Great day on the mountain. The temperatures were around 60 and skies clear even up until 10PM. The Ridge Trail had a little bit of ice but it was fairly easy to avoid. I got to the top of the rock scramble as it was getting dark. The moon was almost full and very bright. Hearing voices entering the rock scramble and seeing a periodic flash of light I decided to wait to make sure the party got through the scramble. With the very bright moonlight they made it with no problem. It turned out they were enjoying purposely doing a moonlit hike. The Saddle Trail was much icier and more trecherous than the Ridge Trail. Starting just below Byrds Nest Shelter you had to carefully pick your way from rock top to rock top for close to a half mile. As you got lower on the Ridge Trail and onto the segment of the Old Rag Fire Road between Old Rag Shelter and the fire roads' intersection you had to deal with deep squishy mud. Weakley Hollow Fire Road was fine though. Ambling through the rest of my hike a second party of moonlight hikers arrived in the upper lot just behind me.
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