Ave Twins with Tara, MattVH and ZacM:
Oh my gosh it was cold when we started at the Capitol building at 5:30 am. We had a really fun group and I was happy it warmed up as we ascended higher on the trail. The trail is in phenomenal shape right now with nice packed snow all the way to the top of the peaks. We had some great conversation and enjoyed the views from the top. We had a very nice cruise down, but the last mile was cold again as we re-entered the gunky dirty inversion and it took me a few hours to warm back up after we finished. That was the perfect way to start my day with great friends.
Little Black Mountain attempt/Ave Twins with Je10:
In the afternoon I got back out with Je10. It took us a while to get moving because I had a work call, but once we got on the trail we had a fun run up out of the crappy air with lots of sunshine and smiles (but no unicorns). Our goal was to knock off Little Black Mountain aka Ted but due to our late start it wasn't looking great, but we were going to try. The temps above the cruddy air were super sweet as we took the turnoff over to Ted. I found some cougar tracks on the ridgeand spent the next several minutes looking for a really good one. We finally did find a couple. As we started to ascend the steep slope up Ted the trail tracks thinned out and it was going to be a total slog to get up there, so we decided to go back and tag the twins because of time.
We had a total blast cruising down some hills in the snow. I was running low on energy, so I took a gel and we finally hit the Twins and enjoyed the sweet views on top (my third summit in 24 hours). Je10 wanted to go back down the bobsled and told me it was one of her favorite downhill runs, so I agreed. I actually loved running down there and Je10 was getting in some extra miles playing on the steeper side slopes. Going down the sled did require an uphill run on pavement for almost a mile to get back tot he cars and I gave Je10 a hard time the whole way. It was actually quite fun though and I really enjoyed the run.
Je10 rockin' the short sleeves above the valley crud:
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