Bachelor was wreathed in clouds today. But, no smoke! I arrived at 8:30AM, there were 4 other cars parked on the shoulder. (The gate is closed to the parking lot, which is normal in the summer,apparently.) Took me a couple hours to reach the summit. Snow still present in patches – I even passed a hiker carrying skis, who said there was a 100’ bank of snow with his name on it! – but nothing blocking the trail. I spent half an hour hanging out at the summit, and then made it back down in 90 minutes, so 4 hours round-trip. I used Trailforks and Gaia in my iPhone to guide me, but I still ended up cross-countrying a bit at the beginning. The fastest way is up a service road to the right of the chairlift. The winds were pretty fierce at the top, I was glad to have layers! This is my first peak of the challenge this year, and felt pretty good. There weren’t many people coming down as I was going up – 6 or 8? – but many more going up when I was coming down – dozens? – so an early start has better opportunities for solitary hiking. I was hiking alone. I’ve done this hike once before, last year, and didn’t notice much different. With so many clouds, there weren’t any views of distant peaks, but the clouds were moving around like living creatures, it was fun to watch. Scattered wildflowers throughout too, but no animals except one squirrel.