Started at Wanker at 1:15 PM with blue skies and it was actually warm, but by the time I was half way to the ski hut the high clouds moved in and gave the sky that "Ominous" look, dark and mysterious.
Ran into a nice gentleman by the name of Jeff Scofield at the rocks above the first saddle on the south end of the bowl, made him jump when I said hello - he didn't see me - sorry Jeff, great talking to you, nice to meet you finally.
I had passed 8 people on the trail all heading down, one had his 6 year old son teathered to him by rope, that was a good idea after all that has happened in the last ten days.
I reached the summit by 4:15 PM and was the only one up there - as much as I would have liked to have sat down and enjoy that the wind was gusting upwards of 40 MPH and the Summit Sign was buried under snow, took two shots up there then headed to the top of the bowl where I ran into the two campers that everyone said was up there. They were having a blast, we chatted then I headed further down the ridgeline taking an excessive amount of pictures (new point and shoot that the wife got me, she got tired of me taking hers as my old one gave out mid-year).
Once I was able to work my way back to the Ski Hut the annual "New Years Eve" party group - Traci (she reserves the hut every year at New Years) was just coming up but her three friends had already started cooking "Tri-Tip" which smelled "SO GOOD" and they had a bottle of Wine going and some beers on ice (NICE except I don't drink), it was nice to meet Pavel, Brady and Haseem (I think that's the spelling?) and always Traci's dog Marta the wonder Sheppard
. I stayed for 30 minutes chating, fixing a big blister (first one in a while) on the back of my right heel and I was on my way again.Ran into at least three groups of people planning on pitching tents below the summit that night - perfect "Blue Full Moon" for that. And then I ran into three other groups of two (couples) that were meeting all the folks at the "Hut" for the party.
The pictures of the sunset over West Baldy and that ridgeline leading down to the Bear Flat Trail head were outstanding, the colors were all natural, did not have to do anything to make them come out the way they did.
By the time I left Manker Flats more people were gearing up to go up and the full moon was out making it quite the night, the wind had died down, so everyone up there should wake up to a beautiful calm morning.
Would like to wish everyone a very safe and sane Happy New Years and hopefully we can all "Relapse together soon" on a trail near us
And these are only 1/3rd of the pictures, ran the battery dead at 305, 104 are in the slideshow 8)
Pictures here - http://s908.photobucket.com/albums/ac28 ... =slideshow
