On Sunday morning, we met at 8 am in La Cañada for my birthday hike. It was 12 miles and 3900' gain.
There were 29 of us all together. 4 dogs were along, this being a K-9 hike. At the fork in the trail where one branch goes to Waterman and the other down to the Twin-Waterman Saddle, 2 dogs stayed back. They were my dog, a soon to be 9 year old German Shepherd, Sarah, and John Neel's basset hound. Julie Rush graciously "baby sat" them while John took her dog Ruskie to the top of Twin. All in all, 2 dogs did Twin and all 4 did Waterman.
On top of Twin, we had an extended lunch complete with tossed green salad (in a garbage bag) and champagne.
When we got to the top of Waterman for the expected birthday cake and more champagne to be brought up on the ski lift by my daughter, there was no sign of them. It turned out the ski lift which the owners had assured me would be running that weekend was closed for repairs. The ski lift operates on a day to day basis on the summer weekends and can't be depended upon for long range plans.
Back at the cars at the start of the trail, my daughter and her boyfriend waited patiently with cake and champagne for 4 hours until 5 pm in hopes we would return in that time span. We had missed her by about 1-1/2 hour. She left the goodies by MY car. After eating the entire cake and drinking some of the champagne in a matter of minutes, everyone left for La Cañada.
Those participating besides the leaders were Richard Shaw, Ben Yu, Matt McBridge, Sandi Fischer, Charlie Knapke, Steve Rothburg, Pete Doggett, R. Shoemole, Tom Petengin, Sheila Chiri, Carol Ryan, Susan Monroe, Frank Goodykoontz, Emma Burd, Dan Rollins, Beverly Rawles, Trudy Hanzmann, Roy Stewart, David Michels, John Neel, Julie Rush, Laura Lathrop, Richard Bame, Carl Brodene, David Stepsay, Ron Goldfarb, and Dove Menkes.
