Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room I am declaring this Saturday August 21st "Moose Tracks Day"

IN CELEBRATION OF THE "FIRST ANNUAL MOOSE TRACKS DAY" or as I call it....Laura's day.

I decided to hike Mt Baldy today. I had been considering San Jacinto, but I was hoping to run into "wazzu"....but no luck. I need to stress, I looked like an idiot today asking people why they were wearing Orange!!!! But, in a minute, I'll tell you what happened that was EPIC.

I went up the Fire Road to Devil's Backbone and then on to the summit. I thought my time was fairly good (for me!) at 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach the summit. Mileage: 6.8, Elevation gain of 3904. I took a 20 minute break and ate lunch and "stared' at all the people wearing Orange. Very nice medium velocity breeze up most of the backbone and the summit. It was a cool breeze that made hiking very pleasant. Then I headed down the Baldy Bowl and reached the parking lot in 1:45. I left early (again for me) at 7:20 A.M. after a 75 mile drive from Murrieta. I'm happy I got on the mountain early as the faces of those people coming up in the heat of the day were dreadful.

I looked form wazzu, but he told me he was leaving very early from Bear Canyon and we just didn't pass. I checked every hiking pole for Orange stripes. I did stop someone with a bright Red to Orange pole and he thought I was nuts. I mean seriously, how would you answer the question...."Are you wazzu?"

My EPIC is more just a really cute story. A woman training for the "Run to the Top" in two weeks was coming from the summit. I asked her why she was wearing an Orange scarf. She asked me why I asked. I then went on to tell her all about Laura and her adventures on the 2010 Sierra Challenge. I went on for a few minutes. She was very impressed. I told her I looked all around my house for Orange, but didn't have any.......
So, she said, "then I should give you my Orange scarf" and she took her scarf off and tied it to the front of my backpack! I got GOOSEBUMPS. I just thought that was really a nice thing for a person to do while they are on a training run and near the summit of Baldy. Thank you Wendy! And thank you Laura for giving me the chance not only to tell people about you, but to just give me a chance to meet a lot of people wearing Orange.