We took a 15 minute walk to the end of the ridge this morning, what a spectacular view. Though not good for photographs as the light was into our face.

Continuing through the high country of aspens and pine we took a short stop at a toilet facility (pit style of course) for everyone to dump. It's quite a sight to see 7 guys lined up at the outhouse door carrying canisters of toilet waste.

Another of the beautiful grassy glades turned into an opportunity for an extended session trying to organize a group photo. After much jockeying around this was accomplished.

More high country travel through those aspen forests and a rocky side trail with challenging encroaching trees and we stopped for lunch.

The travel after lunch was the more technical of the day, with some steep climbs and descents. At the top of the climb after Big Notch we had some fine views of Canyonland and could look down on the ruin park, which is apparently where we will be going tomorrow.

After descending from Big Notch we travelled along some interesting trails through Juniper forests for quite some distance only to find that all of the potential campsites were already taken by cows. We were informed by the guide that where there are cows there are also bugs, not to mention pads. So we headed back along the trail up into the aspens again to another lovely forest camp.

Once in camp Bill (the guide) attached his Landrover Defender 90 to my winch cable and pulled out the tangle that I had not been able to correct. Along the way the group got a short lesson on winch usage and safety. From my perspective this was a valuable session, a new winch cable is $200-$300.