This was my first 6 pack peak where I was not solo.  My hiking buddy now knows why im always solo. Im slow and even slower in higher elevation. Seriously,  I swear I got passed up by someone with a walker carrying their oxygen tank. Buddy and I hiked the loop counterclockwise. After reaching the ski hut, met a father and daughter who were backpacking up to the peak. The daughter, who I will call Snacks, stayed with me just chatting up a storm. She kept me going.

Also after the ski hut, the southbound hikers were telling us that the winds were 80MPH at the Devil's Backbone and peeps were turning around. The closer we got to the peak, the MPH wind report from passing hikers got lower – i was asking everyone. By the time we got to the top (hours later due to my slowness and 2nd and 3rd lunch) there was a nice breeze and we decided to go on through to the backbone and head to the Notch.

Not only was I slow, but I was chatting it up with just about everyone (good reason to take a break). Chatted it up with a mountain biker at one of the ski lifts. He works there and come to find out, the ski lift to the parking lot closed at 6pm. My hiking partner walked really fast and I ran the rest of the way. I had flashbacks of OCS back at Quantico. (Thats were humps are male platoon tallest to shortest, male platoon tallest to shortest, and the the female platoon tallest to shortest. I was in the back of all that, running). We made it to the ski lift with 10 minutes before they closed.

All trails says moving time was 6hrs20min. Overall….10hrs24min. That's a lot of talking. Good thing my alltrails app doesn't show all my stops or my hiking route would have been yellow with all the dots instead of red.