6:15 a.m. at Station 4.5

We're hiking up to the starting point... Mike really wanted to capture the weird look I had on my face here. :) I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture or not... but all of the cars parked along the road here stuck rocks in front of their tires rather than just relying on the parking brake - a wise move we decided to emulate. What a mess it would be if one car started rolling - long rows of cars on steep inclines interrupted by hairpin turns... We heard a bangbangbangbangbangbangbang! sound when we were partway up the mountain and thought this just might have happened... but it didn't. ;)