Quick Summary of Yesterday's hike.

How do I feel this morning?

Well. Let's just say I feel like I been rode hard and put up wet.

What happened yesterday?

Long story short, I lost the trail on top of what I thought was Big Horn Peak but it wasn't. It was very cold and windy. I tried to call the Back Country offc for help but couldn't get through.

Made a bad decision to bushwhack cross country to try to find trail. Peeled off the mountain top on a very steep slope - think all fours to keep from sliding - and went down it for almost a mile - probably 1500' elevation change. It dead ended into a sheer drop off that I just couldn't get around. So I called Madeleine - she called the Park Service - they called me - the Ranger was incredible. Knew exactly where I was based on my description and told me calmly....

"You have to go back up the Hill... You cut right (south) a mile too soon".

Took me 2-1/2 hours to bear crawl literally back up the side of the mountain and get back to where I came off the non existent trail originally.

Then he talked me to where the trail began again.

Took me another 2 -1/2 hours to hike to the base of Big Horn then bear crawl up the final slope and then another half hour of me probing for the trail off Big Horn calling him and finally just having to stay on the phone with him while he walked me through the half mile of unmarked area / woods before the trail actually began.

Then about 5-1/2 hours of hiking down in the dark. But I had a great headlight so it was all good.

Feel good this morning.

Just tore up from being on my feet on maximum intensity ups and down and off trail stuff for 16 hours straight and most of it was above 9000' and it was really cold and windy so I was fighting that all day long.

That's the problem with a lot of these way off the beaten path back country hiking trails. They're not well marked and if you're not using GPS you can get off track.

Had this same problem on this same trail on a backpacking trip with Madeleine back in 2001 but we were coming from the opposite direction. Couldn't find our way down off Big Horn Peak, called the Backcountry offc, they told us to just peel off the top over what looked like a sheer cliff. (That's the final slope I bearcrawled up last night.)

We ended up bushwhacking down by doing long hairpins down the steep slope and finding the trail at the bottom.

That's what I attempted to do yesterday but was just coming down off the wrong peak.

Live and Learn...

Die and Forget it All.

Life is an Adventure...

If You don't get Lost ever once in a while...

You're not trying hard enough.