployed to help in the search efforts. And on the third day families would be notified, etc.

None of this was necessary, however. Colleen's group arrived at Blueberry lake around 11am the next morning. They had taken the same wrong turn we did, and gotten farther down the trail than we did before discovering they were on the wrong trail. Faced with a tired group of hikers, a depleted water supply, and no lake in sight, they'd turned around and hiked all the way back to Boulder lake, our original campground.

After some discussion, everyone wanted to press on to Coyote lake as planned. Colleen's group had done two days worth of hiking yesterday, then done the originally planned hike before lunch, and now were jumping to do another day's hike before dinner. Four days of hiking in two days, done by beginners. I'm still impressed, and I think it really shows the character of your typical NOLS student.

That evening, we felt were getting back on schedule. We were camped near coyote lake, and eating well from food bags packed in by Nikki's horses. All was well, and we planned to continue to North Fork Lake the following day.

However, plans changed. Because we'd had such a tough first two days, Manu and Colleen gathered everyone after dinner and suggested a rest day for Tuesday. I was really glad to hear it: everyone was tired, and we all had either hot spots or full blown blisters. Add fatigue and inexperience to that, and I was worried about injury. Evidently everyone else was thinking the same thing, and we all readily ascented to taking a day off. Instead of hiking, we'd rest and fish and cook a few unhurried meals. In the afternoon, Colleen ran a class on "Leave No Trace" ethics.

What I didn't know was that a member of the expedition was having a tough time with the demons in his head. He had entered the expedition with existing fears of getting lost in the wilderness, and the mishaps of day 1 had seriously spooked him. Taking a rest day would give him a chance to settle his mind, or decide he wanted out before the logistics of an evacuation became too cumbersome.

I don't want to talk about his situation much. It's not any of my business, really, and I certainly don't want him publicly associated with this. I will say he fought his demons with a grace and self-awareness that won the respect of everyone on the expedition. The only reason I mention it at all is because it meant that on the morning of Thursday, Day 4, my tentmates and I volunteered to go on the "runner team" with Manu to hike with him back to Boulder lake.

This meant that while the rest of the expedition continued from Coyote lake to North Fork lake, we'd hike back to Boulder Lake, bid farewell to our retiring comrad, then hike back to Coyote lake, a round trip of about 12 miles. We'd catch up to the rest of the expedition on Friday at North Fork. All told, we'd cover about 18 miles in two days. Not too shabby. We breakfasted on gingerbread oatmeal pancakes, and got moving.

Manu was amazing on Thursday. After nine hours hiking to Boulder Lake and back, he was still bounding up and down the slope between our tents and our kitchen site, singing, and even took up most of the cooking duties. I think my tentmates and I could have managed, but his energy really helped motivate us. I can honestly say I tried to follow his example that night for the rest of the trip. Whenever I was tired and just wanted to sleep, I'd hum a little to myself, and remember how much nicer it would be to relax after a good meal. Thursday night, Manu introduced me to the practice of putting the "orange drink" mix (AKA "Tang") into hot water, like a tea. I'd continue drinking the stuff nearly every night for the rest of the trip. (There's nothing like a hot sugar rush to give you enough energy to get through setting up camp and cooking dinner.)

To make the two-day evacutation trip, we dropped all non-essential gear from our packs: cameras, books, journals & pens, extra socks, anything we wouldn't need on a two-day hike. We kept our tent, kitchen, all our clothes and first-aid gear, and enough food for three days. (The two as planned, plus one just in case.)

So, I don't have pictures for those two days. I don't really regret that, but it did remind me to take plenty the rest of the trip. (Although I'd have loved to have self-portraits for those tiring days.)

When we rejoined the expedition on Friday at North Fork lake, I was blown away by the scenery, and by the comfort of the campsite. My tentmates and I agree that hiking in to North Fork that day, there was a tremendous feeling that the trials of the first four days were behind us, and that the trip was finally properly underway.

We all headed down to the lake for a short swim in the cold water. I misjudged the mountain weather, and while I was in the water, a few clouds rolled in, blocking the sun. The temperature instantly dropped 20°, and I shivvered, smiling, all the way back to camp.

We enjoyed pizza made from dough made for us by the other groups during their layover day, and settled in that evening to really spend time with the other expedition members for the first time. Up until then, we'd been pretty isolated as a tent group.

So, it was really nice after two days of hard hiking to settle into my camp chair with some "hot tang" to get to know my fellow campers and watch the sun go down, and the stars come out.

Thinking back on our decision on Day 1 to continue on the wrong path and then turn overland, I really think that was a mistake. There were certainly benefits, but as it turns out, retracing our steps would have saved us a lot of time and effort, and kept the other hiking group on track too. The other lesson of that day was also clear: sticking with the plan works. A big reason that trekking through the deadfall succeeded was that we stuck with it, and stayed on course. We'd forget that lesson later in the expedition. And, I think, we can see that getting back to the original plan (hiking via trail from Boulder to Blueberry) was what we should have stuck with. When you realize you're off course, backtrack until you know you're back on, then continue from there. We didn't do that, and paid the price in effort and time.

Still, hindsight is always 20/20, and I have to say that the first five days taught me a tremendous amount. I said at the orientation meeting that I would sacrifice fun for learning. That's what I did, and it was a more than fair trade.