I know the misery. The first time down, I must have kicked every single rock protrusion in the trail.
But the section I truly hate on the way down is between Trailside Meadow and Mirror Lake. I usually lose the trail somewhere in that section, even after reminding myself to concentrate.
One of my many bits of advice is to have a good headlight, if you are going to hike at night. A better headlight will put a lot of contrast on the trail enabling you travel a bit faster and minimize the number of rocks you end up kicking...I hate kicking rocks.
