God, I love where I live. It was a little bit cold today, but the hike was fairly strenuous, so it was easy to keep warm unless I stopped moving. It was so overcast that it was difficult to tell what time of day it was--I don't think I ever saw the sun. A couple of hours into the hike, sometime after noon, it still felt like early morning because it was so dreary. Luckily it didn't rain or snow on us, but it looks like it's been snowing up in the mountains most of the day.

Mark and I were supposed to meet Chris near the trailhead down by the Reef, but we ran into him on the side of the road not too far outside of Price. He had camped out near Elmo, of all places, and was stopped at a geocache at the Sunnyside Junction. He followed us down in his car, we parked just off of I-70 and hiked all day long. We had a few minor problems with routefinding and backtracking, and that only helped add to the more than seven miles we hiked.

I'm more tired and sore now than I've been in a long time, which surprises me considering that I've done similar hikes the past two weekends in a row. I'll have to take it easy between now and New Year's, and find new ways to be lazy until it's time to start hiking again. January and February are usually pretty good months for me, but this time of year it just gets too busy, and I usually can't afford to put gas in my car this close to Christmas anyway. I think I'll be saving all my energy and money for yet another attempt at Sid's Mountain early next year.