Last night Mark called me and asked if we were scrambling the next day. We usually do scramble on Tuesday mornings, but the weather reports looked bad: rain, snow, high of 44 degrees. I decided it wasn't worth it, but when Mark called I reconsidered. The weather did look fine at the time. We scheduled a meeting at NCAR the next morning at 6 a.m.
We met at the agreed upon time and headed up the trail bound for the Front Porch. It was 37 degrees when we left the car and 41 degrees when I later got back home. Now that might seem cold to some of my friends in the warmer climes, but this was actually very comfortable. Maybe this was because of the dry conditions. If any moisture was due for today, it would be coming later. Nevertheless, we started with pile sweaters, hats, and gloves.
Much to our surprise and chagrin, no sooner had we started up the trail then we saw an interloper ahead of us with his dog. He started running up the trail and took our turn down to the Mesa Trail. This was the first time someone had beat the Minions to a trailhead and we needed to nip it in the bud immediately. We started running also. Soon we caught up to his dog, a big golden one, and intimidated it into yielding the trail. Soon the runner ahead stopped and we went on by. Curiously, the runner then turned around and headed back. After only a couple minutes of running. But the mission was accomplished and the trails were once again solely ours.
Once by the interloper, Mark didn't stop this foolish running and pounded up the hill to the water tank. Now the morning didn't feel cold at all - it felt downright hot! We stripped off the pile sweaters and continued on to the base of the rock. We then simul-soloed up the East Face, South Side (F4) of the high quality rock. The climbing here is very good. The rock is excellent, the moves are interesting, there is some exposure, some pretty sections, and one tricky passage that I felt was F5. I'd give the route 3-4 stars. The only drawback to these fun moderate routes on the Front Porch is the long downclimb of the Northeast Ridge. This isn't a problem for the average Minion, but would be a pain for a beginner climber out for his first climb. We should install a rappel anchor at the top of this fun rock.
We downclimbed and hiked back to the base of the rock where I said goodbye to Mark. He was off to climb the Lost Porch while I headed for home. I ran back down and got to the car at 6:57 - only 52 minutes after leaving it. I was home at 7:10 - just slightly after the boys got up. It was great! The weather for this scramble seemed perfect. I was never cold and was even a bit hot. It was such a great little outing - we only gained 850 feet of elevation. I look forward to many more on these trails as 21 of the remaining 25 routes are located here on Dinosaur Mountain.