David Metsky
Well-known member
The day after the Presie Traverse we decided on a little hike to wind things down.
Seeker drove up Saturday afternoon, I hiked up Pierce to meet the Pounders with some treats, but Kea had done the Traverse and was looking for some rest and relaxation. What was she thinking?
Life at CMR was slowly starting to form on Sunday morning as the group packed up their tents and started out. We headed to grab a bite to eat and then over the Jeff Notch road to Bowman. My original plan was to head to Madison Springs hut after the climb to Edmands Col where I was going to spend the night, but more on that later. We started a little after 9:00 and it was already pretty hot. The first stream crossing was a bit more difficult than we had thought it would be, but after a bit of scouting and one tippy rock we all made it across safely.
The Castle Ravine trail is a fine adventure. We luxuriated in the stream crossings, dunking our heads at every opportunity. There's one spot right after the worst weather sign which feels like the ice caves. The stream runs under the rocks and the air temp was down in the 50's which felt wonderful. After that, we started climbing seriously, coming out into the sun.
Amazingly, Kea (Christine) was kicking our butts on this extremely hot day after doing a Traverse. She's a monster hiker. Once you get high up on the headwall the views really open up. Eventually we topped out to the entrance to Edmands Col and headed to the spring to refill. We'd all drunk most of our water, I'd already polished off 3 liters. Sitting in the shade by the spring we made plans for the rest of the day. I decided that I was beat, and didn't want to spend another night out so I was going to return with Seeker and Kea via the Cornice and Castle trails passing on the summit of Jefferson since we'd all been there, some as recently as yesterday. It was now 1:30 and we still had 5 miles to go.
The first part of the Cornice isn't as bad as the second half, which was good since we were only doing the first half. Seeker planned this trip to do the Castle Trail since she'd never been on it. It didn't disappoint, and we had a fine if somewhat tiring trip down, all carefully documented. By the time we made it down we were all pretty wasted and ready for the cars. Time to change, pack up, and get on the road. Finally, Kea showed some signs of her weekend's 13,000' of elevation gain as she promptly passed out.
We hiked for 10 miles in 80+ degree heat, dunked our heads approximately 12 times each, and saw a total of 2 other hikers all day. I might have picked a cooler day, but couldn't have found cooler hiking companions.
-dave-
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