I twisted my knee on a talus field, which slowed us down considerably. We knew we had some tricky, steep terrain to go through to get back to the trailhead, and we just weren't going to be able to navigate safely and be at the trailhead on time. There was no cell phone service where we were (we tried everything, including climbing to a high point and attatching foil to the antena). So, we found a camp site, made a dinner out of the stuff left in the bottom of our food bags, and got moving again at first light.
We had left maps with our intended route with all sorts of people (this trip was almost entirely off trail), and stuck to that route as closely as we possibly could. We ran into the SAR team 10 minutes from the trailhead.
So, we were a day late and hungry, but otherwise in normal shape for coming out of a long off-trail trip (swollen feet, blisters, scrapes, bruises, etc...).
Posted by: Jen Halliday at July 29, 2005 10:06 PM