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The only sun in the forecast I could find was around Lytton and with my interest in the Stein Valley at a new high I decided to go explore. The rain on Saturday morning gave me a late start but I was at the trail head for 3pm and rolled into camp around 7pm which was pretty good time since the trail has seen some major improvements since I was last on it 4 years ago heading out the other direction after completing the traverse from Lizzie lake.
The trail is in great shape with only 3 or so trees to climb over from recent windfall all the way to the suspension bridge, each camp Loop, Devils staircase, Teepee, Earls cabin and the Lower crossing camp all had outhouses and bear caches which all looked in great shape.
Right off the bat I stopped by the asking rock to view the pictographs and to ask for safe travels as the original inhabitants of the area would at the beginning of their trips through the area, I then stopped by the pictograph wall on the other side of devils staircase for a quick breather. On the trail there were patches of snow in the southern aspects of the valley but nothing troublesome. Once camp was made I retreated to my tent because I thought I felt rain but realized it was the dew falling from the tree's from the wind as the skies were clear and I was able to watch the stars all evening. Now what I didn't expect was how little sleep I was going to get, every noise I heard was a bear even though I knew it wasn't and more then once I heard a noise that caused my heart rate to increase but I think most of what I was hearing was deer and rock fall from the cliffs which could be caused by goats as they are very common in the area but a solid nights sleep was off the table. So needless to say I was up and about at first light.
In the morning the sun was shining with a little low cloud it really was a beautiful day. I tried to find Klein's cabin on the south side of the river past the lower crossing, so here I go bushwacking through semi dense bush next to a raging river in grizz territory needless to say I was singing to my hearts content off key and probably not even the right lyrics but the last thing I wanted to do was startle a grumpy bear looking for it's first meal of the spring. After finding a cairn sitting atop a vertical stick in the ground I was on a very faint trail and followed it for a few hundred meters only to lose the trail in dead fall to finding a few pieces of flagging then finding a game trail I followed to the shore to find bear prints, nothing to recent but they are out already. I looked around and wasn't able to find anything else that looks like a trail so I wacked through some more bush but came up empty, I was told the cabin is visible from the main trail across the creek and its along the shore but that's all I was going on. So I turned around and headed back to camp following the bear tracks for a while and it looks like he or she likes to follow the river luckily for me I was camped a 100-200m away from the river. I packed up camp and made my way out, which was a little slower then my way in due to the lack of sleep and the warming temps as it was 18c, but I stopped by the pictograph sites as there are many along the trail and many more in hidden area's of the park, if you read up on it you can find pictographs along the rivers shore and in places of power such as waterfalls or view points some are hard to find and some can only be found by helicopter or so they say.
On my way out while passing the asking rock again I had a new found respect for the children who would set out into this place alone and with out the modern gear we spoil ourselves with to go through their coming of age/ puberty rituals which included dancing until they drop from exhaustion at a place of power and then writing their interpretation of the dream they had on the walls. I will be back to the Stein as it is a very special place.
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