Despite it's seemingly girly like name, the Cranberry Wilderness area turned out to be one of Gods gifts to Alpha Males. This wilderness was as Manly as it gets. The terrain was steep, the water was cold, the trails were under-marked, and the brush was thick, everything you look for when you want to carry a 50lb pack around with your buddies. 20 men set off on April 29th, and 20 sore, cut, bruised, and sporadically sick men came out of the woods on May 1st. This year the group included...from left to right, front to back: Joey, Trate, Kyle, AJ, Shawn, Eric, Pratix, Matt, Tim, Abrahm, Anthony, Tyler, Blake, Souders, MikeD, Mikey, Doug, Reilly, Stretch, Ben.
Group A set off on the Cranberry River Trail, and Group B set off on the Tumbling Rock Trail at about 3pm on Friday 29 April. Group A found their route to be nicely marked and friendly to the hiker. Nevertheless it was a tough 6 miles to the camp site, which they expertly set up as they waited for group B. To the right is a photo of group B at about the 4 mile mark of their trip. Oh...this trail is nicely marked...no big deal they thought....about an hour later the trail went cold and group B was in for another 3 hours of hell. Group B made over 15 river crossings, blazed their own trail in thick brush, constantly following the compass south, and hoping to find their camp. At about 7:30 there was only a small haze of light remaining, and the group was ready to set up camp along a small, presumably tumbling rock, tributary. Somehow, by the grace of God, Uncle Matt, heard the crackling voice of Doug, leader of Group A, coming through on his Motorola? Group B moved to the strength of the radio signal and by about 8:30pm we were finally around the campfire at the Cranberry River. 5 hours of hiking and approximately 9 miles of rough terrain later we were drinking hard with the rest of the troops. After that, the pictures speak for themselves.
First nights camp fire. Wet wood everywhere, but we mad it happen.
