Sierra

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Sierra

Monday, January 10, 2011

Monday, 01/10/11 Green Mountain

Up front/down back.  Was supposed to meet J.P. at 4:15pm, but ended up having to bail.  At the last minute though, I got the nod that I could indeed go, so I hurried in hopes of catching up to and surprising J.P. who I thought was ahead of me (I started around 4:20pm).  I was moving cautious, trying to not twist an ankle in the foot + deep fluff, as it was hard to predict what I was really stepping on.  I was mostly limited by footing, which in turn kept the physical effort relatively low.  Once past the Saddle/Greenman jct., there were fewer tracks, down to 2 or 3 from 3 or 4. 

I soon noticed that a big dog (or what initially looked like big dog prints) had walked on the footprints of those ahead of me.  The tracks seemed to appear from nowhere, as I had not seen them until after the junction (Mountain Lion maybe?).  On the summit, I swapped into a dry wool hat, added a windbreaker and got the lights up and running for the descent.  It was obvious that the back had more traffic and has a smoother base, so I opted to head down that way to keep ankle twisting to a minimum.  I moved quick at times, but mostly cautious.  Bumped into Tony, Scott and Joe at the Greenman/Ranger junction and chatted with them for a few minutes.  I only ate it once heading down, luckily in a very soft section of deep snow, but had many near misses.

Never did see J.P., but saw his car when I finished.  Sorry I missed you.

Splits:

Top of Amphi:  8:30
Greenman/Saddle:  28
Summit:  50

Descent:  29

1:19 RT

4 comments:

  1. Did you pop his tires? He must be stopped!

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  2. Check out my blog! I got pics of the kitty prints coming down from the rock outcrop!

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  3. My spidey sense was tingling big time last night and I even told Tony/Scott/Joe about it.

    I saw tracks in several spots crossing the trail and then following the trail for much of the way above the Greenman/Saddle Rock junction. I kept trying to convince myself that somebody must have been up there with a very large dog that was wandering around, BUT, I was positive there were no dog tracks at all below Saddle Rock, I would have seen them for sure, as there were only 2 or 3 sets of human boot/sneaker prints. I am almost positive the tracks in the picture on your blog were not one of the sets I noticed crossing the trail and were made between you and I. I started at 4:20pm and topped out at 5:10pm and based on your pics, I don't think you were too far behind me. I'll bet that thing was for sure checking us out at some point, assessing whether or not we would make a worthwhile meal.

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  4. Hey Jeff, the kitty prints would ahve been pretty round compared to a dog print, and you usually can't see the toe nails in a kitty print while you can in a dog print. Is this what you saw?

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