I took a different route up the mountain today and ended up feeling a lot more drained. It was shorter but the elevation gain seemed a lot more drastic, though I'm not sure that's true. I did see a guy coming down just as I started going up who told me he had just attempted to get up to the rock from the north side. He said he quit after about a half mile of post-holing up to his knees. I thought it might be a little more dry than that but I guess not. I can't wait until it is so I can make that into a loop. I also went up from the fire break road at a different place. It's a switchback trail that I have seen several times but have never taken. It is a lot less rocky than my normal route but the switchbacks are pretty steep, or at least that is how they seemed to me. I made it to the rock in just over 40 minutes and immediately turned around and came back down. I made the whole trip in 1:07:49. Not really a good pace but respectable I guess considering I haven't taken a day off since the race. AP: 12:47; Vert: 1,529' | 