Hard to imagine keeping that a secret" is putting it lightly, wow. @troy_gibson43 you're out here suggesting people sneak bacon fat into their grandma's recipe like it's no big deal. lol. But honestly, that might actually work if you just replace a tablespoon of the butter with some rendered bacon drippings. My buddy did something similar when his wife made him cut out lard from his chili recipe. He just swapped in a little bacon fat and she never noticed. The flakiness comes from the fat content not just the health label, so mixing might give you back that edge without the full heart attack.

...actually I gotta call something out real quick about the High Sierra Trail. The section from Crescent Meadow down to the Kaweah River isn't a gradual climb at all. You drop like 2000 feet in the first 6 miles, then climb back up over 3000 feet to get to the Goodale Pass area. That first day is more of a leg burner than most of the JMT's steady ups and downs. I did the HST last August and my knees were screaming on that drop into the canyon. There's also the 9 mile dry stretch along the Big Arroyo that nobody talks about - you gotta carry a ton of water through that exposed section. The varied scenery is amazing once you get past that, but the first 15 miles are no joke. For a sub-50 mile option in that area, check out the Rae Lakes loop out of Road's End, it's got that same mix of forest and alpine without the huge elevation swings.

Did you try matching the temperature on your darks too?

Mulching helps a bit but it's not really about slowing evaporation from the bag. The real issue is the bag surface dries out because the soil pulls moisture up from deeper in the pot through capillary action, then it evaporates off the fabric. A layer of mulch just sits on top and can create a barrier that traps humidity against the stem, which is how you get rot in the crown. If you want to keep bags from drying out, use a heavier soil mix or put a fabric pot inside a plastic nursery pot.

Did you try a screw extractor set first? I've saved a few stripped bolts with those before giving up on the whole back. Usually costs me $15 for a set that lasts years.