Waited, your permit window closed a DAY early?? That would break my brain after months of planning. I can't get over that you had to stand there at the trailhead with your pack on and just wing it with no map of the south section. Nine miles out and back twice means you literally saw the same three lakes on the way in AND the way out, that's brutal. I keep a paper backup route in my glove box for exactly this kind of mess but honestly I never thought about how the car spot works with it. How did you even get back to your car at the end of all that?

14 cords is nothing, I finally cleared out my junk drawer in the kitchen last month and counted 22 dead ones plus a tangle of mystery cables I couldn't even name. It's wild how they pile up without you noticing, they just breed in the dark down there. My husband kept saying we might need them someday and I kept believing him, which is how you end up with a drawer that won't shut. The cheap ones always die right when you need them too, so you're stuck at 11pm hunting for one that still works. Two good braided cables would've saved me years of that nonsense if I'd just admitted it sooner.