Thanks for the suggestion. I may start a later thread looking for suggestions on trails, too. Never too early to start looking.

As far as the other hikers, well, my dad is in his 60s and smokes, so I don't think that helps him. He runs regularly and has been, thus far, knock on wood, able to do whatever he wants despite the smoking habit.

One of my stepbrothers just had back surgery about 4 months before the hike.

And the third spends so much time working that I don't know how much time he really had to prep.

So, I think that might account for some of my eagerness to do day hikes when we got to camp and their reluctance to do the same.