Indian Head Peak loop hike

Day 3
After an adventurous day 2, we lazily got out of bed and readied ourselves for the hike out. Mark prepared granola and blueberries for breakfast - that hit the spot! Dani headed to filter more water and Mark worked on taking down camp. Once we took off, we were in the forest for a good while with a decent trail. At one point Dani said, almost as a question, "Bear." Mark reached down to grab the off-leash Murphy and we both saw a very large black bear butt take off up the hill into thick underbrush. So we stood and talked and clapped for a few minutes and preceeded with caution.

As the day went on we were in and out of forest and thick vegetation. There, in fact, was a trail...you just had to look hard to find it! We had a few more, less precarious river crossings on day 3 and decided since they were relatively close together to leave our Chacos (rugged sandles) on and our pant legs zipped off. BAD idea! Tramping through the thick overgrowth left our legs rather cut up and burning - but we were in a hurry to get to the car. At one point Dani made the comment that she felt as if she were trying to commit suicide by giving herself papercuts around the ankles - and it wasn't working!

Our last day was so nice Mark was able to stop and take some scenic photos! We were on the tail end of our food so he didn't linger long!

We made it to our final (8th or 9th) river crossing of the trip - the only one with a bridge, albeit a broken one! We were thankful for the break of plunging into freezing cold snow melt and shimmying across blown down trees! This bridge was a happy sight. Once we crossed we were in our final miles of the hike, meaning we were along the White River again and the mosquito convention was still in session! Our last few miles, despite being quite tired from the previous days difficulties, are a fuzzy memory because it only took us about an hour to get to the car.

Two happy campers - finally back at the car!

We dumped our packs and sped away as our flying, biting friends also enjoyed the air in the parking area!

Mark had the brilliant idea to stop at Wenatchee State Park to have a warm 50-cent shower. The bad news: we only had 75 cents. The good news: there weren't any men in the men's room! Murphy crashed out in the back seat and we drove home (relatively) clean and happy.