Well in that last picture you saw, it looked like we were all about to walk off the face of a cliff and to be honest, we were thinking the same thing. In a way...we were.
It was pretty steep here and those of us that had shoes with good traction were very grateful for it. As we began this part of the hike we could see more woodland in front of us, the trail resumed so we knew we had done something right along the way, and the shade trees were really nice to have. We took our first water stop at this part of the hike, which reminds me to stress the importance of water conservation. It seems like you have tonz of water when you first start the hike, but as things wear on you become painfully aware of how much you wish you had more. Also if you would still like to be drinking cold water when you near the end of this hike, then here is a little tip. The night before, fill 3/4 of your water bottles almost all the way full (leaving about an inch for expansion) and fill the rest only half full...then put all the bottles into the freezer over night. The next morning, right before you leave take all the bottles out and finish filling the ones that are only half full. This will give you water to drink for the beginning and your frozen bottles will unthaw during the hike giving you fairly cold water for most of the hike.
As I said before, we could see the woodland ahead and we were now descending quite nicely...so we thought we were already headed for the bottom of Russel Gultch (which would be a good thing), boy were we wrong!
