Before heading home from the cabin, we decided to take a “quick” jaunt down the PCT from Inspiration Point to some undetermined location where we’d turn around and retrace our steps – Chris’ upcoming backpack trip would average around 7-8 miles a day between 8,000′-10,000′, and he still felt the need to do some major conditioning work to be able to handle that activity set under a full pack. We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve hiked down to Grassy Hollow and beyond, but we’ve only made it down the length of Blue Ridge once before some years ago. We made quick work of the ascent up Lightning Ridge and the subsequent drop to Grassy Hollow – however, on the climb up to Jackson Flat CG, Chris was much slower than Jane, and she quickly left him in her dust. Hiking alone, Chris began to worry about Jane’s unknown location – she has a nasty habit of taking wrong turns, and Chris got more and more anxious as he passed several trail junctions at each of which Jane was nowhere in sight. The trail along Blue Ridge west of Jackson Flat gains and loses the same 20′ multiple times before dropping more sharply off the west end of the ridge to Vincent Gap – Chris had said he wanted to stay up on top and not lose that elevation, and that descent begins some 3+ miles from Inspiration Point. He was thus perturbed not finding Jane until about halfway down the west end of the ridge – she was resting in the shade of some manzanita, proudly stating she had stopped at three miles per her phone. Chris noted that the GPS stood at 3-1/2 miles but said little else – having been there for about 30 minutes, Jane was ready to head for home, so we immediately turned back up the trail and began the trek eastward. The return trip was uneventful save Chris’ continuing fatigue – Jane opted to take the trail route to Grassy Hollow while Chris chose to cut some mileage off by walking the Jackson Flat access road for a stretch. Reunited at Grassy Hollow, we decided to save Jane further sun exposure and Chris the last mile under his heavy load – Jane waited at the picnic area with the packs while Chris hustled unencumbered eastward on Hwy 2 back to the car, whence he drove back to the visitor center to pick her up. Great weather, if a little warm in the direct sunlight, and a relatively-low-impact hike on familiar ground…