April 24

What a view

Check out is at noon.  That's dangerous.  Motivation is lacking to leave town.  Janet's morning shuttle left early, but KB and I headed out on the late morning trip.  Somehow, we ended up riding around with Miss Janet for a while, and going to lunch with her at a Mexican restaurant in town.  Didn't get dropped off back at Sams Gap, where we left off yesterday, until about 230pm.  Late start, but it was definitely fun.  The weather report said the precipitation should hold off until night.  As soon as her car pulled away, it started snowing again.  Great.  Should have stayed in town.  Oh well.  There was a lot of climbing to start.  And hiking immediately after Mexican is a terrible idea.  The first six miles were pretty miserable.  Once I got on Bald Mountain though,  my feelings changed.  The bald is massive!  Some snow flurries.  The sun would peak out from behind the storm clouds briefly.  Even though it was mostly overcast, I still had amazing 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains.  Kinda made up for missing the views on Max Patch.  The wind was blowing pretty hard, and it was tough to stand up straight.  Spirits lifted, I let out a yell and jogged down from the summit.  Slid in some places as the trail was really muddy from the melting snow.  As a bonus I got a spot on the bottom level of the double decker shelter.  As the sun went down the temperatures dropped.  Tonight I'm breaking out the sleeping bag liner.

Still a little bit of snow left on Big Bald.