If there is anything I have learned over the past few years about making ambitious adventure plans, it is to keep in mind why they are ambitious...not everything always goes as expected. Whether due to unstable snow conditions on a backcountry ski tour, or a sketchy cliff face along a ridge run, bailing on a route is never fun. However, it can be easy to compartmentalize why it was best to forgo the original plan, especially when facing imminent danger.

This is what made our change of plans on Friday night so frustrating. We had meticulously plotted out the route on a map, had already made the 3 hour drive north, and had just dropped off our bikes for the return shuttle when we drove by the wildfire burning on the ridge. It wasn't a large fire by any means, but the closure area was big enough to block access to the trail we had been banking on using first thing in the morning. With a little more forethought, by simply checking InciWeb, we could have learned about the closure and avoided the situation. We settled on making the best of our situation.

George and I headed back to our bikes, and rolled out our sleeping kits near the car. In the morning we decided to just go for an out-and-back along Stanton Ridge. If things went well we could potentially try and summit Great Northern Mountain from the east.

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