I met MatthewVH and Jun at the Wire trailhead this morning at 5:50. It was a balmy 6 outside. I had to take care of some bathroom bidness while waiting for Matt and I have to say that was the coldest bathroom break of my life. It was nice of Jun to flash and keep his headlights on me though.
When we finally hit the trail there was a slight wind that picked up as we made our way up the mountain and it was just plain cold. I usually heat up within a few minutes, but today it took much longer. My hands and face were numb. Jun and I quickly pulled away from Matt and we wouldn't see him again until the summit. We only ran a little and mostly hiked up the steep slope.
Jun and I had a great time talking and we didn't push too hard, but just had an enjoyable hike up. The views of the city were much different than a few days ago with the disgusting air and it just felt so good to be out and on the trails early in the morning. There was a nice path in the snow until we reached the upper portion of the mountain, and from there we were breaking new trail, although it wasn't that deep, so it wasn't too bad.
Jun and I reached the top in 56:18 and after a few pics we decided to wait for Matt. Surprisingly there wasn't much wind, and that was a good thing because it would not have been bearable if there had been any. After about 10 minutes Matt showed up and then we quickly headed down.
The best part of the day was a herd of Elk that ran just below us as we left the summit. They are big and powerful animals and it was fun watching them move so fast. Awesome! The run down was fun, but I stopped to mess with my ipod and my hands were instantly cold again. When I got back to the cars Jun was already gone and I waited a few minutes for Matt. Once again a really fun morning on Wire. 2300 vert. Total time 1:24 | 