Tuesday August 14th 2018
You remember that time you were driving home from work, mindlessly listening to the radio.
The weather comes on and you hear "marine layer" and suddenly ...
something alarms in your mind.
Then is dawns on you - it's August. August is marine layer on Mission Peak weather.
You look behind you, westward and see a few scattered clouds. Mission Peak in front of you looks clear. But you've seen this before. You know it _can_ happen. You look at the time. It'd be tight making it home, prepping and hiking to the top. If you're going to do it, you need to decide now. You know this is one of the best opportunities this month (warm during day, cooling down... marine layer coming in), so you make the decision.
You unleash all 129hp of Honda engineered horsepower in your Civic, and race 5mph over all the way home.
Time check - man, it's going to be tight. You eat half a sandwich. You fill your water half way. You only tape half your feet. You pack the Nikon because this isn't the time to mess around with a Sony. You pack the big tripod because... well, because. That necessitates the big backpack.
You hustle to the trailhead. Time check - cutting it real close. You summon all the training you've gone through thanks to your Olympic Hiking Medal winning crew ( Simona, Bronzed Australia '98, Dee Dee Silvered in Nagano '02 ) and you haul ass up the mountain.
You've climbed 500 ft, and you see the clouds forming.
You feel your cholesterol numbers dropping by the second as you continue hiking with purpose.
At 1,500 ft, doubt filters in. The cloud bank looks to be lingering around 2,000 ft -- the peak may be socked in. You convince yourself it's just the angle of your view and push hard to get to 2,000 ft and you're rewarded with the knowledge that the cloudbank will be below you -- and it's looking
good.
Summit at 2,500 ft with about 15 minutes of sunlight, you stop to catch your breath and marvel at the beauty and colors.
It was a good night to hit the summit.
flickr is killing my vibe here - full res https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1795/43158857255_8c835cbb51_o.jpg
Marine Layered by
CuriousMike - worth clicking into and seeing full resolution, on Flickr
Marine Layer Success by
CuriousMike, on Flickr
Sea Otter
Seal the deal
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