June 24, 2011 SkyLine by a different perspective

Chuck heading back to the Notch for a cold one From one summit to another.

Top towers on Thunder lift.

Taking a break after a hard hike up SkyLine

Is he making a statement here or what?

Back down SkyLine from near the top.

Chuck getting started near the bottom. Was steep, but a nice workout.

Two lifelong buds have a cold one after a great

hike in the local mountains.

Me getting started up SkyLine, with all the

damage to the run below me.

The start of the day.

Well, I gave Chuck a call on Thursday and said "Let's go do Thunder tomorrow, as they are giving away free lift rides." So guess what? He took me up on it. As usual for me, by the time I got home from work I was tired enough that if he had cancelled on me, I would not have minded at all. But he didn't, so off we went. It was around noon or so when we got to the parking lot and got out free tickets from the lady that was in charge. After the usual long ride up, it was already worth the effort we had made just to be up there again at the Notch for the second time in three days for me. We hemmed and hawd about rather to stick to the road or do something stupid like hike to the base of Thunder and take one of the runs up to the top. Chuck voted for SkyLine, and off we were. Took a little route finding to get to the base of the ski lift the way we went, but we did indeed find it. Wow is all I can say about all the damage done to the base area from last winters heavy rains. Never would have imagined that much destruction had been done up there. After checking it out, we finally got our butts in gear and headed up. Steep and loose, but not as bad as I was expecting. A beautiful warm day with the wind blowing most of the time enough to keep it about perfect. Once we were at near the top of the run, some guy was heading down it to get back. He said that was the first time for him hiking that run, and his buddies had taken the road back to the notch rather than go straight down a run. Nice to see that at least those 2 guys knew what they were doing. LOL Once we hit the top, we went over and sat at the top of the lift for a while, taking pictures and having a little something to celebrate being there. Like I said before, great day up there, well worth all the effort we put into it. Once we finished on top, it was a nice leisurely walk back down the road to the Notch where we had a pitcher or two of brew, and jumped the lift for the ride back to the car. Great day, great time, great place to be.