Day 136 – 9/5/13 – 26? mi (2518.7)

Like chumps, we followed the prescribed fire detour up Bungalow Lookout Trail. By up I mean more than 1000′ we could’ve avoided by taking another trail that paralleled it below and went to the same place. On the plus side, we did get a great view of the Wall Creek Cliffs from up on Bungalow Mountain.

After losing a few thousand feet, we climbed another 2800′ up to Switchback Pass in a steady rain. At least all the exertion from the climbing kept me warm. Just before the top I caught up to Bo, and confirmed he, Ninja and Sweetfish had taken the Wall trail, paralleling the route we chumps took. We had already worked this out, along with how far in front of us they were based on their footprints and their state of wetness in the trail.

Weeks ago, the southbounders told us how beautiful Switchback pass was, that it was worth doing even without the fire detour. I was disappointed when I reached the top of the pass; I was in a cloud and couldn’t see more than 20′ in front of me. I started down the other side, which was a slip and slide of mud and as tiring as the uphill trying to not fall down. Ten minutes down from the top, the clouds suddenly cleared and the sun came out. My mother would not like all the cussing that came out of my mouth. I could see enough to know the view from the pass would’ve been awesome.

Another mile of mud sliding and I caught up to Ninja and Sweetfish. We stopped at a beautiful lake to cook dinner and dry out a little. LoveNote and Burly showed up a few minutes later and I ended up leaving just after them and joining them to camp in quite possibly our worst campsite yet in an awful mess of lumpy wet beargrass. It’s going to take a lot for me to get up in the morning.