Sunny 46

  Another beautiful Monday in Winter dawned and it was finally time to wrap up the Tongue Range. The weather was forecast to be more than cooperating with temperatures in the 30s, mostly sunny, and light to no wind. It had been a bit of a long weekend and so I set my alarm for a leisurely 5:15am. We arrived at the trailhead at around 7:10am. Sunny was very eager to be on the move as usual. I was taking too long for him and he yelled at me as I was taking one last picture of him before setting off. My plan was to hike out to Five Mile and back to the tune of 6.5 miles, about the same as doing the traverse, but with more elevation gain. Car to Brown The lower portion of the hike was still covered in 3 inches of snow at most. The trail itself was well-packed from hikers. We've only had a smattering of light snow events in this part of the state this winter, so the trails have been well-packed by hikers every time. A view of the swamp between the first and second elevation gains. Appro...

  I was reviewing our 12ster list and it occurred to me that Sunny actually hadn't hiked Thomas in the Winter. With a national holiday on Monday we had family plans so it made sense to try and get a short hike in on Saturday. I rang up Jay and he was amenable. I did have to stop at Saratoga Outdoors on the way to pick up some microspikes because the Amazon Special ones I'd purchased for half the price had broken coming down First Peak.   We still made it to the trailhead by 12:15pm and were on our way from the trail register by 12:30. Three furry butts! Sunny and his best friends. There hasn't been a ton of snow, but it has been very cold. The pipe across the uphill trail was choked with ice. The trail itself was not very icy, though. The day was very warm as well, above freezing. I was glad I'd only put one base layer on. Every day is the best day ever when you're Sunny Days. There was tons of blowdown on Thomas. Someone had created a new summit sign. Nice job! A w...

  The weather continued to hold the week after we hiked Deer Leap. Moreover, it would be 20 degrees warmer with almost no wind and, with the 100% cloud cover, we wouldn't have to wear sunglasses. It was proving to be a perfect Monday to hike the Southern Tongue Range. Wendy had the choice to take a day off from work this week and she chose Monday to give us the opportunity to hike as late as we liked.  If we were going to hike these mountains together, with as little snow as possible and no rattlers, this had the markings of a perfect day to do so. Best of all, Dan had the day off and needed these last three mountains in order to complete his Winter 12ster. I was excited to be hiking with another human after a couple of months of just Sunny and me. Sunny was elated to see him and greeted Dan with his usual calm, placid demeanor. I would have followed that sentence with a winky face emoji and tongue out emoji, but such things are not apropois of a serious blog post. Main Ascent...