We started to climb out of the gate with my fears of being out of shape quickly diminishing.  Due to my improved eating habits, the weight loss more than made of for the lack of hiking over the past two months.  This helped my spirit plenty as I could more focus on my surroundings and thinking than the effort involved.  I saw a quick glimpse of the mountain's summit through the ugly power lines from Bonneville.

Before I knew it, we were at Rodney Falls.  Even with the water level lower than it normally is this time of year, they still provided a nice piece of scenery.  Earlier this year, they were flowing copiously, filling up my whole field of vision.

Heading back into the woods, we spied a parallel ridge and pondered it's name.  As it is not on any topo, I thought it might be nice to someday bushwhack to it and see what may be up at its summit.

We took a detour off the main trail and chose an abandoned one, heading towards the back end of the mountain.  Indeed this way was longer, but sported no people on it.  The sun was hitting the trail to get the temperature to 60 degrees.  The miles flowed by without effort as I started to ponder the recent events that sent my spirits plummeting back at home.

After hiking up an old road bed, we took an unmarked and rather steep cutoff trail called Don's Trail.  Bob was feeling the grade as I pushed myself a bit to see what I was capable of.  Again, the distance to cover felt effortless as my spirit reached its peak of the day.  I started looking around at things to see anything of interest and settled for the canopy, shielding me from the suns rays overhead.

As I waited for Bob to catch up, I noticed for the first time since the PCT in April, my camera batteries were almost out of juice.  Shaking my head, I hoped for the best.  Bob caught up and we quickly broke out of the trees.  The weather for the day was simply stunning.

It was already two, and we only had an hour until the opening of Walking Man.  This did not matter.  Nothing mattered to either one of us right now.  The weather was stunning, there was no wind, and we had all the time in the world to soak it up.  Although the cars in the parking lots implied crowded trails, we saw very few people on the way up.

The photo below would be my last as my batteries exhaled their last breath of power.  Unfortunately, the views just kept getting better and without a camera, it would be hard, over time, to remember what the day was like.  20 minutes at the summit with no one around gave us much to not talk about.  We just enjoyed each others company as well as the peace of wind free views.  The hike down was uneventful and quick.

Raspberry Ale for me and a Walking Man IPA for Uncle Bobby.  An order of garlic fries and a feta-kalamta olive pizza to spilt made this day one of my best in a long time.  I am not sure about the future as I have no crystal ball, but with days and friends like this, it is quite impossible to remain in a funk.

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