The view of Central Mountain from atop 12,600-foot Paywell Mountain. If the weather turns on you here, you're truly screwed. There's an hour's worth of technical, exposed, trail just to get down to timberline. Michelle makes the crux move on the descent from Paywell. That's about a 200-foot drop on the left, into jagged boulders.
Medical help is many hours away.
The exposed singletrack circles the remote, glacially-carved canyon. We didn't see another soul for about six hours. Bears and big cats frequent this area. I love this precarious ore bin in the ghost town of Romley, on the ascent to Hancock Pass. We rested there, and shared our lunch with three tame Clark's Nutcrackers.