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
Did you pop his tires? He must be stopped!
ReplyDeleteCheck out my blog! I got pics of the kitty prints coming down from the rock outcrop!
ReplyDeleteMy spidey sense was tingling big time last night and I even told Tony/Scott/Joe about it.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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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