I tried your suggestion a few times. The path is very narrow, and there are also level 77 waterdogs on the path. There is just no way around them. I am positive that I'll never finish this quest unless the devs fix this bug that made the quest broken, or unless a GM helps me through the path somehow. Sadly, they say they're unable to help, although I know they could if they cared. This is a dealbreaker for me. My character is unable to progress in the game.