With warm temperatures predicted, Bill moved the meeting time from 8:00 AM to 7:00 AM.

At 7:40, six hikers left a nearly empty trailhead. For Bill it was a repeat of sorts of his renegade departure from Chuck’s hike in February of 2011. For three of the hikers it was brand new adventure.

At “G0” we left the trail and headed up First Water Creek. There were very few cairns. Where they washed out or knocked down? Coupled with my senior memory recall of 5 years ago, zilch, it was like a new off-trail hike. Yum!

No frozen pools. Bright sunshine on the ripple free pools surface provided some great reflection pictures. Lots of boulder-hopping. We had to sidestep some of the waterfalls. After the group picture, Bruce continued up the creek. Mountain goat. The others followed Bill plowing through some bushes on our stomachs, until Nancy found an out to higher ground. We met up with Bruce and continued following remnants of a creek until waypoint “O3” It was the second of many lunch breaks. When someone got hungry it was lunch.

Decision: return on O’Grady or extend the hike to Tim's Saddle Loop? Extending was the choice. At “R2” we decided on heading down Old West Boulder a departure for Bill’s renegade route in 2011.

Bill hiked a ridgeline. The others followed Bruce down a drainage that fed Old West Boulder. We reconnected before entering a catclaw forest. We all know the drill. Pretend you are at the dentist and it will all be over soon ... never soon enough.

Once we got to the wider portion of the canyon the going got easy. A trickle of water still flowing and some interesting bright green growth made for some great photos. At our last lunch break below the falls Becky was out of water. When we found a spot of clear flowing water, Andy helped Bill use his filter to fill two empty liter bottles.