Here's some folks chilling out with a beer one evening, left to right: Malarky, Nightcrawler, a guy I don't know, Banana Ripper, Songbird, Lionheart, Mountain Spice and Focus.
And then we were off, after many semi- all you can eat meals and many movies watched in the 24 hour library... Below: Bigfoot, Shannon, myself, Focus, Mountain Spice and Lionheart.
Looking back as we head away from Ghost Ranch. Of course it rained and hailed on us in a downpour as soon as we left, causing us to play the "jackets on? jackets off?" game a couple of times, but soon the sky cleared and we were able to enjoy our enormously heavy backpacks in peace as we climbed.
It didn't take long for the faster hikers to leave us in the dust and I was trying not to push my sister too fast on her first day, so our little group soon whittled down to me, Shan, Mountain Spice and Lionheart. This turned out to be a hilarious trio of people and I will always look back on this happenstance fondly. That first afternoon, Shan busted out a 17 mile day without skipping a beat. Not bad considering being fresh to the trail and the elevation, etc.
That night we were joined by none other than Delightful, Shane (who was now going by Reverend) and Patches! It was cold as hell, but the sunset was stunning.
Boom!