I was inspired by reading Anton Krupicka's blog to run up Shadow Canyon, starting at the South Mesa Trailhead again, top out South Boulder, and then hop over to Bear Peak and from there down Fern Canyon. Why I was inspired to run a route that even that paragon of fitness described as both "gnarly" and, paraphrasing somewhat, a hellacious climb I would rather not think about. However, I made the plan, and duly left the house, somewhat late, at 8:30 this morning to do just that.
I got out of the car to a near-perfect running day: cloudy, with a bit of rain in the forecast, and temperatures running around 55-60 degrees. Counting on it being at least somewhat colder 3000 feet further up the mountains, I wore my somewhat thicker t-shirt thinking that would probably suffice for the short time I would be at the summit. Properly equipped, or so I thought, I took off up the road-like Mesa Trail to Shadow Canyon Trail.
To my surprise, given their lackluster performance yesterday and despite the long week I put in, my legs felt quite good on the first stretch, and I made it up to the Shadow Canyon cutoff two full minutes faster than I finished the same stretch last week. As I took the cutoff up the canyon, I was thinking that the trail seemed quite wide and easy, much to my surprise. A second surprise came when I saw a shape dart across the trail in front of me, and I realized that it was a squirrel without a tail. Something about that just seemed rather sad to me. The trail changed a little over half a mile farther on, where the trail passes an old hut and immediately switches to a rocky, steep singletrack reminiscent of Royal Arch.
The trail continues in this way another 1.2 miles up to the saddle between South Boulder and Bear. Through this section I surprised myself again by being able to keep up a running cadence far more than I had expected. From the descriptions I had read, I expected to have to power hike the majority of this section, but ended up running about 75% of the time, urged on by the sometimes disbelieving, but always encouraging shouts of the hikers I passed.
This climb seemed to last far longer than the time it actually took (I won't tell you how long, it was almost embarrassing to me), but eventually, with a husky running by my side for the last stretch, I made it up to the saddle. I took a moment to rest, and wait for the husky's human companion to make it up to the saddle, then took off up the trail to South Boulder.
It was here that I encountered the first patches of trampled snow still lingering from the mild winter we had this year. In my road flats, I opted to pick my way carefully up these, and soon came to the boulder pile that marks the top of South Boulder. Here I was rewarded with a fantastic view of the continental divide, and found myself wishing I had not gone minimalist today and had brought my camera. The wind was pushing the mist up through the saddle between South Boulder and a smaller neighbor, and it reminded me of Muir Woods in California, with much smaller trees.
As I stood at the top of my first "summit" for the day, the first flakes of snow began to drift down from the clouds, seemingly only a hundred feet above me. I decided to hightail it over to Bear, top it out, and head down before it got any worse. Unfortunately it got worse as I was heading over to Bear, and by the time I got near the summit, it was windy and snowy enough that I decided to skip scrambling up the boulders to the actual summit, and head down Fern Canyon.
I had forgotten how steep and rocky the first section down the north side of Bear Peak was. There were a few times I almost lost it, but I managed to keep my feet down to Fern Canyon, where the trail heads down towards Mesa through a pine forest. I have always loved this section, particularly heading down it, since the prevalence of pine covering the trail means it is both sheltered from the elements and soft and springy: easy on the legs going down relative to other trails.
Soon enough, I took Shanahan down to the Mesa trail and turned towards the car. I surprised myself again on this section by having far more left than I expected, and practically flying the flats and the slight uphills, although the downhills seemed harder than usual. When I broke through the trees and out to the last, long, curving stretch of the wind and rain, now mixed with snow even at the lower elevations, hit me full in the face, soaking and chilling me instantly.
At this point I decided to book it. I took off, far faster than I thought I'd be able to even on the downhill. I apologize to anybody who may have gotten some gravel kicked towards them, but I fairly flew down the last mile+ of trail to the car, where I promptly turned the heat up full blast, stripped off my wet shoes and shirt, and drove home to fill the rest of my day with spring cleaning, a little laundry, and possibly more than a little Mario Kart Wii.
As I glanced at my watch when I got to the car I realized several things: first, I had run a full hour longer than my long run last week, yet felt almost the same as far as fatigue goes despite the fact that I put in more mileage this week. Second, that meant I am in much better shape than I had previously thought. Third, I had run the section from North Shanahan back to the car a full 6 minutes faster than last week. And fourth, I am going to be very sore tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment