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As we packed to leave Dan Beard in the morning, we immediately had a problem - Jason Wood's pack belt failed: all the stitching and webbing ripped out.   We patched it together with a crude sewing job, duck tape, and safety pins.   There was no way this repair would last the remainder of the trek, a request was made of the staff to get a message to base camp: "send us a new hip belt".  

We said goodbye to our Rangers, and headed on down the trail, on our own.  There were several thunderstorms along the trail to Iris.  The view of Little Castia from the Beatty Lakes meadow was breathtaking!  The Bike ride lasted about 1.5 hours and was well worth the time, I think everyone really enjoyed this event.  (Although at least one adult advisor was questioning the wisdom of biking BEFORE a long day of hiking!)

Ute Meadows would be our "jumping off" site for an attempt on Baldy.  With all the bad weather we'd had up to this point, we were not even sure we would get a chance to try climbing Baldy; we'd heard that if the weather was threatening, the Rangers wouldn't even let the crews start up.  Elevation at Ute Meadows was over 9,000 ft.

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