China Wall in the Early Spring

I went for a hike yesterday with my friend Susan. I had been on this trail before, but this time much of it was covered with sometimes thigh-deep snow. No one had gone on this trail--besides deer and mountain lions, apparently--since at least the last snow. In fact, we ended up turning back after 4 hours for fear that we wouldn't be able to make it through one part where the trail was completely obscured for about a hundred yards, with no continuing trail in sight on the other side. It was probably the best hike I've been on ever, especially in terms of adventure. There were times when it wasn't perfectly clear whether the snow was obscuring my death in the form of a hidden crack in edge of the cliff. I knew from my hike there in the summer that there are several places where one wrong step would land you on the rocks 500 feet below.