I didn't want to get up really early for this hike so I drove to the trailhead from work the night before. The road is not that rough, but rough enough. And 7.5 miles takes a while.

I got down to the trailhead after 6 and set up my big 6 man car camping tent. It was windier than I expected. I had the tent set up and stepped away to get some stuff from the car and turned around and the tent was gone. Blown across the road and into the meadow a good ways. I dragged it back and set it up again and tied the guy lines to big logs that I dragged from a cut burnt tree. I was none too sure I had it secured enough, but I used all the cord I had. Then I picked up the air mattress, pump, chair, quilt, food and assorted gear that had been dumped from the tent and scattered about. I didn't worry about the tent blowing away with my fat ass in it, but did worry about poles snapping and the fabric shredding. And a bear nosing around attracted by the potato salad and deconstructed sandwich smeared from the floor to the roof. But I survived the night and woke up and broke down camp as the first vehicles rolled in around 4:30.

My group arrived and we stepped off around 5:30. Later than planned, but nobody starts on time.

This trail is great. I really enjoy it much more than Vivian Creek, and although South Fork is easier to get to thus is nicer. There is plenty of evidence of past fire damage, but the area is coming back, different but coming back.

We made it up to the top in around 6 hours with a couple of stops. Not fast, but I'm old. And two had never done it. One in the group had issues with altitude and stopped at the plane wreck and waited for us to return. I don't like leaving people, especially first timers, but he promised to stay put and he did. We came back a couple hours later and rejoined him hiked on out. The last mile is always the worse part, it seems like the cars will never come into sight, but eventually they always do.

All Trails shows 9:45 minutes moving time, which is OK for a fat old guy. 19.8 miles in 11.5 hours total time, under 12 hours works for me.

The drive out was better than I feared. The clown car is a manual and I was nervous about stalling out on the uphill, but it was fine, and once up from the trailhead I coasted much of the way down.

It was a great time and I'm already planning the return.