[wiki summary]

Hello: The 2008 edition of the Thursday Night AfterBurners hiking group begins 3/20 with a quick trip to Cedar Butte. We will be hiking every Thursday now through September. If you are interested in joining, send me a PM and I'll put you on the email distribution list. Cheers! -Mark

[rdyhiker]

My first nwhikers event - a great time! What a fun, easy-going group of dedicated hikers. Fuller was a pleasant surprise - short and sweet but thankfully a little rough and rugged. And the snow cover made everything beautiful, if a little slick underfoot at times. Also good to put faces - as well as real names - to some of these avatars. Thanks Mark and Yet and all! See ya next Thursday night.

[moosefish]

Sounds like a good trip. Now I feel sad...

[Dayhike Mike]

Dude, I was totally bummed you weren't there. Next week. Next week. And bring Matt Martin along...he still hikes once in a while, doesn't he?

[moosefish]

I'm not sure about next week. I'm trying to be selective about my trips since I've got some big ones planned for this summer. Fuller, nice as it is, just didn't warrant a return trip on a night like this one. Matt does still hike, but the likelihood of getting him out for TNAB is low.

[wamtngal]

[mntsun]

The purple sunset reflecting off the reclusive Mt Si lowland glaciers, The Ghost and all the Teneriffe Peaks was well worth all the hazing for this first time TNAB'r.

[rdyhiker]

A few pics:

Summit circle

Evening glow

Spring evening on Fuller

Dayhike Mike arrives

First view of the valley and Teneriffe Peaks

Clearcuts at their best

Heading out

Three things I learned last night: - Jump right in first-timers, the water here at nwhikers is fine - Even a mere 900 ft. of elevation gain put my legs in revolt if they first run 3 miles a couple hours earlier - Onion rings should be consumed more than 2 hours prior to bedtime if easy sleep is desired

[gone]

[Oops, just saw that Yet opened a TR thread for this; I'll move this post over there when it's up.] As another first time TNAB hiker, I second rdyhiker's comments: Great group of folks, very friendly, lots of laughs! Thanks so much for letting me tag along! I didn't mention it to anyone last night, but this was my first experience hiking a trail in the dark-dark. I've wandered a ways into the dark on overnights to water the plants, and I've done many dusk-dark bottoms on Tiger, Si, and Rattlesnake, but those trails are wide and well established and the highway sounds make getting turned around nearly impossible. But here it was very dark and very quiet, and at times the trail was nearly indistinguishable from the forest floor in the dim light of my headlamp. It was an anxiety provoking experience, particularly as I found myself making a couple of bad turns (which I thankfully recognized and corrected quickly), and had I been there alone I might well have freaked out. But I knew that Mark and Yet were somewhere behind me and I was confident that there were at least a couple of TNAB'ers out on the road ahead of me, and this gave me to confidence to keep moving. Popping out onto the road at the end to cheers and hoots was a real spirit lifter! I've been wanting to get up Fuller for awhile now, having ridden near it so many times on my bike, but I wasn't sure I could figure it out myself from just trail reports and hike descriptions. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do it with an experienced group. I'm learning that I belong squarely in that group of folks who follow in the snow- and trail-breaking footsteps of others, and I'm very thankful to have opportunities like this one to follow such confident and capable hikers. And, lest anyone think the "AB" in TNAB is just a joke, it's not - this group books! I tried mightily to keep up for the first mile or so, finally giving up and settling into a less heart-pounding, knee-bending pace. I thought perhaps I had a kindred wheezer in Dayhike Mike, who I caught a couple of times, but it turns out he was just getting warmed up - once he got his groove on, he was gone just like everyone else. The trail itself was beautiful, in a tree farm-ish kind of way. Lots of different forest ages, moss, ferns, and some creeks (one, Ten Creek, with a really cool, though very slippery, log crossing - in the dark!). Based on trail reports I knew there was rock to traverse on the west side, but didn't expect so much. It was a jumbled maze in places and quite slippery in others. I struggled a bit through this in an effort to avoid twisting one of my too-fragile ankles, particularly in the near-dark on the return. Harvey Manning's 1984 edition of Foot Sore 2 describes the trail this way:

[moosefish]

[Dayhike Mike]

This was my first TNAB, and I enjoyed it. I've always found that people tend to stay together in clusters of two and three, even if the group does spread out during the trip. Same thing happened on our memorial trip up Big Snow Mountain for Ed -- people tend to break out or hang back based on their ability, but people generally would stick together, never really leaving anyone alone. I think that's just good practice. Besides, it's nice to have company while hiking, whether it be for the sake of safety or conversation.

[Backpacker Joe]

Im working nights right now. Where are you guys going tomorrow night?

[Schmidt Alti-Babe]

Their plan is Lil' Si. Nice to see you again on the board, BPJ. Were you on a trip?

[Backpacker Joe]

[DRSpalding]

Is there going to be a TNAB today?

[moosefish]

Tiger summits 3, 2, and 1, I believe.