After 12 hours of sustained thunderstorms we decided to take our chances and hit the trail.  The clouds were still roaring and a few minutes into it I knew it would be an adventure.  The trail was terrible, parts of it completely washed out. . . mid calf high water flowing right down the path.  I took a full body spill trying to jump across a 5 foot wide section of strong flowing water.  Banged up my knee, got soaked, mud in my eyes - it was a wipe out and probably pretty funny to witness, but to Jess' credit she didn't laugh too hard at me.  I decided to put on my sandals after that little event and walk through any future crossings instead of trying to pole vault over them.  Turned out to be a good decision as it only got worse.

Jess

Today was epic.  After Dave's Achilles-style leap (and fall) over a flooded section I took my best shot and made it across with only one foot in the water – only to find an even deeper and wider crossing about 10 yards away.   I decided to wade right through in my boots.  Not a bad idea, since for the rest of the day I traipsed right through everything and didn’t bother trying to stay dry.  My mantra became: Shortest distance between two points

We stopped for lunch before beginning the ascent over the 3000 foot col.  Dave’s knee was stiff and sore, so I took the lead after lunch – feeling pretty good.  I got a little ways ahead of him, but stopped periodically to look back and see how he was doing.  We came to a tree that had clearly fallen the night before; it was a little tricky to get around, but nothing too bad so I kept hiking and didn’t stop to wait for Dave.  I did, however, stop to wait for him when I came to a flooded clearing with a downed bridge, both to make sure his knee was OK, and to lament the ridiculous conditions. 

Dave

After lunch Jess was hiking substantially ahead of me because of my banged up knee... and wouldn't you know it...  The old beaver dam/flooded clearing/re-route struck again!

Having gone through this fiasco two years before (read here) and worried that with Jess hiking ahead of me there would be a chance she would repeat my mistake, I decided to take the re-route (the start of which is marked with an A on the diagram).  Thinking that if Jess did end up making the same mistake  I made back then, that I would be able to catch her.  And if she didn't make the same mistake I did, well then we would simply meet up somewhere further down the trail.

Problem was, Jess stopped in the flooded clearing to wait for me.  So, when I did take the re-route I essentially leapfrogged ahead of her.  But it was not without some adventurous effort.  Toward the end of the re-route I ran into an overflowing and very strong stream... it was about waist high and running hard enough to make crossing it impossible without holding on to something.  My hurting knee made it that much harder.

Jess

When Dave failed to appear as I waited for him in the clearing, I suspected that he was playing a lame joke on me, but then I started to worry.  So I started back down the main trail to meet him – and that’s when I noticed the side trail re-route (A) that I had missed the first time.  Only slightly panicked at this point, I took the re-route trail until it ran smack into a horrible stream crossing.  Thinking there was no way to get across it with my two good knees, I had doubts that Dave would have attempted it with his bum knee.  So I turned around and headed back to the main trail to see if he was waiting for me in the clearing yet.  He wasn't.

At this point I was on my way up and over the col, well past the clearing/re-route. . .  not sure where Jess was but assuming she was ahead of me.  The conditions were awful.  It was still pouring rain, waves of water were flooding down the trail, and my feet were going numb in my sandals from the cold water.

Jess

Still daunted by the flooded clearing, I decided the trail must have been rerouted for a reason and headed back one more time to the side trail (A) to deal with that raging stream.  Trying to move fast, knowing I had wasted a lot of time waiting around and wandering, I tried to make my way across it on top of a precariously perched log, only to slip and fall in.  I ended up chin deep in the water, upstream of the log thankfully, and was pinned against it by the fast moving water.  I somehow pulled myself to the other side and regained the trail. 

Entirely not in the right frame of mind after that, I came to another split in the trail (B) and walked through what I thought was yet another flooded crossing.  Entirely soaked, I fell in again and was only too happy to make it to the other side.  I started hiking fast until I realized that I wasn’t ascending like I was supposed to.  A little while longer and I came to the downed tree where I had last seen Dave.  Scared, angry, scared, I realized I was completely heading in the wrong direction now and I turned around again, hiked back through the flooded crossing one more time, and pushed my way up and over the 3000 foot ascent.  Confident that I was indeed on the trail, and indeed going in the right direction, I hiked quickly.  In fact, I’ve never gone up and over a mountain so fast in my life.  Still not sure what had become of Dave, I suspected that he was ahead of me.  Determined to catch him before the end of the day, not wanting to venture into town by myself, I caught up to him just as I was finishing my descent.  It was a tearful reunion for me.  Not wanting to laugh at my red, snotty, tear streaked face, Dave gave me a hug as I explained what had happened.  The rest of the hike out went without incident and we began to laugh at the day’s events.

We arrived in Long Lake, found a much needed hotel room, and went for a much needed meal at the Blarney Stone.  Decided to spend two nights in this great little town to dry out, do some laundry, and fully recover from our misadventure.