I can't help but point out the irony here: Steve's awesome hike is turning into a digression on this thread about Steve's awesome hike. It probably would not have gone that way if he was orchestrating things like he normally does - which we all take for granted to some extent. If this were someone else's trip report, Steve would've created a new thread for this green-shading map discussion, the trail crews, Mexican mountain climbing, etc. and brought it back in focus to the hiker's adventure, which was Steve's adventure. If you think about it, his brief absence on this one particular thread is a testimonial to his effectiveness as a forum moderator.
This is a perfect opportunity to reflect for a minute on how Steve overlaps outstanding technical skill sets with personal respectfulness and unusual common sense over a sustained period of dedication. This is extremely rare and should be recognized, and I'm not just sucking up here, I really mean it. It's what keeps so many interesting people coming back to the Zone.
And again, how was that hike, Steve? In the infamous words of Wagga, if ya ain't got pictures, then it never happened...
Minor edits not worth documenting...
