GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | Re: Meaning/Clarity 6.Accounting and cost-management are an exam

9) The villagers leave their homes at the stroke of dawn to hike six miles up steep, dangerous trails to the forests, to be returning by late afternoon with huge loads of firewood on their backs.

(A) forests, to be returning by late afternoon
(B) forests, and it is late afternoon by the time that they return
(C) forests; they return late by afternoon
(D) forests and return by late afternoon
(E) forests,
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