Looking back from the trail at the canyon containing the West Walker River. Somewhere down there is our camp and our river crossing point. It is easier to find our way this direction, hike back toward Cascade Creek, and find this trail than it is to do the reverse. On the way back, we will again cross Cascade Creek into the forest where we must bushwhack our way until at some point we will turn left back to the River. If we don't walk far enough, we will reach the river before our safe crossing point and the debris and growth near the river makes travel upstream difficult. If we walk too far, we can pass our crossing point and have to walk down river through the same kind of obstacles. Navigating off trail is much more difficult than most inexperienced hikers realize. My advice for the inexperienced? DON'T DO IT!

In fact, even when on trail people get lost. As we were going up, we ran into two PCT hikers coming down. I asked where they came from and one responded "Mexico." I asked, "what are you doing down here?" To which he replied, "this isn't the PCT?" The sign at the top had fallen apart. They turned down here thinking that it was the correct direction. Fortunately they were only about 500 feet from the trail junction. They turned around and when I reached the sign, I pointed the two board sections in the correct directions.