Another Mt. Olympus Summit

A good friend who regularly has been hiking with me hadn't been up to the Olympus summit before, so I headed up there again, this time with some company.  Having company distracts me from taking as many pics and video as I normally would, so not a huge update, but we did have an interesting experience at the top.

We were relaxing up at the top checking stuff out.

Suddenly there is a sound like we've dropped some food wrapper or something, but as I start to look down the sound starts to speed up and build to an obvious rattle.  About half way through this I realize what it is, and start to run, and my friend runs the opposite direction.  Turns out that we'd been standing just a few inches above a rattler for at least 20-30 seconds and he took his sweet time letting us know he was there.  Scared the shit out of us!

So after regrouping away from where he was we crept back up for some pics:

No mountain goats this time though :(

Being a weekend it was crowded.  We didn't have a moment of solitude at the top, so I suggest hiking this one on a weekday, or head further out of the city if you don't want crowds.

I also got a chance to make up for the lack of picture of the plaque in the mailbox last time:

"Now that you have scaled the mountain enjoy the view.  In memory of Brian Ted Hovey. 10/17/79 to 01/13/05."

He was born the same year I was.