This was the conclusion we reached within the first two miles of our trip. It doesn't matter if the role is beneath her, or if the movie is absolutely awful. The mere presence of Natalie makes the movie better. We would recall this conclusion several times throughout the week, though I don't think any of us could give any explanation for why. In fact, the following exchange is an important part of the trip:
Boys [okay, and me (on Sunday)]: "Natalie Portman makes any movie better."
...
Steve (on Friday): "You guys have been talking about Natalie Portman all week. But can any of you name her filmography?"
Boys [okay, and me]: "Uhhhhh....."
It was a little after 2:00 PM on Sunday when we drove past Pine Creek Outfitters. I knew we'd missed it when Steve said, "Shit! Er, dammit! Er...sorry boys!" A quick course correction and we pulled into the outfitters parking lot and started to unload the vans. We hadn't had the chance to inspect the boys packs yet, and so we spent some time repacking so that we could make room to distribute the food. Not a small task--at two pounds of food per person per day, we had roughly 120 pounds of food to distribute over nine people. Food distribution was further complicated by the fact that only one of the five boys in our crew had any significant backpacking experience. Four the other four, this would be a first time event.
Our biggest challenge was getting Austin's pack to the right weight. Ideally, a pack weighs no more than a quarter to a third of the person's body weight. Austin (the youngest in our group) tips the scales at a robust 80 pounds. If you look at the Pack Weights table, you'll see we had a hard time getting his pack weight down the first day.
We left from the outfitter at about 4:00 PM and arrived at the campsite around 5:30 PM. The start was kind of slow as we got accustomed to the packs, the heat, and pacing each other. The start of the trail is also primarily uphill. Naturally, that's a little more difficult. It didn't take long for the adults to set up their tents. They boys had a little more trouble though. We eventually figured out that their problems were a product of Danny attempting to set up the two man tent with the poles from the three man tent. The tent looked more like a hammock. We also found that, under that much tension, we had to be careful when removing the poles. When it was done haphazardly, the pole whipped back and nearly took John1's head off. Well, okay. It hit him in the chest and he sputtered and mumbled something. But we decided to be careful anyway.
One of the great challenges of wilderness backpacking is food planning. You need to plan enough food to provide enough calories for the trip, but without many leftovers. There are no garbage cans in the wilderness, you see, and so any uneaten food gets put in a bag and carried out in your pack. As you can imagine, we don't like to keep uneaten, rotting food festering in our packs for a week. "Why not just dump it in the woods?" you ask. Quite simply, doing so encourages animals to develop a dependency on human trash, which isn't good for the animals. Thus, any left over food gets passed around the group until it is completely eaten.
Having a person like John1 is really handy on such a trip. John1 weighs about light 240 pounds and we've never had enough food for him on any camping trip. Between him, myself, and Will, we managed to eat all of dinner and finish off the chocolate and butterscotch puddings. Don't fool yourself. Eating pudding is difficult work--the palate begins to resist after a while.
Distance hiked: 1.97 miles
Change in Elevation (from lowest to highest): 350 ft
Steps: 9,350
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