SUMMARY:  We were very careful about “minding our map” since we would be turning off the official CDT and taking the Mack’s Inn alternate, which is shorter. Somebody made a wonderful rock-and-stick “sign” at the point where the official trail turned off. Then it was a matter of walking many miles of gravel road, with some very nice views—we loved being able to see views instead of endless walking through forest.

We were worried for awhile because our route didn’t exactly match Ley’s map, but finally we started meeting more SOBOs (22 total now). We ate a bit of lunch, then it was 4 more miles to Mack’s Inn, a thriving little town by the Henrys River, where we discovered that there was a lot of new stuff not listed in Yogi’s handbook.

We ate lunch at a place with a river view, walked the “frontage trail” along the busy highway which was being repaved and traffic was a mess. Did some resupply at the grocery store in Sawtelle and headed up the Sawtelle Peak road, aiming to rejoin the CDT tomorrow.

DETAILS:  Sleeping with our food last night was no problem–no furry visitors came by!  We walked off into a very cold morning, along a ridgetop where the trail/fire road was lined with trees just tall enough that we still could not see a view.  We made sure to find a good “solid” sunpatch (no risk of tree shade) for breakfast because of the cold.  Then we walked along quickly, but I kept a close eye on the Ley map to be sure we were on track.

I need not have worried about missing the Mack’s Inn turnoff–somebody had made an excellent rock-n-stick “sign” at the point where the official CDT left the road and went back to being trail.  Since we were taking the Ley alternate, we stayed on the road.  We walked happily along, with me regularly doing my best to confirm our position on the map, and all went well…..until it didn’t.  Suddenly, what I was SEEING did not match the map–what happened was that we came to a T- junction which did not appear on the map at all.  What was this?  “Our” road ended at the “T”, but it wasn’t supposed to.  There was a big sign, with map, at the junction, but it was so faded by the sun that it was barely legible.

After much puzzling and praying, based on what we could make out from the faded sign, we elected to turn right.  Our Garmin was of no use, since we had left the official CDT behind up on the ridge.  And it turned out that we were correct–we were on the Ley route after all–confirmed by the fact that we started meeting SOBO’s!!!  I have been keeping a count of how many we’ve met, and it has reached 22 of them so far.    The road kept on going and going and going.  Ley’s map said it was only 8 miles, and it was downhill, but it seemed like it was taking forever.  But the views were great as we came down into the valley where we expected to see Mack’s Inn/Sawtelle.

We just kept walking and finally we were there–we’d reached the Henrys River recreational area, and there were houses, businesses, etc.  People were rafting, canoeing and kayaking.  We had a great late lunch at a Mexican restaurant, Cafe Sabor, right by the river, before negotiating the trickiness of trying to walk along Hwy 20, which was being repaved.  We tried as much as possible to follow “frontage roads” to avoid the unbelievably bad traffic snarl and construction vehicles on the highway.

When we reached Sawtelle, we stopped at the grocery store to add more food and water to our packs.  Fixit waited in the shade outside the store while I went in to buy food and get water from the soda machine.  The store is called “Robin’s Roost”, and it’s very friendly and very well-organized; a great little place.  We also went over to Subway and got sandwiches for dinner tonight.  Some of the bikers we’ve met, and the SOBO’s, said that Sawtelle is a great place to stop and spend the night, but we pushed on into a hot afternoon, determined to get in some more miles.

This meant a very long walk up Sawtelle Peak Road, passing a lot of very impressive, big houses, but only 2 of them had a sign posted in front of them by the fire department that said basically, “This property has done a very good job of being prepared for wildfires.”  What that meant was, the property owners had really thinned their trees and removed brush, etc.  Problem:  Thicker trees + brush = more PRIVACY.  So many of the houses apparently valued privacy over fire safety.  Interesting priorities!

But then it got tricky.  The paved road became a gravel road, and there were several intersections where we were not sure which way to turn.  Finally I told Fixit, “I’m going to ASK to make sure we are still on Sawtelle Mountain Road.”  So again, he sat in the shade while I went and knocked on a few doors.  I finally found a guy who told me which road was the right one.  Whew!   I sure do miss being able to use the Garmin!

The road began to climb in earnest up the mountain, and at 7:00 ish we started looking for someplace to camp–not easy on a mountainside.  But finally there was a flat place up above the road where we made a very nice camp with a view back down the valley.  We are tiiiiiiired!