12 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
Again, the forecast was pretty miserable, so we felt heading east may offer a bit of respite. Turns out, it rains in the Lyle-Mosier area, too! Who knew? :-)
After getting something of a late start, we headed up the Labyrinth and just sort of wandered without a plan. Ended up cutting across over towards the large talus fields, which are filled with native vision quest pits and trenches. (Not sure I've ever seen the trench structures before, anywhere else?) Explored those for a bit, before moving on towards Catherine Creek.
We decided to take the old jeep road up the west side of the creek, thinking we'd drop back down the next big wall before climbing back up again. But, as we emerged out into the huge green swath that goes back down to the trailhead, the rain began. And it was feeling rather cold. So we decided the extra climb just wasn't in the cards for this day, and just headed west along Atwood Road towards Coyote Wall.
As we got farther west, we started noting lots of improvements. There were two new footbridges. And lots of new trail junction signs! They even pointed out where the private properties were, and how best to avoid them. Huge improvement over the previous guessing game!
Anyway, got to the wall, and just descended right along down it. Relatively short hike, stats-wise, but another really nice day with good friends in the outdoors. And you just can't beat that. :-)
