4/2/16 cactus to clouds

I haven't been able to find any takers, so solo.  same deal as usual, leave sd ~2am to be on the trail by 5ish.  Not exactly sure where i stand fitness wise, so it might take a while.

previous gps: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/133809872
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A friend had heard I was going, and decided that I should bring his other friend: Raffle.  I had to leave home a little earlier to go pick him up, but i think it was definitely more fun to have a partner on the trail.  We left san diego right around 2 as planned and started on trail somewhere around 430.  I had been up to the summit via devil's slide a couple weeks ago, so i opted for micro spikes and an iceax in light of the storms we had on wednesday.

I stuck with a too dim headlamp for about 30 minutes, which made the whole trail a different experience from every other time ive done it.  When i finally did change batteries it was like that feeling of finding your glasses after not having them for a while.  Shortly after the sun started rising i saw movement off to the side, and caught a glimpse of a bighorn sheep, I alerted raffle, and took out my phone to try to take a picture (without much success), as 4 bighorns emerged from below us and went around the ridge ahead.

2 bighorns going behind the ridge

A couple steps later, the bighorns reemerged atop the ridge and ran along it, giving me an opportunity to try to take some more photos.  It was pretty awesome, i was definitely jealous of the fluid way they move over the rocky terrain.

After they ran past we continued up the trail with our eyes peeled, however we did not see them again, just a bunch of whitetails.

Until about 630 the temperature was perfect, and then it started getting really warm, i felt some cramp twinges in my right calf, and my stomach, but was able to avoid full on cramping.  I took a short (~15m) nap on a rock by the huge rock obelisk near the top of Grubb's notch, and hit the notch in 6:24.  No need at all for any sort of traction devices, there is snow below the notch, but it is pretty sparse in many places and you can very easily avoid it.

From Long Valley, we picked up permits and headed down the trail, there was 2-3 inches of new clean snow all the way through Wellman Divide.  There were bunches of people out to see the snow but ill equipped (sliding all over the place).  The conditions were pretty good, and we hit the summit in under 3 hours from the ranger station.  We saw about 25 people on the way to and on the summit (past round valley).

We got back to the tram, rode down and were back at the car by about 5pm.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1110216038

times:
car to notch: 6:24
car to summit: 9:19
total time: 11:37