Day four had arrived and this one was going to be a big one. We would have to go over a mountain and down another to reach a place where we could then traverse over to the old trail. Sounds simple enough. We began our hike at dawn going past the lake with floating bergs and then up the slopes of Mt. Ferry. Both Dad and I picked different directions to go up the mountain, but each led to a ridge that we followed over. We had to think about it a bit, but the easiest way definitely was the right way and the path that we were taking put us right below the summit.
We wandered on over to the top of the mountain. I thought I was going to get a few more summits on this trip, but it still felt good to be on top of Mr. Ferry. The rock was incredibly jagged and thin. It did not give me much confidence as to its stability. After topping out, we now had to figure out how to get off the other side of the mountain. No options looked good, but we did find the semi-remnants of an old cairn. I looked down from there and did not think it could be right. Dad didn't either, but he found another way that he thought was right. It wasn't and despite my warnings about trudging out into the unknown, he seemed to have no problem giving it a try.
I went to the other side to see where he was going and he was sliding down a path to nowhere. He finally listened to me and came back up, but it could have turned out worse. When he got back up, we went back to the cairn and this time it was my turn to give something a shot. I could look down and see that this was the right way to go as soon as I committed. The problem was that it sure didn't feel right. I got myself committed and eventually saw myself side stepping over to a rocky spot with my body nearly vertically into the semi-sandy steep slope. I made it down, but if I would have got any momentum it could have been easy to slip and get myself injured or worse.
Dad seemed to pick a better path down the steep drop off and then we were back on the path of use for the time being. This led us first down, down, down until we started to climb up. It seemed like an excessive amount of time that we were on this ridge heading toward Mt. Ludden. It honestly felt like it would be easy to just scramble to the top of Mt. Ludden, but Dad said the route was actually from the saddle between Scott and Ludden below. Eventually the path hit a place where going up was not possible anymore and this was the spot it started dropping steeply down to the saddle.
We had to get off the path at one point and just follow a ridge down to the trail. I beat Dad down, but he joined me eventually where we got water and lunch from this beautiful open meadow with water flowing through it. This was not our destination for the day, though and after lunch it was back to hiking again. We were first descending off the saddle and then traversing over to what would be called Crisler's Ladder, a very steep bunch of roots that descended into a gully. This was the first time on the trip that it seemed Dad had slowed us down being in his 60's. He truly is in excellent shape to be able to do such a challenging hike at his age. The heat was getting to him a bit, though, and I could understand as he had not spent the whole summer hiking in 100 degree heat like I had. We kept moving though and the drop offs here made me slightly nervous, though there was good vegetation everywhere. Eventually we were at Crisler's Ladder.
We just handed packs down and then made the down climb without any issue. This put us in a gully that dropped steeply away for who know how many hundreds or thousands of feet. We got some water and snacks here. Then it was up and nearly straight up. This was definitely the steepest part of the entire trip. We followed a trail for some of it, but then it split in different directions and we questioned our decision. I was moving along great, but Dad was going slow, so I should have found the way, but I didn't. I froze at a particular spot not knowing how to manage it with a full pack. Dad caught me and gave it a try. It worked and so I hesitantly followed him and to my surprise, it landed us on the old trail from Dodger Point. At one point, there were grand ideas of connecting the high divide with Dodger Point. It was never finished, though.
This one was truly blasted out of the walls, because it really hugged them closely. It was still very exposed as there had been many rockfalls on this trail. It seemed like a long duration of time before we finally hit good trail and our first sign in days. We soon set up camp and the bugs were pretty bad. We hung out for a while, played cribbage, and ate dinner. After dinner, I decided to make a quick hike to the top of Dodger Point. It was sure nice to be on good trail as I felt like I flew to the top of the point and then back down. Up on top was a lookout and some washed out views of the surrounding peaks. Compared to the views we had for the past 3 days, being on Dodger Point gave a great view of the forests, but not of the peaks. Then it was back to camp to get some rest to prepare for the long hike out on good trail.
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