I figured it was just a waiting game to see how long it would be before there was enough snow for nightshoeing to begin again. Last year the first trip was in mid November, but we'll just have to see when the freshiez start falling.

So a month or two with no after-work hikes. Bugger... But wait! What about the Lunatic hiking series? Freaks of nature who plan serious hikes in the dark walking only by the light of the full (or nearly full) moon. Sounds perfect. Especially since they're really just the TNAB folks.

So Tokul and I met three others (Mark, Carla, and Ankur) at the Granite Mountain trailhead at 5:45pm. TNAB had been up Granite a day after the Summer Solstice and I'd done it during the day back in July 2005 so the trail wasn't anything too new. Heck, there was even a touch of sun until it set about an hour into the hike.

Tokul did her usual walk-100-feet-and-go-to-the-bathroom trick. I tied her to my pack (left on the ground) and ran her deposit back to the car. So now I was a ways behind the others. Dang. I hiked hard for a few minutes and caught up with them.

By the time we had broken out of the trees the sun had long since set. As we crested the shoulder of the mountain the moon was suddenly there and larger than life. It seemed like we could keep climbing on the trail and find ourselves in the Sea of Tranquility.

I tried to take some pictures, but they didn't turn out well at all. I had repaired (as best I could) the tripod, but I was generally in too much of a hurry to bother to properly set up the shots. As a result of my picture taking breaks (and a bit of breathing heavily) I was a ways back from Mark and Carla who were on pace to make the summit in two hours. Ankur was some unknown distance behind me. Tokul was dragging her leash and quite content to hike at my slower pace.

I figured Tokul was tired enough that she'd stick with me if I undid her leash, but that invigorated her and she took off the trail. She hiked with Mark and Carla to the top. Traiter. (And it's not the first time she's done that to me either. Thpth.)

I was hiking alone now so I took my time. The trail got really, really dark so I broke out my headlamp and felt silly. TNAB frowns on the use of headlamps and I'd never needed one on the way up.

When next I looked up the rangers' lookout was right above me and Mark was trying to get Tokul to howl at the moon, but without much luck. She did whine a bit after getting to the summit, which we have decided was a longing for me or some other such nonsense. I clippe a red ball with flashing LEDs inside it to her collar. Tokul was puzzled at first, but then took it as just another part of her "jewelry" collection that includes almost a half dozen different tags. From now on we'd be able to see where she went even in the thick darkness.

About 20 minutes later Ankur made it to the summit. We were all chilled and headed down in short order. There was little reluctance to power on headlamps in spite of the light from the moon. Tokul would take off into the dark and we'd be able to see only a red light flashing between the trees or half submerged in water when she got a drink.

There was little special about the trip down except to note that while it was about an hour and fifty minutes up for me it took over two hours to get down. That's a first, as far as I can tell. It's never been quicker up than down.

Back at the cars we made tentative plans for the next full moon and will likely do a snowshoe TNAB this winter, but not up Granite. It's too steep and there are some nasty avalanche gullies.

Total distance is a little more than eight miles. Total gain was about 3,800 feet.