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Tuesday night I drove up to Keene Valley for another (planned) sunrise hike to Basin and then Saddleback. Starting out under the full moon from the Garden lot at 10 pm, I made good time to JBL and up to Bushnell Falls. Then I entered a section of the Phelps trail that looked like it had been hit by an artillery barrage. I lost count of all the downed trees that I limboed under, climbed over or hiked around. This part of the Phelps trail and the Shorey Short Cut were a full blown obstacle course of downfall, mud, rocks, roots, slick bedrock and scrambles. With less than a mile to go to make summit, I pushed the pace hard, but missed the actual sunrise by 10 minutes. Still, this was just as rewarding for me as it was physically and mentally demanding. It was the sports equivalent of "leaving it all on the field". I'll post some pics, but they won't do this trip justice. The infamous Saddleback cliffs are no joke! They aren't quite vertical, but man, one wrong move and you're done. I don't know why any sane person would actually choose to descend the cliffs rather than ascend and not look down. Either way, you better bring your A game. These peaks make it 35/46 for me. The loop hike was about 16.5 miles, but it took me over 17 hours to get back to the Jeep. The push up to Basin absolutely smoked me only halfway into the hike so I needed to take generous breaks from there on. Once home I slept for 12 hours straight. Everything is sore, but I can't wait to do it all over again on the next hike.