Because of all the holiday food at work and my lack of self-control, I have added a few extra pounds over the last several weeks. I decided that King's Mountain would help me start to turn the tide.
It was raining when I left Portland, but I was hopeful that it would be cold enough so that it would be snowing on the upper portion of the hike. No such luck. It rained hard the entire trip, and the winds were fierce from the picnic table to the summit. I have done this trip at least 20 times, and this was by far the worst weather I had ever seen up there. It was a good reminder of why one must always be prepared - I could imagine an unprepared hiker getting into a hypothermic situation in a short amount of time on a day like today.
I was surprised to encounter 7-8 other hikers including one fellow who had done the traverse from Elk Mountain. I fully expected to be the only fool out there in such adverse conditions.
I was up and down in about three hours. I stopped on the way back down at the picnic table to make some hot cider. I recently purchased a Jet Boil for trips like this and was very happy with the ease of startup and rapid boil time in such harsh conditions. I think that I will probably throw the Jet Boil in my pack for all future hikes. It�s a nice little insurance policy.
Happy Holidays everyone. | 
