Woke at 4:00, with last night’s headache still pounding, plus a sore throat now.  Not exactly an auspicious start!  Laid in til 5:30, then got up and dressed in hiking clothes.  Clouded up overnight, so it had stayed pretty warm, 48 degrees at 5:45.  The mosquitoes were still active, though, so I quickly put on some long stuff over the hiking clothes for protection.  Sucked on some throat lozenges and wrote diary til 6:40.  About half the crew got up between 6:15 and 6:30, but we let the rest sleep in til 6:45, as promised the night before.  Oddly, a very large tour bus drove through the campsite around 6:35 or so, eventually heading back down to the parking area; not sure if they were dropping people off or picking them up (we couldn’t see if anyone was in the bus due to its very darkly tinted windows).  At 6:45, we rousted the last of the reluctant and commenced with the camp breakdown - a little easier because the big tents were going directly into the van (the backpacking tents were already packed in/on the backpacks).  In view of the excessive mosquitoes last night and this morning, I added another container of bug repellent to my load - it was looking as if we would probably need it.

Breakfast at 7:20, augmented with a hodgepodge of leftovers from the previous 3 days.  Al and I reviewed the first day’s trails on the map - a pretty stiff climb coming up, but the route looked simple enough.  About 6 1/2 miles and 1,300 feet in elevation gain today.  Someone (Luke?) took one of my large food packages, which dropped my packweight back down to about 47 pounds.  Thanks, Luke!  Mark drove the cargo van down to the parking lot to find it a happy home for the next week.  The rest of us circled up for water and stretching exercises about 8:10, and finally saddled up at 8:20, taking the campsite loop road around to the second trailhead for the "Lowline Trail" (where there was a sign for Divide Lake/6 miles).  As we headed up, Ted split off and headed back down to the parking lot to link up with Mark; they started at the first trailhead, which started at the lot.  We stopped at the intersect to wait for them, just as several other backpackers came heading down.  These turned out to be the vanguard of Troop 1462 from Mapleton, Utah.  [We ran into about a dozen members of the Troop spread out over the next 45 minutes in groups twos and threes, plus a few solos.  Some were quite young.  Well, it was a very easily followed trail, but still not too bright.]

Ted and Mark rejoined us, and we started out in earnest.  Tough uphill trail, dry and very dusty, beaten to death by horses and pack animals.  Fine gray dust typical of dry pine forests; reminded me of Philmont back in the early ‘70s.  Lucky thing Carl isn’t here for this; he’d be coughing his lungs out.  We spread out quite a bit on the worst stretches - up to 10 yards between each hiker - in order to give the breeze a chance to blow the dust to one side before the next hiker passed.  Already great views behind us as we climbed the side of the bench.  We seem to be moving OK, with lots of caterpillaring, but most of us were gasping for breath too; no-one used to climbing at altitude yet.  Finally passed the Tail-End Charlies for 1462 (an Adult with 2 quite small Scouts in tow).  Then we came up on two signs:  Scab Creek Primitive Area, and Bridger/Teton Wilderness Area; grabbed some photos .  The signs were pretty worn out; some of the sections were barely legible.  Also passed an old, wrecked log cabin, single room.  We stopped for breathers and water every 30 minutes or so.  Chris took Thomas’ tent, dropping him to around 33 pounds and helping his sore knees (and simultaneously giving himself the heaviest pack of the entire trek).  After the first sharp climb, we had a series of minor rises where the flora shifted from almost all pine trees to a nice mixture of pines and deciduous, much prettier.  Then another sharp climb.  Finally reached the main bench, where the countryside was more rolling.  Here the trail passed through an area with over a dozen ponds, collectively known as the "Toboggan Lakes."  The first pond was small and about half covered in lily pads (as our neighboring couple from last night had warned us).  But the higher we went, the fewer the lily pads, and the bigger, fuller, and prettier the ponds.  The upper ponds all had that bright blue color you get with high elevation lakes in bright sunshine (and it was a gorgeous day).

At 11:50, we enjoyed lunch overlooking another large (un-named) "Toboggan" pond; Ritz crackers, fresh Colby cheese, ham and chicken spread, and cashews.  [Because all of the trail food had been prepacked for two crews, we decided to eat all breakfasts and lunches as two sub-crews even though we were travelling as one crew (dinner was easier to combine).]  Just as we were finishing up, we were passed by a small horseback crew, with packhorses in tow, all loaded down with their camping equipment.  We exchanged pleasantries, and they kept going.  Back on the trail again, we passed by another really spectacular alpine lake and surrounding meadows (I think this was the parent "Toboggan Lake" - the only one so named on the maps).  Our next packs-off break was at a small footbridge over a nearly dry creekbed.

We finally pulled into Little Divide Lake at 1:40 pm - a spectacular, medium sized, blue lake, tree-lined to the south, but with a large, rising meadow on the north side (where we were supposed to camp).  The Lowline Trail split off and headed south to Divide Lake here; we went left on the Scab Creek Trail to get to the north side of the lake.  After reconnoitering around for awhile, we settled on a site in the trees above the meadow, elevation about 9,700 feet.  Just as we headed up the hill to drop our packs, two Forestry Service guys came down the trail from the opposite direction, one with a chainsaw and the other with a large adze.  Rick and Chris chatted with them for a few minutes; they were doing routine trail clearing and maintenance.  At our selected campsite, we organized and established our Bear-muda Triangle, got all the Crew gear out, set up our tents (not a prayer of rain), and sent out our bear-bag and water crews.  The trees were way too thick to do the bear-bag throwing routine, so we ended up climbing both trees in order to hand-place the ropes.  Thomas tried first on tree # 1 but couldn’t make up high enough, so Sam took over instead; Neil handled tree # 2.  It took about 10 of us to raise the 2 bags with all the food and most of the smellables; since we had started out with nearly 150 pounds for the trek!

Once that was done, we had some free time to enjoy the site.  Chris, Todd, and Neil climbed a rock face on the east side of the lake.  A little later, Chris, Todd, Neil, Thomas, Charles, Luke, Sam went wading, quickly joined by Mike, Ted and Mark (but only Ted went swimming).  Rick took advantage of the remaining sun and breeze to wash and hang his clothes.  The guys started some kind of weird "Lord of the Flies" routine with "Spaulding" - a big stick that Luke and Neil had found while wading in the lake.  ["Spaulding" was destined to spend some time with us.]  As the afternoon wore on, Chris, Neil and Todd went climbing on a minor rock-face that we had passed on the way in.  Neil and Todd eventually bagged out (too steep), but Al joined Chris and they both made it to the top, reporting great views of the mountain range to the east (which we couldn’t see from lakeside).  The guys also tossed a frisbee around for awhile - one throw by Chris was caught by the wind heading up the draw and sailed about 250 yards, unbelievable.

We started in on dinner at 5:00 pm - Ted and Todd had the duty this afternoon.  Raman noodles with peas, Pilot crackers, beef stroganoff, cookies, and lemonade.  Luke and I handled cleanup.  Afterwards, we replenished our drinking water, sorted out our remaining smellables, and re-packed the Crew gear.  Most of the Scouts went down to the lake to rinse their clothes (not in the lake, of course, up the hillside a ways).  I followed suit about 30 minutes later, taking a swim to wash the trail dust off (wonderful but cold!)  Once the Scouts departed the scene (in terror), I air-dried myself in the wind; took less than 5 minutes.  Finished washing my clothes, collected a few clothing items left by the Scouts, and headed back up to camp.  Used Mike’s clothesline to dry my stuff.  Final call for smellables at 7:30; we used a third bag for these last items, since the first two were still pretty well stuffed with the next week’s worth of food.  Also completed re-packing all Crew gear that could be pre-packed (saving time tomorrow morning).  Done by 8:00, and most of the guys headed back down to the lake to try fishing or skipping rocks.  Ted found a still sunlit rockface and vegged out for awhile.  We caught some distant movement at the far south end of the lake - possibly another backpacking group, or maybe some wildlife - couldn’t really tell in the fading light.  Bed between 8:30 and 9:00 pm.  A good first day on the trail.