Boulder Flatirons

Today, I ran with several Boulder area runners through, around, up, and across the Flatirons.

The weather was unbelievable!

I had never done any running or hiking in the Flatirons, so I was at the mercy of following various people and using dead-reckoning.

We started by running up Green Mountain to the north (not to be confused with Denver's Green Mtn). Then down and north and around, practically back in Boulder before skirting around east of Green. So we looped all around Green.
This first half was rather easy.

Then we took a series of trails that led south to a steep climb up Bear Mountain.

There was a very long trail (over a mile, I think) that was extremely steep, with many blocks of rock laid like steps. It was such a chug! For this second half, I was mostly with a few triathletes and adventure racers. I could barely keep up with them, but that's also the way I like it.

I didn't stop on Bear because these three guys didn't stop - and there weren't any others from the group around I could follow. And it was a good thing I didn't stop. Coming down from Bear is a near-vertical rock climb down cracked granite. It wasn't really hard, but I've never liked climbing down something I've never climbed up, especially when you can't see your feet and you're trying to wedge fingers and toes into cracks. Having someone below me telling me where to stick my foot was very nice.




While I waited for my turn down the rocks, I took a great pano shot of the distant Continental Divide. Framed by rock and tree, I think it turned out better than it would have from the summit.

Last, we climbed South Boulder Peak.
I decided to stay there and soak up the views. The fast triathletes ran off and I snapped lots more photos and talked to the people up there.
On the run down, I was alone and using dead rackoning and common sense to figure out my way back.
Overall, it was a greuling 18 miles. Very good training.
Many of us met at one of the local's homes and we had a little barbeque. It rounded out the day nicely. Good food, beer, and great company.