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Back down the slope. Of course, the scree was perfectly engineered - it was just as miserable to descend as to come up. Large sections would slide down at once, knocking loose larger rocks to cream anyone below. It was perfectly sized to prevent skiing down. Plus, Sheba's feet were really starting to show signs of abuse due to the sharp rocks. Sheba was now leaving a bloody trail behind her. The scree slope nightmare finally ended and we stopped for a break. We shared our break area with 2 sheep that obviously don't see too many people in those parts. It was starting to get late and it was becoming apparent that we would be hiking back in the dark.
Back across Peters Creek, up the hanging valley, up the meadow and moraine fields to Bombardment Pass. By now, the sun had set and we really wanted to get across the last moraine field before it got too dark. We made it off the moraine and to the top of Ram Valley just as the first stars were coming out. We were traveling light, so we had left our headlamps at home. We hiked down the valley in the dark, following faint outlines of the trail. As we approached the main trail, we started to worry we'd walk right by it and end up having to bushwhack down to Eagle River Valley Road, so I pulled out my little AAA flashlight and used it to try and stay on the trail. We were really lucky because it wasn't too long before we were back at the cabin. We'd made it!
26 miles and 11,000' later, back at Ted's car at 12:30 a.m. We were disappointed we didn't make it to the top, but thought we'd made the right choice at the top of the scree slope. Summiting would have added at least 2 more hours to the trip and possibly stuck us out for the night. Another pleasant surprise was that Houdini was waiting for us at the car! The dog had found its way back down the valley and spent the day setting on the car roof. We plopped down into the seats, exhausted and ready to head home. Not to be...
Ted, it turns out, is a firm believer in not doing car maintenance. "If it's not broke, don't mess with it" Ted says. That includes water in the battery. When Ted turned the ignition key, that car didn't even click - it was stone dead. We tried bump starting it - an advantage of a standard transmission, right? Well, these new cars with computers need some minimal amount of juice before they'll come to life. At 1:00 in the morning, we didn't think knocking on doors looking for a jump was a very good idea. So Ted drove his powerless car with power steering and power brakes down the steep, switchbacked hill in pitch dark. Plus, Houdini the wonderful dog had smeared mud all over the windshield, so Ted got to keep his head stuck out of the window. I walked in front (I was really excited about hiking another 2 miles after the last 26!) and told Ted when he needed to turn if he wanted to keep his well maintained vehicle out of the ditches.
Got a jump-start off a nice guy at Eagle River Valley Road. Turns out the car had a bad alternator, so it just wasn't going to run. An Anchorage Police Officer stopped and called a Taxi for us. $50 later, we finally made it back to Anchorage at 4:30 a.m.
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