I survived our hike...

just barely! (Of course there was a lot of complaining on my part, some muttered curse words, and a few near-death experiences due to my heart exploding in my chest- or so I thought at the time.) Tom managed the experience much better... the pic below is from halfway to the top, and is a preview for you till I edit the pics and post them to my Flickr account. This pic (looking off to the west from the "saddle" of the peak) does give a really good sense of the vastness of the countryside, and maybe of how high up we were. Tom figures we could see about 40 miles- could have been more if it hadn't been so hazy.