This year, the snowpack was beyond phenomenal to the point being almost too much. At this point in the season I'm fully done with snow and ready to have access to all the trails and peaks without worrying about sloppy snow slowing me down. Ah, but I get ahead of myself.

Tokul and I showed up at the trailhead (1,800 feet) at about 5:45pm. Within a few minutes others started arriving and by 6pm we were on the trail heading up. Of course, first things first and Tokul had to do her business only a short distance from the trailhead. ARGH. I'd even spent a bunch of time away from the chaos of all the other hikers to let her get it going, but noooooo.

Granite Mountain is a popular trail and well maintained. Everything about the trip seemed faster than last time when I climbed with Daryl and Tokul. It seemed just a few minutes to the cutoff toward Olallie, Talapus, and Pratt Mountain. The gully was next up I saw the beginning of the tiny trail that didn't mess with switchbacks. Thankfully, we stuck to the main trail.

The best part of the hike remains when we broke out of the trees and onto the open slopes. The steep trail is flanked by blueberry bushes and shrubs with few trees providing shade. Of course, shade wasn't a requirement for us since the sun was mostly blocked by the summit.

At the tarn we saw a tent and the beginning of snow. During summer the main trail sticks to the north side of the ridge before climbing a steep set of switchbacks to the summit. The ridge promises a more gradual and direct route and with the heavy snow still filling summer route it was the obvious choice.

Except I had Tokul with me and she does not do talus well. In fact, she hardly does talus at all. It was so bad I was lifting her from rock to rock. I resigned myself to not summiting and heading down early, but Larry, one of the other TNAB guys, said there was a trail below the talus on the south side of the ridge. I never did find the trail, but Tokul and I made ok time paralleling the ridge until we had no choice but to jump back into the talus.

Much pushing, pulling, coaxing, and sighing later we stood on a finger of snow extending up to the lookout on the summit. I wasn't looking forward to the trip down, but at least I was on top now. We were greeted with cheers when we joined the rest of the group well into the party. Unfortunately, they had set up on the talus at the summit so Tokul stuck to the snow.

On the upside, she wasn't able to steal anybody's food. Not that losing a little food would have been a problem. After all, this was the Solstice Party and people hadn't been stingy. Among other treats there were cinnamon rolls, chips and salsa, champagne, beer, tequilla, shrimp, and my special drink.

I stayed up Wednesday night figuring out how to best mix it and came up with the Night Shoe. Three ounces of espresso, two ounces of Starbucks liqueur, and two teaspoons of Hershey's syrup. Serve it cold or, better, slushy. Mmmm.

To bring a touch of summer to the snowy summit at 5,600 feet we were joined by a couple of pink flamingos and a set of tiki torches. Heck, one of the other hikers even changed into white shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

Mark, the leader, or at least the organizer, decided he had always wanted a mohawk so he had brought a pair of battery-powered clippers. There was no shortage of volunteers to cut so he soon had his wish was made true.

Throughout, Tokul was hanging out on the snow. Someone felt sorry for her and flipped a shrimp her way. It went straight over the edge and glissaded down the slope. Tokul wisely didn't follow. The next shrimp landed at her feet and she greedily consumed it, then began digging in the snow as though there were more hiding.

After the sun put on a show dropping over the mountains to the west we started down. I looked at the heavily snowed valley to the north and the memory of side-hilling along the base of the talus and decided the snow was a better bet. Tokul still had to cross a little talus (during which she whined mercilessly), but once on the snow we made excellent time. I wouldn't have wanted to go up, but the standing glissade on the way down was great.

Below the snow we just cruised. It was pitch black when we entered the trees so for the first time in three TNAB hikes I busted out my headlamp. Not everyone was as accepting, though. Mark and the group hiking down with him decided it would be more fun to use the tiki torches.

Total time on the trail was four hours, 45 minutes. We probably spent about an hour on the top and it was about an hour, 45 minutes down. So that works out to only two hours up. Last time it took three hours for me to drag my sorry self up so I guess the frequent hiking and more likely the time in the gym is finally paying off.

The trip was 8.6 miles and 3,826 feet of gain. As long as you don't mind talus, now would be a great time to go.

The TNAB report has a few additional pictures.