Our guide book provided what we thought were good directions and accurate mileages, but after hiking over 20 miles in the course of 3 days, I decided the author was lazy and maybe hasn't even done this hike at all! I'll start with day one: cold, dark, and uphill.
We started our hike around 4:30PM and after wandering through the woods for the last hour, we arrived at our campsite at 9:00PM. After hiking up hill for 4 hours, we walked 1 mile downhill to find a water source and what looked to be the campsite. We unloaded, made dinner in the rain, and then passed out. We awoke to find that we had camped at the entrance. The watering hole. Right next to the sign that says "do not camp here". Woopsie.
Day 2 we hiked up to the summit reaching over 10,000 feet with wide views and a nice breeze. We had made it to the top! The hard part was over...right? We began our decent down to our next campsite, which was estimated about 6 miles away. Down is not easy. It doesn't get your heart beating like up does, but your body sure takes a pounding. Legs, hips, butt, shoulders, it was all becoming sore and tired. I was becoming anxious and just wanted to get somewhere and take my pack off forever, so Geoff and I picked up the pace and arrived at our campsite a few minutes before the gang. Arriving at our grounds for the night, we find there are only 3 campsites, in which one is already taken. We looked around for sites, water, a pool. Nothing. All I found was myself scouring the land for the rattlesnake I nearly stepped on. Once we settled on a place, we found there was no water source. How would we survive!? I'll tell you. I took a nap in the tent, while Geoff and boys trekked up the mountain to find us some water. Your my hero. I would never survive stranded in the wild. Night ends as usual: eat and sleep.
Day 3 we were motivated to get down down down. With funky mileage and non-existent hidden climber trails, this could have been a 4 day trip. Luckily we ran into humans who could tell us we were going the wrong way and politely lead us to an un-marked, un-groomed, un-trail trail. We proceeded to climb down rocks and through trees to make our decent to civilization. Finally! We see road! We have made it. But wait, more road. and more road. Are we in a neighborhood? Yes, yes we are. This is where Carrie and I sat and waited for the big strong men to find their way to the cars and pick us up from the side of the road. We made it! All that was left was to gorge at In-and-Out and our weekend was complete.
It was a mind and body challenge like I haven't experienced, but I think I liked it. I would definitely do it again because the views and the peacefulness that come from being in the middle of the wilderness is unlike any other. I highly recommend giving it a try! Let me know if you are interested and you can borrow our guide book. :-)
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