Mark and I had a great time riding on Mt. Constitution today -- so much in fact that we rode it twice.

The first time we climbed the hike-a-bike trail from Cascade Lake to Cold Springs (just as Russ and Endo Bobbo and I had done back in March) and on up to the summit. Then we descended the Cold Springs trail, which brings you down to Cascade Lake and the tourist mainline. This is a prototypical Constitution style trail: wide, smooth and duffy without any highly technical stuff to slow you down.  It reminded me of Lake Padden in Bellingham to a degree.

The second time we climbed the mountain we did ourselves a small favor -- we rode up the road. Then we ripped back down the very steep and technical hike-a-bike trail we had originally climbed. This trail is a different matter altogether from those on the upper mountain and the Cold Springs down. It is quite steep and features numerous seriously technical interludes, many of which involve rock drops and rollovers into problematic terrain.

The weather was quite cold (we saw ice at the tideline in Anacortes on the way to the ferry), but a high overcast drifted in during the course of the day. The trails had hoar frost in several places, and we saw one patch of snow by the side of the trail near the summit.

After we finally got back to the car, we drove to Doe Bay, sought inspiration on the cliffs overlooking Rosario Strait at dusk, and then soaked in the hot springs and sauna there for an hour and a half.

The hot springs were very pleasant, with about a dozen men and women lounging around naked in the hot (but not too hot) water, talking about this and that, including building vacation homes in Manitoba, life in Bend, OR, and bikes.  

Approximately 4000 verts.