[AlpineRose]

Will you please tell us where you camped?

[Yana]

Night 1: near Sandy River, right before trail makes the turn toward the PCT junction/Ramona Falls - there's a few campsites in this area, but the one we scored was completely out of sight/sound of the others Night 2: Elk Cove - gorgeous, still lots of flowers - had it all to ourselves; Night 3: near the very top of Gnarl Ridge - pre-established campsite a bit off the trail right before it starts seriously descending after traversing from the high point. Also had it all to ourselves, have to carry water a bit as the campsite is dry. Really tons of campsites all over there place. You can really tell this area is unregulated as there's lots of sites even where there is also signage/rules about not camping. :-( Here are about a billion photos.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Thanks for posting link to pics. Looks nice. Too bad it was socked in when you were on the north side of the mountain. I think the view from around Bald Mountain looking up toward McNeil Point is my favorite. See, I wasn't joking about the sand around White River! It's kind of bizarre.

[Yana]

Yeah, we were bummed about the lack of views on day 2, but we did expect it based on the forecast. The forest parts were really cool in the mist, though, and the trail after Ramona Falls and before Bald Mountain was very sparsely populated. Once we got to Bald Mountain, everyone and their mother and their three dogs were there, even though the weather was crap.

[AlpineRose]

Your pic shows two of you wading the second Muddy River crossing packless. What trail magic made that happen?

[Yana]

We wanted to make the crossings as easy for my mom as possible, so my sister and I crossed first, dropped our packs, one of us helped her across, the other took her pack across. So I made most of the crossings at least 3 times. ;-) So... I guess the trail magic of having children that drag you on some strenuous four day backpacking trip.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[AlpineRose]

Very good magic indeed.