As I rolled up to my normal parking spot by the bridge at the base of Flag just a few minutes before 3pm, I was surprised to see that all spots were taken. It turned out to be a great coincidence, as I drove up to park at the Gregory lot, I passed Tony running up the road and asked if he minded company.
We headed up Gregory at a moderate conversational pace, passed the cabin in 17ish (I think, as I was not really paying attention) and kept the pace even until a bit after the Greenman/Ranger junction. Almost imperceptibly, we began to dial up the effort, conversation ceased and we settled into a fairly steady effort. It was a bit harder than I had planned to push, but I had no plan or real reason to hold back, so I just focused on Tony's heels and we cruised up the mountain in perfect sync. We topped out in 36, which was good considering the casual start and might have even been a PR on the upper half then for me at least.
After hanging out on the summit for 5 or so minutes, we decided to take advantage of such a perfect Fall day and headed down Green/Bear, Bear Canyon and then Mesa Trail. We went a solid pace, chatting all the while and stopped a few times for bio breaks, rock in shoe removal, wildlife camera investigating and scoping future bushwhack routes.
Tony bailed off the Mesa Trail at Skunk Canyon to go do some barefoot miles and I continued North back to Chautauqua, or oops, I forgot, back to Gregory TH, which meant a good bit more climbing/rolling terrain on the Bluebell-Baird trail back to the car instead of the nice smooth sail I had in my mind back to Chautauqua. An awesome run on an awesome day. Thanks Tony, I appreciated the company and conversation.
I did not really catch any splits, but we were 36 up Green and 1:29 for the loop with the summit break and a few stops on the way down.
Start: 3pm
Finish: 4:29pm
