Kilpacker/Navajo route note....

[nfire]

So I searched kilpacker and didn't see this mentioned so forgive me if this is old news. But I wanted to send a quick warning to folks doing the Wilson traverse from south slopes on el diente, over to mt. wilson, then down through navajo basin and back out, which seems to be one of the best/safest ways to do this without snow.

if you are like us and end up hiking back out from navajo after dark, you eventually will take a cutoff trail from the navajo trail back to the kilpacker trail. it will be dark. after a mile or so the trail runs straight into what i assume is kilpacker creek. crossing the creek, it appears that the trail continues but runs to the left, right back into the creek. what looked like the trail was not the trail. to find the trail, move over to the right after you cross the creek, over some bare area and over a place where the creek looks dry, and look uphill after 50 feet or so to refind the trail.

in the dark my friend and i looked for the trail for close to an hour and were freaking out a bit and thought we were going to have to camp there without tents and sleeping bags. like i said we might just be idiots for not finding it, but it was a bit scary for us and i just wanted to warn that it can be tough to refind the trail there in the dark.