Mt. Wire this morning with MatthewVB (WARNING Kelli please stop reading here) I wanted to test out my achilles since it has been feeling a lot better the last few weeks, but I have been staying away from any elevation, so I wanted to see where I am at. I climbed my last peak exactly 4 weeks ago today. I took it slow the whole way. The weather was perfect and I just got a nice steady pace and kept it. I only ran the flatter sections and hiked everything that was steep. Just before the summit ridge Matt passed me and pushed hard to the top summitting in exactly 51 minutes. I was a little more than a minute behind. We decided that we wanted to keep running on the other side of the mountain on the ridge that heads east. The trail is kind of rocky and overgrown, but I was taking it slow. Matt was out in front just running in his zone and just before we reached the highpoint on the ridge I saw a Great Basin rattle snake right in the middle of the trail. Matt had brushed right by it and didn't even notice and I was able to put the brakes on before I ran right into it. I called to Matt to come back and we checked it out and the snake did not look happy. It was moving its head and Matt's leg was literally inches from it. It sent a chill down my spine and we decided to turn back. We went back up to the summit of Wire and then ran back down. The run down was fun, but I kept wanting to look off the trail to see if I saw anything move. We definitely dodged a bullet out there, but it was really cool to see. That is the second time I have been with Matt in that area and seen a rattler and he didn't see the last one either. Haha! My achilles felt a little tight the first mile, but I didn't have any pain and it isn't sore now (two hours later) so I am very happy about that. I'll still take it easy, but now I can start adding some hills again. | 