Charles C Deam Wilderness

There were going to be four of us, but as usual we had a couple back out at the last minute. John and I met at the Blackwell Horse Camp at about 1:30. It probably worked out better without the other two. One didn't sound like he had any gear so I would have probably ended up having to help him pack up his stuff after lending him some of my extra gear. This would have required me packing/unpacking extra gear as well as cleaning it all off afterwards. We had some weed and whiskey for the hike. We took Cope Hollow trail and went about 4.5 miles before setting up camp. We got a little off the trail, but found a nice stand of pines to camp in. This loop, which is about 10 miles total, has a wealth of pines. There are also a couple nice hollows (Cope hollow is one) the trail crosses. We finished the whiskey around a roaring campfire and crashed sometime around 10:00 or 11:00, which is pretty early for us. We got up and hiked the rest of the trail the next day. Both days were nice hiking weather. Temperature was around 45 degrees and sunny. Just a tad chilly when standing around, but once we were moving it was perfect. A great trip for the hikers who did not fall victim to St. Patrick's Day.