Santanoni, Panther, Couchsachraga - 6/16/10

For our traverse of the Santa Range we decided to go up the traditional herd path past Bradley pond, up to HS, over and back to Panther, thru TS over to Couchie, then up to Santa and down the new-old trail and out. This was our first time doing the Santas so I can't compare the level of mud to what is "normal" other than to say that we knew it is arguably the muddiest in the 'Dacks and I can certainly vouch that it was by far the muddiest trek that I have yet to do. It also didn't help that it rained on and off throughout the day, but we were expecting that and wore our rain gear for most of the day. As far as blowdown goes, one big one about 2/3 the way to Couch which was easy to skirt, a couple smaller ones on the way to Santa and that was it. The only spot we had to take a moment to check for the path was at the bottom of the new-old trail just West of the river crossing, the rest was pretty straight forward, so that was great. The trail up to TS wasn't as bad or steep as I had heard mention but the new-old was quite steep and rugged so we just took our time and had no issues. Going down the rope was quite fun!
We saw no black flies the entire trip, just mosquitos on the blue trail.

Equipment required: waterproof boots, poles, gaiters, rain gear, map/compass and or gps.
Also recommended: change of clothes, camera, and a determined, positive mindset

Scotzman