I decided to do some laps on Mt. Morrison this morning, with no real set goal in terms of the number of laps, just with the idea of getting in some solid vert. The south ridge trail up Mt. Morrison is brutally short - 1.8 miles with 2,000' of gain. It's pretty much straight up and then straight down. As I started, I began to try and come up with some sort of goal, and when I was running the numbers in my head, I realized that 5 laps pretty much equals 10,000' of gain and 20 miles (I tagged on an extra ~2 miles to get to an even 20 by running up the road a bit between each lap). I thought that was pretty cool: 5, 10, 20. So I settled on 5 laps. It was a great morning, although windy on the ridge, but with no one else on the mountain, I just put my head down and got to work. One my fifth lap Jeff V. showed up, which was great, as I was getting tired and he re-motivated me (and blasted past me on the climb up). However, after that fifth lap I gave up and decided it would be better to go get lunch then try and do another lap - plus I was attracted to the numbers. Seems like the M5 Challenge could be a cool annual event - until someone decides to do a M10 Challenge!
Great to meet you out there Peter and good chatting, would have enjoyed running down with you, but unfortunately, I was on a tight time frame. Headed over to Mt. Falcon after and just got in the shorter lower loop (was still late getting back). Mt. Morrison is a great climb, pretty steep there at the beginning and end. Hoping to get back there when I am fit and put in a more solid ascent.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was great to finally meet and chat for a bit. I think you still might have the FKT with your 30:31 time. Thanks for getting me up that last lap! Good luck next week at the Canyon.
DeleteWhoa. I didn't think any Boulder folks even realized we actually have mountains down here, or ran JeffCo parks :) Second, nice project, well executed.
ReplyDeleteMt. Morrison is not much of a "run" for me on the uphill because it's damned steep (more running on the down), but I really like that rock ridge on the last push to the top. It's nice to have something close to home that feels like mountain scrambling.
It's fun connecting the various parks over there: Falcon, Mt. Morrison, Bear Creek Lake, Red Rocks, Matthews/Winters, Green Mtn. If you are ambitious you can even connect Falcon to Pence, O'Fallon, Corwina, and Lair O' the Bear, and even run up to the town of Evergreen (highway shoulder running required). There's a bit of road/street running, but it can be fun.
Yeah, Mt. Morrison is great - I too enjoy the little rock ridge at the end. William and I tried to linked up some of the parks earlier this winter, but the snow forced us onto the roads. It would be great if there was some way to build a little connector trail between Red Rocks/Mt. Morrison and Falcon.
DeleteDude, first of all solid work on m5! I was actually talking with a friend recently about doing this 5 times for the 20 mile number. Still might make an attempt at it but the lack of actual running turns my focus on simply connecting this with a full loop of Falcon.
DeleteI've put together what I'm guessing is a marathon distance loop starting/ending in the Matthews/Winters Park main lot. Heading down Dakota Ridge, up Morrison, down the west side of Morrison, hitting Lair over to Falcon and back thru Red Rocks (stairs of course) and over the Morrison Slide and back to the lot. No clue on the amount of pavement (mile plus?) or vert (6K?). The connector between Falcon and Morrison isn't ideal but not bad with all them social networks near that little pond/swimming pool/res.
Hey Jaime, thanks! I think I know the route your talking about - sounds sick fun. I haven't been down the west side of Morrison, but it looks straightforward and puts you right at Idledale and Lair. If you do it, let me know - I'd be up for it.
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