Sort of made the saddle

We made it to the saddle, but our trail, not so much. We quit a ways short of it. It was farther away than we had realized and Ann's back was beginning to hurt. She's had two back surgeries and it had been two hours, so time to quit.

They worked ahead of me and I did the finishing work and any pick-axing that needed doing. So I paced myself and don't think I overdid.

Here is Ann at the saddle pointing out to Julie where the destination is. Still a long trail to hoe yet. but at least the end is in sight.   The air was hazy and most of my photos didn't turn out decent.

                           

There are a lot of arroyos between the saddle and the oaks. We're planning on traversing them as high up as possible where they're less steep. But at least we should not need many more steps. One of these days I'm going to count how many steps we made. 

And I'm already plotting a trail on my side of the mountain (this is Ann's side). First I'm going to cement rocks in a gully on the bad road to the potential new trailhead. Wish I wasn't so overloaded with other things that need doing.