Saturday Suz and I headed down to Salida to do a little hiking and exploring. Sure, it is probably silly in most people's minds to spend four and a half hours in a car (round trip) for a three hour hike, but it's an area that I only just discovered last fall and at this point, I just can't get enough of it. Combined with some great little shops in downtown (Suz loves the clothing consignment shop, I love Salida Mountain Sports) with Moonlight Pizza and what's not to love?
Oh, regarding the hike, it was a blast up Frontside to Lil Rattler to North Backbone to the northern trailhead, and then coming back via Backbone and Sand Dunes. MapMyRun showed it as 10.98 miles, 968' of vertical, in 3:48:58, and an average pace of 20:18/mile. Suz's Garmin showed it as 9.75, so it's just more evidence that phones aren't dedicated GPS units, but I guess I'm not that anal about my data (anymore).
Sunday my initial plan was to bang out some errands and maybe get in a quick hit of Sinitas, however, one of the shops I'd set as my destination was closed and the Boulder trails were packed, so I opted to head south. On my way south from Boulder I came across the North Table Mountain trailhead and while it was busy, parking was available. I've only been on NTM a couple times in my life, but really enjoyed it when I did. Now that it's being developed as a major trail system after my first taste in over five years, I'm loving it. The initial road climb up there is stupidly steep, but I was in the mood to make myself suffer, so I pegged it at the high end of what I could sustain. The really cool part was on the eastern side where I dropped down the Cottonwood Canyon trail and went around to the south and East side to the Mesa Top trail, then climbed back up onto the mesa. If I was doing this on an MTB, I'd definitely do the opposite, giving yourself the steepest drop off the mesa and smoothest ascent, but as a runner/hiker, I think I did it the best way. Total mileage was 7.53, 981' of climbing, total time was 2:03:21, and my average pace was 16:23 (there was a little running going down Cottonwood Canyon, but otherwise, just hiking).
Monday Linda and I got together for a walk in Bear Lake Park. The weather and trail conditions were perfect and we whipped out 4.41 miles with 154' of vert in 1:23:44, which meant an average pace of 18:58.
After lunch and getting the orthotics adjustment I wanted Sunday I wanted to try out my new orthotics and headed over to Chautauqua and absolutely hammered up to Royal Arch. I've done very little hiking in Chautauqua before this and never this particular hike before. Definitely worth it for the views, but it's also a fairly technical hike with some rocky little scrambles. The trail was not built for speed. Total mileage was 4.17 miles, 1,165' vertical(!), 1:40:09 for an average pace of 24:02 (which was hammering on the climb pretty hard, but not particularly fast on the descent).
