Miles: mystery bushwhack miles maybe 20?
Total trip miles: 1748
It's freezing cold and my feet are soaked within minutes by the wet grass but the spring is delicious so it's a good start.
Today was just one of those days, so ridiculously frustrating you had to laugh or cry. Laughing was more fun but there were definitely a few times where the trail was winning, word of advice Jonathan Ley maps say red route but this section is all out of whack and I don't recommend our route unless you feel like a day of cross country.
Note the zillions of choices, I'm not a fan of ours...
The purple alternate is pretty much instantly nonexistent and we're traipsing through plants down a creek canyon and then find ourselves on a bit of a cliff.
Steep but a little dirt boot skiing gets the job done and across the creek we actually find the trail.
Yup bear country, old scat and claw marks, woohoo.
The meadows are pretty and occasionally there's trail but mostly just looming clouds and cold wind.
By noon we've only gone maybe 7 or 8 miles and it's really starting to rain. I have the bright idea to hide in a culvert which turns out to be surprisingly nice. We kill an hour while it pours and eventually decide we should actually hike today. We'll never make it to Togwotee lodge tonight so no big rush. The trail is a beautiful dirt road (for 2 whole miles) although within 20 minutes it's back to steady rain.
Wouldn't you want to hide there?
We cut off the road onto what our maps say is the official route, all lies. It's many more hours of slow bushwhacking through marshes and old burn. Occasionally we see a snowmobile track blaze but mostly it's just uneven ground and slow going.
Accidental circles through meadows
We finally find ourselves closer to a real road and hopefully the end of the cross country, with some awesome cliffs thrown in for fun.
When we get to the road I call it quits, I'm beat down and sleep sounds perfect. Plus my feet finally get to be dry!
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