But anyway, the story isn't over. I should mention that all of this is taking place less than 1/4 mile from where I killed a goat 4 or 5 years back. That night I spent under a boulder and the next day I hiked down and then back up again for the last load. I was betting that the wife would not enjoy such things, but I had sleeping bags, pads, a tent, 2 tarps, and enough puffy coats and pants to keep anybody warm all in the pack.
We got to the goat, took our pictures and started cutting. I got the legs off pretty quick and asked her if she wanted to make a run for the beach or spend the night. Packing the tent was a waste, as there is not a single place to put it up anywhere that isn't beach. We decided to head for the boat. So we moved some stuff from my pack to hers, and put all the legs in mine. Then I wrapped the carcass in the hide (everything was nice and clean), weighted it with some rocks, buried my game bags under some rocks, and we took off. My goal was to make it out of the shitty boulders and loose rock, and through the brush before we lost our light. We almost made it. It started raining about 10 minutes into the trip, and then continued for about 3 hours. But anyway, we got to the beach, called Dan on the radio, and he sent us a raft via SW wind, all in the dark dark. We paddled out with headlamps on and thank god got to the boat. Ate some food, drank a beer (ok, two beers) found a spot to anchor up, and hit the sack. The next day we dealt with a stuck anchor (it always has to be something right?), got it back, went back to the beach in the raft, and noticed right away that our creek was way higher than yesterday.
We had to cross a creek about 8 times before we got to a dry creekbed that took us to another creek. That had been no problem the day before, but now it was... risky. But it was just a risk of getting wet feet, so no big deal. We got there and headed up. When we got to the second creek, which drains 2 glaciers, we had a problem. Where we had crossed easily was underwater. You just couldn't get accross there, and we ended up busting brush for 250 yards or so to get back to where we could walk. That scenario replayed several times. We went up, dropped down to find a crossing when we couldn't climb anymore, reclimbed, etc. Late in the afternoon we were about half way there, but hadn't made any progress for the last hour. Every crossing that we made was sketchy. The water was still rising, and I was just thinking about trying to come down that shit in the dark, with a heavy pack and an inexperienced climber. So, I made a couple cups of coffee, and we talked about it and made the call to bail. I could see someone getting hurt, and I could see a way to make sure that didn't happen, and I took it. It took us almost 3 hours to get out of the bad stuff, and then deal with the creek at the bottom. We busted about a mile of brush to get back to the beach. The creek at the bottom had plenty of spawned out humpies, and plenty of bear sign, so that was... fun. We got back to the beach to find the raft floating in 5 feet of water. I rigged a tarp, as we were both soaking wet, and then made a mountain house (actually Peak Refuel - check that out) and a couple more cups of coffee, and we waited out the tide. Got our raft, got to the boat, and made tracks for home, cussing myself along the way.