Jack's Valley again

But this time it's with Andy and Jacquelyn! Tarry joined us later.

Today we struck out in getting on the trail early. A comedy of errors had us running late. But we were eventually on dirt and trudging up the hillside. Both Andy and I were wheezing up the initial climb while Jacquelyn just looked at us.

Eventually we got to the top and then the downhill slope towards the fork in the road. It was decided to head straight up to the highest point first and work our way down from there, rather than the lowest to highest approach of last week.

The going was tough due to the soft, loose decomposing granite. For every step up, we would sink and slide back. Got to a point where the trail petered out to a handful of cairns staked about 20-30 feet apart. I took the trail that ran up along the inside of the rock outcrops while the rest went towards the outside and a more direct uphill path. Oddly, we both ended up at the top of the trail almost together.

Then the steep part came. Very slow, very tough climb got us to the top of the rocky outcrop that overlooks the entire valley. A sheer wall of rock on one side and some fun, adrenaline pumping bouldering on the other side. In my opinion anyway.

After we sat and ate lunch for awile, it was back down towards the trucks. We bushwhacked it most of the way, until we found a road that none of us knew about. Afterwards it was a quick stroll to our destination and to the vehicles waiting for us at the trailhead.

3.2 miles, 5 hours 18 minutes, 1264 feet elevation change.