It's been a little over a year since I last did this hike and a lot has changed.  The construction in the main parking area has been complete – that's probably not news to a lot of people.  It seems like there's more parking and there are a few nice pergolas offering shade.  There's also more prominent/new signage since my last trip.  It was a pretty busy day, but I still found parking within a few minutes.  There was a constant flow of . people leaving.

The switchbacks didn't seem as challenging as I remember.  The trail seemed better groomed than I recall.  I didn't have anyone on my ass on the way up and I'm pretty slow. Everyone was polite and went around, but if I sense anyone behind me I try to find a good spot to move over. I had a guy coming down who passed me a couple of times (nice eye candy) – not sure how many times he went to the summit – but he gave me a high five and words of encouragement both times.  I saw another gentleman pass me going up three separate times!

The weather started out nice.  Temperature was in the high 60s and the sun was out, but not beating down on you.  By the time I was at the saddle it had become overcast and pretty windy.  I didn't spend much time at the top as the lighting wasn't great for pics and the wind was annoying.  Of course by the time I made it about halfway down the sun was shining bright and I was getting pretty hot.  However, there were some major traffic jams on the way down and some inexperienced people refused to move out of the way.

All in all my knees are pretty pissed off at me right now.  I slipped once and went down to the ground – I think it probably looked like I was moving in slow motion.  No injury, I've just had 2 knee surgeries and don't have a lot of cartilage left.  It was a good day on the mountain!