The DMCC

Yesterday we were going to do two laps on Dog Mountain [ie: The Double Dog Dare], which I’d never done (despite two previous, half hearted attempts).

This is really because they were the type of attempts where in the car you think, “Maybe I’ll do this twice!”. And then you start up, and about ten minutes in you think, “Yeah! I feel awesome! Nature is awesome! I’ll 100% definitely do this again”. But after all the up (and, maybe more importantly, all the down) you get back to the parking lot, and you think about how warm and comfy the car is, and how good those car snacks sound, and really, shouldn’t you get some work done this afternoon anyway? And then you go home still feeling accomplished for at least having done a thing and enjoyed the great outdoors.

But this time, this time!, we were training. No excuses!

We showed up to a gorgeous sunny day, and headed up slightly slower than usual to account for the fact that we were going to make at least two laps (in my head, I was secretly thinking I’d propose a third when we were ‘done’). It was all going just fine, until about 1,300ft when we encountered snow. Now, we’d expected snow, but we didn’t expect it at 1,300 ft. Paul’s been nursing a rolled ankle, and the snow hiking didn’t agree with him at all.

I actually found the snow to be GREAT. It made the hike more like doing the stair stepper than climbing a slanted slope (ie: my stronger quads were doing the work rather than my weaker calves).

But, alas, one trip up was all his ankle could take on the uneven (and slowly softening) snow.

So, we hatched a new plan to go home, change, and head right back out to get a bike ride up to Council Crest in. Nothing too wild, but a good second activity. We decided to name it the DMCC (Dog Mountain, Council Crest — like it’s going to be a thing). By the time we got home the fog and drizzle had rolled in, but we went out anyway and the ride was surprisingly pleasant.

And on both activities, we slowed down just a bit, which made it all feel pretty darn good at the end of the day.

That being said, I STILL haven’t done a Double Dog Dare (or a triple, for that matter) but I suppose it’ll have to wait for another day.