8:00 p.m. after 11 hours on the trail and the socializing was again rather brief.

Day #3 was another sunny one and our route was mostly downward through the long Northfork valley of Ship Creek, past the pass to Bird Creek, and around the bend toward the forks. We lucked out pretty well from one game trail to another in the brushy areas. Many modest creeks intervened, and various techniques were demonstrated to cross them; from taking boots off to piling in, boots and all, to hopping between rocks. Your reporter was feeling a little cocky after crossing them successfully, boots on, and staying dry. All but the last one. I slipped and fell, catching myself on my right hand, throwing my right shoulder out, only we did not know it was out then - it did not really show. But the arm was useless and hurt like sin. And I felt about two feet tall. But my feet were dry! Lesson learned: go slow enough as not to slip whether or not you take your boots off.

We reached camp at about 5:30 p.m., with much of my gear carried the last mile of so by the others. We were in the timber and had come across beautiful fields of flowers - and much bear poop- and lots of Ptarmigan with young doing their broken wing act at our very feet. Bill Stivers had showed us some routes up Organ Mt., and a lot of sheep at what looked like a lick. He knows the country like the back of his hand. It had been another good day, except for yours truly.

That night was a long one for me, but between my 1st aid kit and Tom's we had enough pills to ease the pain - and I didn't have to do much. Next day I was relieved of everything except the clothes on my back and the walk out was not bad - even though we hit a lot of brush and slop between game trails. We made good time and were on Arctic Valley Road by about 3:30 p.m. Some hitchhiking and phone calls secured our rides to town.

My shoulder was x-rayed in a matter of hours, found to be dislocated-and it took two men to set it. But the good news came a few days later - Dr. Wickman said I could go on the Brooks Range trip, especially since my daughter-in-law , a physical therapist, would be along. He said we probably could have gotten the arm back in, right after it happened, had we known what to do. And he advised all such groups to carry really effective pain pills for events far from help.

I wrote this trip up because I wanted to pass on some words of wisdom and eat a little crow, and because Bill does not usually write up trips and I thought this one should be. And because I wanted to thank the other seven for their help - I have no doubt they would have bodily carried me out had it been necessary.