Downhill Traverse

Today was a bit different; we started our traverse at the top of the hill and ended in a swamp, instead of doing the reverse. The view in the morning was absoulutely beautiful, clear all the way out to the Coast Mountains(like the last few days, but clearer), and to Edziza (photo to come). We had a few stations at the top of the hill (an interesting basalt with clasts of amygdoloidal basalt and augite-pheric basalt). We waited as long as we could, but by about 11 we started our descent into the buckbrush. It was pretty steep and cliffy, and kinda sketchy in some parts. It was another burn patch like two days ago on the traverse from hell, but it's a lot easier to hike down than up it. I like to call it 'yoga-ing around the logs' because we had to clamber over some, crawl under others, and then just kinda wind our way around others. It definitely requires a lot of balance and agility. We wanted to get up the knob at the bottom of the swampy bit before lunch, but that didn't really happen, so we had lunch in the bog. The mosquitos weren't too bad, but another breed of them hatched after that wet weather the other day, and these ones hurt more and leave welts. It's strange. The knob was ridiculous to climb up. I swear it was nearly vertical, but the contours looked so easy on the map. Some more beautiful confused basalts at the top there. We kept looking for a moose trail, because the game trails tend to run from swamp to swamp, and as we were going from swamp to swamp, we figured we might find a moose who wanted to do the same. Unfortunately moose do not appreciate near-vertical ascents like geologists do, so we were hooped. We stumbled down the hill and into the buckbrush again, and thrashed around there for 3 hours before mysteriously appearing in a swampy area that we were to be picked up in. Basically it was about as bad as that swamp we were dropped off in two days ago, but at least it was the end of the day. Hover entry is less exciting than hover exits. I got to sit up front, which was great after I figured out how to use the seatbelt (I had it backwards, super frustrating). This traverse would have been so brutal if we did it uphill instead of downhill. I don't even think it would have been worth it. We had about 5 outcrops today, during our 9 hour traverse. Uphill would have taken even longer.

Good news: We all had showers today! We're all clean and shiny, and I think tomorrow is going to be a rain day, so I might stay clean-ish for longer than 12 hours. This is almost revolutionary. And my finger that I sliced open on a tin of fruit at lunch the other day has nearly healed up thanks to my first aid skills (waterproof tape and a bandaid).
Bad news: We ran out of propane after I got all sudsed up in the shower. This would be fine if the water was not coming from a glacial fed creek. I gave myself an ice-cream headache while trying to rinse out my hair before I just stopped. It was pretty funny though. Glacially cold water definitely makes your clothes seem toasty warm though.

My camera ran out of batteries tonight, but I have some stellar photos of cariboo from yesterday, and Mt. Edziza from today, so if tomorrow is a rain-day, I will totally upload them.