Our first morning awakening to clear, blue skies! Most of us were out of the tents by 7:00, but it was 10:00 before we were finally all ready to begin the fourth day's journey. Finding the proper route across Cottonwood Creek was a little difficult (apparently there's a cabel car now), but eventually we came to a few fallen logs over the creek with a make-shift railing.

We ascended a good hill, and about 3.5 km's further along became aware of the roar of water. Sure enough, we followed the trail around a bend and found ourselves above the impressively tall canyon of the roaring Scudamore Creek. Here was our second cable car crossing, taking us across the tall canyon in a much smaller carriage than the first one--you had to really squeeze to get yourself and a pack in. If I recall correctly, I believe the big guys went alone and two packs at a time went separately.

We quickly found ourselves hiking through a massive area burned by fire in 1996, where the only colour among the burn stumps came from the flowering purple fireweed reaching high above the heads of us shorter folk.

By 7:00 we were still no where near any camp when we began to ascend a long, steep hill. Heidi, Ken and I reached the top first and quickly assessed that this must have once served as "Lookout Camp", though there was hardly a patch of flat ground to be had. We feasted on berries while waiting for the others.

Leaving my pack, I ran down the hill and came across Reimar bushwhacking through thick shrubs--evidently he'd lost the trail! I went back to where San and Stephan were, and relieved exhausted San of her pack, carrying it up to camp for her as I showed them the way.

Once assembled in the gully, we worked frantically pulling up fireweed, kicking and stomping at the ground to flatten areas for the tents. Not all tents went up, as there was not much room and Heidi & Ken ended up doubling up in Ken's slightly roomier tent. John had already left to collect water, as there was none at camp, and Andre filled his arms with all our empty water bottles and bladders and left to join him.

At 10:00, now long dark, John returned with water, but Andre was nowhere in sight, nor had John even seen him. Reimar and I began shouting into the blackness, but no answer. Finally, twenty minutes later Andre returned with 13 litres of water!! He had run four km's back to the last creek we'd crossed, while John had bushwhacked down the the Stein (with no flashlight). Andre was exhausted, dehydrated and famished--he hadn't eaten anything since lunch. But, he was hailed like a hero having provided us with all the water we needed to cook and drink (John had "only" filled about 5 litres) and was thus waited upon hand and foot as he collapsed into the tent.

A small fire had been made, and after we'd eated we went about trying to clean as much of the sweat and grime off our sticky bodies before climbing into our bags. It was midnight by the time we were all tucked away and camp was quiet.

We awoke at 8:00 AM to the sound no one wants to hear at halfway through a long hike; heavy rain. Finding our camp a soggy, dismal, burned-out mess, we ate breakfast in the tents before dressing in our wet-weather gear (for some of us Gore-Tex, for others a mere plastic cape) and packed away our gear and heavy, wet tents. At departure the rain let up, but the dense bush was of course still soaked.

We hiked through patches of burned forest, large, messy clearings covered in fireweed and strewn boulders and ascended a rocky hill (right) to a viewpoint where we took a mid-morning break.

The rain let up and even the sun came out, making the task of drying our wet gear a little easier.

Nearby, at a large, pebbly beach at a bend in the river, Andre and I bathed in a deep, ice cold pool, implementing the "washing machine wash"; soap up, sink up to neck in water, spin back and forth violently and stagger out clean (and blue!). San sat on the beach near us, thinking the cold water might soothe her skin which had swolled over her entire body as an allergic reaction to the mosquitoe bites. She was almost in tears at the burning, itching pain, but back at camp Ken gave her some Noxema which helped tremendously. She was covered in Noxema for the rest of the trek!

Our last day in the Stein Valley found us in good cheer and eager to cross the cable car and make for Stein Lake.

At 2:15 we enjoyed the "monumental" satisfaction of having arrived at Stein Lake. The fairly easy 6km hike of this day under clear skies gave us a sense that we hadn't even dome much this day. None-the-less, we decided to stay put and camp for the day to regain as much strength as we could to prepare for the demanding 3,600 foot ascent that would take us from Stein Lake up to the alpine in one long, arduous climb tomorrow.