On one of my earliest backpacking trips while still in high school a friend and myself headed up to Ribbon Lake for a weekend. The trail is very easy, I think around 8 miles, but just before the lake there is a steep cliff with chains to use as a climbing aid.

About half way in we came across three women trying to roll a full sized barbecue up the trail with a 20lb tank of propane still attached. It was a very comical sight. With much profanity they told us they were supposed to be heading to the lake to party with their boyfriends who had arrived earlier in the day and gone up the trail with the packs.

With more profanity the women told us that if we came across their boyfriends to send them back to help with the "camp stove".

We chuckled to ourselves and commented that it might not be a very peaceful campground as we headed up the trail where we met their boyfriends at the bottom of the cliff.

It was easy to tell they were from the same group when they asked us if we had 12 D cell batteries for their portable stereo as theirs had died on the hike in. Along with huge stereo and their overstuffed packs they had hauled in several flats of beer and a large cooler full of food.

We mentioned that we had come across their girlfriends down the trail and that that we didn't think that it would be possible to drag a full sized barbecue up the cliff. The guys started laughing in disbelief and told us that they had left a message for the girlfriends to bring the Coleman camp stove that a friend had left on the back deck.

So two of the boyfriends headed back down the trail to placate their girlfriends and deal with the barbecue/camp stove leaving one behind to guard the packs, cooler and beer.

Having gauged the mood their girlfriends my friend saw a great opportunity and quickly offers the guy guarding the beer, who looked exhausted, a deal. In exchange for a couple of cold beers from the cooler we would haul the flats up the cliff and the last mile to the campground at the lake.

The guard thinks this is a very generous offer since he has been lugging these things for hours. He gave us a couple of cold ones from the cooler which we quickly drank while stuffing our packs with as much beer as we can carry and head up the cliff and on to the lake where we wait to see if our plan has worked.

As my friend figured from the mood of the women hauling the barbecue, no matter how much beer was at the top of the cliff, there was no way that party was going to happen.

We enjoyed a peaceful weekend at the lake and made many friends sharing our free beer with anyone who came by. We half expected to find a cooler, stereo and barbecue abandoned along the trail on our hike out but it appears that they took it all back out with them.