Making some bad decisions on the trail

Some times we make bad hiking decisions, and today was one of those days. It started out innocently enough as the first rays of sunshine lit up the tree tops over our flower-filled meadow. What could possibly go wrong today?

We became friends with a retired Delta pilot that is on a mission to climb as many 14ers (mountains over 14,000 feet) as possible. He described a great hike that he took the day before on his way to summit El Diente mountain. This is the hike that he used to get closer to the mountain before he hiked to the top the next day. It sounded like a good idea, so we decided to do just the 7.1-mile out- and-back hike on the Kilpacker trail that would give us views of El Diente. 

You can see how big and majestic the landscape is when you recognize a little dot that looks like Mark in the meadow in front of El Diente Mountain.

Even though we have already wandered into some spectacular wonders, it didn't feel like we ever "arrived" at the end of the trail. This trail continues to the top of El Diente, and we weren't interested in that hike today.

There's a waterfall behind us in the pictures above and below. But that was as close as we could get to the waterfall. Can that really be a final destination of a hike? It just didn't feel like we were finished.

We know that there is a lovely mountain lake about two miles from here. That would be a great destination! According to the topography map, if we could scramble up this side peak we could get there. So we made the decision to give it a try.

That was our first bad decision of the day. After hiking up and up, we found that fallen logs and brush would make our ability to continue on this route too difficult. So we headed back down.

But we still didn't want to lose all the elevation we had worked hard to attain this morning. After looking at the topography map again, we saw that we could go down to an elevation of about 11,150 feet, and that was close to Navajo Lake's elevation. Instead of going over the mountain, what if we went around it? We made the decision to try to traverse the mountain at this elevation.

We found game trails that seemed to have the same plan, and we made great head-way crossing meadows and walking through thick forests at 11,000 feet. We were pretty pleased with our decision and our ability to read maps and make new trails to connect two great sights. We wondered why more people didn't do this route?

Then we broke out of the forest and found the answer to that question. This is an impossible route because it hits a very steep scree field about a mile short of Navajo Lake.

We are pretty tough hikers, but a loose rock field that is that steep and that long is impossible to cross. Yes, we know because we tried. Our decision to try this route turned out to be our second bad decision of the day. Our only option now was to go straight down that steep loose rock, muttering under our breath about losing all that elevation that we had worked so hard to keep. It was an ugly hike as we slid and stumbled our way down the rock. Denisa fell and that will be a big bruise on her hip! That led us into a steep forest of downed logs that had to be crossed. Denisa misjudged a limb and scraped up the front of her left leg. That led us into a boggy meadow with countless water crossings and mud. Denisa hit a tree stob and bloodied the back of her right leg. When we stopped for a snack and a break, Denisa isn't smiling any more. We have made some bad decisions today and she's regretting all of them!

We broke out of the forest to see the size of that huge loose-rock mountain that had thwarted our plan for a short cut. The fact that it was impossible to cross sure didn't show up on that topographical map! It was at this time that Denisa announced that she would never go off-trailing with Mark again! She is in a miserable mood!

So even though we have hiked 7.3 miles so far, we still haven't gotten to a destination. So when we finally found the real trail, we made another bad decision. We decided to take that trail up to see Navajo Lake.

Sitting on an exposed tree root, Denisa is complaining about these steep switch backs that go on and on. We're working hard to regain the elevation that we so painfully lost earlier.

It was a tough climb, but when we finally got our first look at Navajo Lake, it almost felt like it was worth it.

We've hiked 8.9 miles so far today, so a nice cold foot bath in the lake feels mighty good.

Navajo Lake is in a bowl formed by three mountains that surround it. All three of those mountains end in steep scree fields by the time they meet in the water. We're not a big fan of those loose rock fields today.

Sorry for all the lake pictures, but we worked hard to get here, and so we want to stay for a while. If we would have made the decision to hike only here and if we had started from the closest trail head, it would have only been a 9.5 mile out-and-back hike. But our unsuccessful attempt to join two trails is stretching this into a MUCH longer day.

After a good long time at the lake, we put our hiking boots back on and headed back down the trail. The good news is it is finally now all downhill.

The bad news is we are still 6.5 miles from our car. As we hiked in the shadow of that mountain that messed up our plans today, we can't help but mutter under our breath about the bad decisions we made today.

It will take some creek crossings, but we will stay on the trail all the way home. Denisa isn't interested in any "short cuts" now.

We were within a mile of the car, when we hiked over a hill to see the strangest sight in the meadow.

Everywhere we looked, we could see sheep!

We would have been more excited to see Rocky Mountain sheep, but these flocks of domestic sheep were very entertaining for a couple of very weary hikers that had made some bad decisions today.

Most of them were white, but the proverbial black sheep of the family also showed up in these flocks of hundreds of sheep here in the national forest.

We started this hike with the rising sun lighting up the trees, and we're ending it with the setting sun casting shadows and lighting up the mountains far in front of us. As we finish up, we note that we have been on the trail for 11 hours. Our final stats show that we went 15.4 miles, gained 2,995 feet in elevation, and burned 4867 calories. We have to admit that we made some bad decisions along the way. But the one good decision we made was to wander more of God's wonders!