Kind of an odd day on Green. Allison, Sierra and I started off from the Gregory TH hiking like any other day. Bumped into Tony, exchanged a brief pleasantry or two and kept on our way. Near the end of Gregory Canyon, Allison decided to check for her car key, which turned out not to be in any of her pockets. We searched and retraced our steps, but had no luck. Back at the car as I was about ready to run home and get the spare key, a woman offered to give me a ride home as she was kind of heading that way.
As I was heading back into Boulder, I got a call from Allison stating that a guy had found her key on the trail, about where we had discovered it missing (must have fell into the snow when grabbing the dog leash). He was generous enough to hike it back to the TH to find her (we had talked to him earlier, so he knew of our predicament) and scrubbed his own hike. It is times like these that re-affirm my faith in humanity.
When I finally returned to the TH, 1:20 had elapsed and we were now tight on time, as the delay was throwing off our plans for the afternoon. I set off running, figuring I would bump into Allison and Sierra near the summit, but ended up bumping into them at the top of Gregory. I kept running, assuming that she and Sierra would turn around soon and I would just meet her at home.
Adrenaline started to wear off around the ranger cabin and my sore (ceasing) legs and less than fit body started to balk at my pace. I backed off some and kept plugging along to the summit, enjoying the perfectly packed trail and reasonable conditions.
I spent little time at the top and started cruising down. Just below the 4-way, I bumped into Sierra all by herself and was a bit shocked by this. We kept running down the trail and I was relieved to see Allison, knowing that Sierra was just ahead of her and not WAY behind me. I accompanied Allison back to the summit, where we hung out for a while, thankful we were not in the blustery looking high peaks.
The descent was a little slow and I was freezing and bonking a bit after being out for longer than I intended, but it was a fun time despite the long setback and we were thankful to have found the car key.
Splits:
Ranger cabin: 17:56
4 way: 38:30
Summit: 42:53
Summit again: ~54
