There is nothing like having a six month old puppy to make you feel completely out of shape. She would run ahead and stop about 50 feet from me look back to say are you coming or what. The only time she seemed even slightly tired was when we reached the top of Whetstone Mountain. She recovered quickly though and was impatiently waiting for me the whole way down.
The view from the top was pretty and I imagine that there is tons of bear grass in the spring, since we saw lots of the plants, but for the most part the flowers were long gone. There were lots of rhododendron plants, so it seems like this would be a great spring conditioning hike. We managed to scare two pheasants that were hanging out on the trail on the way up. They hung out in a tree near us, before taking off. My puppy was amazed.
On the way back down I managed to fall into the stream we were fording. I didn't feel too bad, since the guy who was crossing before me fell in too. He was one of the two groups we saw all day. The trail was not very well maintained and felt remote and quiet. There were quite a few huckleberry bushes, but no huckleberries to speak of. I don't know if it is because it is too late in the season at this elevation or if there wasn't a good crop this year. I did find a hill with a bunch of thimble berries though.
On the way back down we passed through Jawbone Flats and stopped at Opal Pool before walking back down the road to the trailhead.
