In the summer of 1970 at the age of 13 I climbed close to 7,000 feet while carrying a forty pound backpack in less 36 hours while hiking with my boy scout troop in the High Sierras. It was the most gut wrenching,physically demanding and stupid thing I have ever done. I thought I was going to die, literally, and by the end of the six day trek across the High Sierras I had lost 22 pounds in six days. I lost so much weight because about 24 hours into the trip I got altitude sickness and did not eat for almost two days. Do you know what it is like to hike over ten miles a day carrying a heavy pack while not eating?.... Pure hell....I still can remember just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other for hours while ascending 11,000 foot Cottonwood Pass. The hike was so tortuous because the boy scout leader started the hike in the wrong place. We were supposed to begin our hike near Horseshoe Meadow which is about 10,000 feet which means it was only about a 1200 foot climb to the summit but we started at another trailhood which was situated at about 4 to 5 thousand feet. Can't a leader tell the difference between 4,000 and 10,000? What an idiot! And, can you imagine the faces of six young men when they reached the parking lot where they were "supposed" to have started only to discover we now had to really huff it and puff because we were two days behind schedule?.....It's a miracle I ever went on another hike, but I did, again, and again, and again...No thanks to the Boy Scouts of America though.