From the moment I woke up (2 mins before my 1:45am alarm) I felt great.  Knew this was going to be a great hike.  After stopping at the ranger station to fill out a last minute day hike permit (not required, but I like to register with the rangers anyway, especially when going alone) I arrived at the parking lot at 4:30am.  I took a relaxing few moments post drive, and had some last minute packing/adjusting of my pack, so I hit the trail at 4:55am.  Last year this trial took me a total of 13 hours parking lot to parking lot (granted,I started with a very slow hiker as I was afraid to enter the wilderness in the pitch black alone!).  This year there was no fear of entering the black abyss alone, I flew up those starting switch backs, and made it to the peak by 9:28am!  I couldn't believe it.  Just over 4.5 hours to the summit (about 35 mins of it was that last 1/2 mile, gets me every damn time!).  I spent a couple of hours at the peak, as I'm hiking Mt Whitney in a couple of weeks and this was my last elevation training.  After soaking up some much needed thin air, I began my descent.  Overheard two guys who ran out of water and didn't bring a filter, so I filled them up and continued quickly to high creek to refill myself.  Got down to halfway camp, feeling amazing and OH SO HAPPY about my timing.  Literally skipped some of the trail down out of pure joy.  Played pass and go with some random solo backpacker, and we ended up meeting at the Mexican restaurant in town for some company over a well deserved beer.  My total time was 10 hours, parking lot to parking lot, with 2 hours at the peak.  HUGE improvement from last year.  I can't wait to see what my next summit of SG is like!  All in all, an amazing day!  Love this trial, and it helps that we share the name Vivian 🙂