[detekt]

My wife and I spent a beautiful night up on Skyline Divide on this warm August weekend. We found a spot in the overflowing parking lot and headed up the trail. Moving at a casual pace with overnight packs, we gained the ridge in an hour. Great views and lots of people, the crowd thinned as we went further along the ridge. We dropped down the basin trail (a left at the unsigned fork, most people go right and continue up the divide). We hoped to find water and nice camping. We found a small stream, no views, and lots of bugs. So we decided to go back on to the divide and hoped to find snow to melt. We found a faint old boot path which got us back onto the ridge crest towards the south end of the Skyline Divide after traversing some interesting terrain. Though not difficult, I wouldn't recommend this route. We set up camp on top of the 6540ft bump and shared the area with two cool guys. A few other groups continued on and camped further down the ridge. No water or snow up here so after setting up camp we had to go down a bit to find snow for water. Not a big deal, but make sure to bring plenty of water or be prepared to hike a bit to find snow to melt. The lot was almost full when we left and plenty of cars were heading up, get there early and don't forget water.

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back down the divide

below the divide

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