The day we'd been waiting for was finally here! The first day was quite eventful. With a delayed start, we finally made it to the gatekeeper. It wasn't the hardest thing we'd ever seen, but it did make for a good challenge.

From there, we continued on to the quarter mile wide rock slab! We only had problems with one Jeep ...

After jacknifing and breaking something in the transfer case, Dan only had front wheel drive. Tammy, Chris, Erik, and Brandon volunteed to get him back to the trailhead. Unfortunately, the Jeep didn't really make it in one piece. With Al, Kirk, Art, and John ready to help, everyone got out safe.

The rest of us continued on, barely finding our way to the exit from the rock slab. After numerous rock gardens and some beautiful off-camber climbs, we made it to Spider Lake.

After setting up camp, jumping in the lake, and starting dinner, part of the recovery team finally showed up! Kirk barely made it – he wasn't far off when he broke his control arm bracket, shredding his tire. (Must-See Trail Highlight #4) Luckily, a Toyota w/on board spark stopped to help him out.

When everyone finally reached camp right before sunset, we had a 2-firelog campfire and alot of stories to share.