We camped on Whitehall City land on the river bottom on the grass.
The hotel was booked solid, the two other hotels had no availability (they have gone to residence stays with occasional open rooms).
The RV park would not pick up when we called and did not return calls.
There was some condensation (and a bit of ice) but we slept well. At 4:58 we got up and ate a little and packed up.
Then the trail Angel we had met picked us up around 5:30 and drove us to the trail head where the Keebler & Crew route starts.
There are two canyon routes up. The Avenza choice has a huge PUD. The other takes an OHV trail up. The two routes combine about 4.5 miles in.
The trail climbs to a pass at about 7,700 feet and then drops into the valley, meets a dirt road and heads back up.
We stopped for the night at about Avenza milepost 260.8. That puts us back up at about 6,900 feet.
Tomorrow’s pass is about ten thousand feet up so we are glad to have stopped now to dry out our tent, have an early dinner and not try to camp at ten thousand feet.
It has been beautiful. Prairie dogs, some cows, raptors, deer and no sign of bears.
OHV (off highway vehicle) trails are often steep. They also often hit a point where they are motorcycle trails.
At that point they become much narrower, gentler in climbs with sweeping trail and switchbacks.
Both have a lot of trail maintenance. Blowdowns cleared, bridges and hiker bridges (cut logs).
