Wonderful views everywhere as we ascended the upper open ledges on Noonmark. Took a slight variation to the top, directly scrambling up a few of the steeper ledges instead of taking the trail in spots. Again, good foreshadowing of our summer course!!
After a most pleasant summit stop (no wind, very warm, and suprisingly few other hikers), we headed off to the east, down to the junction with the Dix trail. Once there, we headed back north to the height of land between Noonmark and Round. Here we split up, with Yi and Brian continuing on straight, bypassing Round Mountain (Brian had twisted his ankle and didn't want to stress it, and Yi had hurt her finger). The rest of us headed up to Round Mountain.
Standard connell position
Not all of it is like this!
I'd never been on Round mountain before, so it was nice to hike a bit of new trail. The way up went very quickly, and there are several very nice open spots on the way up. The summit of Round is even better, with lots of smooth, open rock. Very nice for a less-than-3200 foot peak! Here we had a proper lunch and lazed around.
