It took me a smidge under two hours to hike the four-and-something miles from ‘Cab Creek’ to the Tower Trailhead. At the Brushy Creek crossing I met two people hiking the trail counterclockwise. The only people I saw in my three days’ stay. It was a warm hike out, and I missed packing a lightweight Tee shirt. Lesson learned (I hope).

This was an excellent trip, with enough miles and plenty of time spent watching the underbrush grow – apparently, the Dutch have a word for this practice, ‘niksen’ – I also managed to spend a couple of hours sitting in the sun. I’ll count both of those as wins!

Lessons

My preparation was a little off. I packed a base layer top, shorts, an extra buff, and an extra bandana. I’m not quite sure what I was thinking.

I made one silly mistake, and that was to use my two-liter clean water pouch for collecting creek water. I gave it a good wash and a dilute bleach bath when I got home. Everything else was just fine.

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