"Do you think he came and went?"
 

"He would not have gone without leaving a note."
 

"Should we keep moving?

It is 5PM by the time we hit the road crossing, the sun is very low in the sky and what little light remains is shaded by the encircling mountains.  It is getting dark and cold quickly, and there is no sign of Viking.  We replay everything we heard Viking to say.  We retell everything we remember saying to Viking.  We speculate on all the things we should have told/asked Viking, and in the end, we are still sitting around a frozen fire ring, snacking, as hiking light diminishes.     
 

"I think we should wait it out.  We can just make a fire in the ring.
 

"I am getting cold now and think I need to start moving."
 

"I think we should give him another 20 minutes."  
 

I kind of like the fire idea, but know that it would either take a lot of effort, or I would have to use my last fire starter, which I was saving for tonight.  I had a sense from my conversation with Viking that he wasn't convinced he would make it by 3, and that he didn't want people waiting for him. So I cast my vote, "I think Viking could take a while and it is only a mile to the next shelter.  I think we leave a note and hike on."  
 

It takes us 20 minutes, and 20 minutes exactly to pack up our gear, to gear up, and to start moving up the trail when, "I hear a car!"  "That's Viking!"  
 

The girls hike on and I double back to greet him.  He parks the car in a flat snowy spot and soon we are hoofing it up the last leg for the day.  To entertain ourselves we engage in a very deep and thought provoking discussion about the motivations and tactical strategies of the pod-people from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  We make it about half way to the campsite before we have to take out our headlamps, but there is still some light in the sky by the time we see the shelter.