Fern Spring to Cook and Green Pass – 13.2 miles

July 12, 2022. 4800’ gain. 1920’ descent.

Very early start this morning to beat the heat on the long ascent so out of camp at 5:00.

The trail was good as it wound its way around and across a broad ridge. Water was obtained from very small streams and Lookout Spring.

Lookout Spring was down a short side trail. Water was flowing out of an iron pipe about 1/2 inch in diameter. It had obviously been pounded into the slopes a long time ago.

We did encounter some brush on the way but not anything too serious. Never off the trail by too much. Not like the extremely overgrown trail last year.

The trail did keep going up and up and the sun was making it pretty hot. Not too many places to find shade. We climbed to over 6,000 feet. The days gain was about 5,000 feet and all without too many water breaks over 7 miles. The last 6 miles of the day were much more mellow but still very hot.

A 3 mile descent brought us to Cook and Green Pass where we used another piped spring for our camp water. Nicely breezy here and some clouds. Good campsite early in the day followed by beef stroganoff at 3:00pm. We needed this shorter day as it was our first with lots of climbing and heat. Pretty successful overall.