After two failed attempts at Red Mountain, we chose a more reasonable destination. Somewhere I'd been before, but still nearby so maybe we'd be able to see where we'd gone wrong.
After a long drive to the trailhead, we headed up the snow-free trail. Pretty quickly, it was apparent we'd be enjoying a cold walk through knee deep snow, but it was the end of October after all. Tink was most excited by this and could hardly contain herself when the world turned white and quiet.
Not long after, we started seeing their tracks. Who? THEM. The denizens of the mountains. They'd been busy. Back and forth across the trail. We saw them criss-crossing the snow-covered meadows. In at least one spot, we saw what looked like the aftermath of fierce battle. Only one set of tracks exited. It was the Thunderdome. (Seek thought the tracks were carnivores, but nothing more specific.)
Cresting a hill along the ridge, the snow became significantly deeper. We could see our destination, the lookout, still about a mile away. Good enough. We found a break in the trees where we could look across the valley to Red Mountain and farther to Mount Stuart.
Still no indication of how we might complete the Red Mountain circuit, but that was fine. This was the third aborted trip in as many weeks. Not terribly unexpected in the mountains, but still a bit of a letdown. Hopefully November will be better. (Foreshadowing: It will, and it won't.)
