TNAB Trip report for West Defiance, 8 May 2003

Date: May 8, 2003
Hike: West Defiance
Route: Standard Trail, sorta, when not lost
Attendees: Larry, Gretchen, Joan, Mark, Sherry
Comments: Matt was out of town...

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Photo Credits: Gretchen

Joan's Hike Summary:

Our group of five met at Eastgate and headed to the Bandera/West Defiance trailhead. The West Defiance trail splits off from the Bandera trail and gradually disappears. We stayed on trail as long as we could and then just headed up. Up through the trees and grasses, finding a trail for only 20 feet and then straight up again and across the talus slopes. Finally, we reached the ridge line and headed up into the clouds. We stayed on the rocks and avoided the snowbank that dropped off to the right. Just as we thought we'd reached the summit, it moved further up the ridge. We knew we'd finally reached the top when we found the little, yellow box to sign our names and when our next step was hundreds of feet down. We had some visibility at the top to see the ridges near us and across the valley. We took a few pictures and started down. We could see the cars as we walked down, but it wasn't quick to reach them. We made our way down, in four separate directions, hanging onto grass tuffs and pine branches (sorry little trees) until Larry found the trail in the woods just as we needed our headlamps. The walk out was pleasant with Mark and Joan witnessing Gretchen's tumbling performance. She tripped on a root and nicely rolled completely over and down the trail. Except for some dirt on the jacket and pine needles in the hair, she was just fine. For our trip back to Eastgate we enjoyed music by Bread and other artists from the 60's and 70's that Gretchen's never heard of!