, had prior engagements later in the afternoon so we were under fairly strict orders not to do dumb stuff. We still managed to have a good time 
We launched from the greater West Richland area right at 0700 under clear, cold conditions:
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As we rolled Westward, the sun was peaking through the clouds behind us:
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By the time we were approaching Union Gap, it was full blue bird:
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We tossed a Richie in Tampico and headed for the Nasty Creek corrals to unload and air down:
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The snow had been trampled on heavily and what was left was sheet ice, so even the initial climb up the hillside was semi-sketchy. We were able to make easy work of it though, and plodded our way up in elevation:
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Soon enough, we were at the base of Mt. Fuji, which has been our nemesis more times than I can count... After a couple of failed attempts and bobsled rides back down, I was finally successful with gratuitous application of the skinny pedal and some luck in finding virgin snow just beyond the right hand turn at the top where it gets really steep... Chef Marcus, however, wasn't able to get his Colorado ZR2 quite up to that turn before completely loosing traction after several valiant attempts, so we resorted to pulling cable to get him up the hill:
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From the summit of Mt. Fuji, we quickly made our way across the first hogs back to our destination for the day, and perhaps most importantly, lunch
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Doing what he does best, Chef Marcus whipped up some tidy cheeseburgers and we enjoyed every last morsel, soaking up the beautiful sunshine and the views. Sadly, our time was running short so we packed up and beat feet back down the hill to air up, load up, and get back to civilization:
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The pics tell the story on the sad state of affairs as it relates to snow pack
Fingers crossed the mountains get more than their fair share in the coming weeks 
