10.19 miles/2,958 vert./1:40:53 (1:02:08 up)/avg. HR 143 Garmin Data
Wow, what an amazing run up Green on some great trails that I do not visit often enough. The evening was perfect, temperatures in the low 60's to upper 50's, sunny and somewhat damp trails from the recent rain (lower down) and snow (higher up).
Started from Chautauqua and headed S. on the Mesa Trail to the mouth of Bear Canyon, then up. I was not pushing at all, but my pace seemed to be much better than my low heart rate and very low perceived effort would otherwise suggest. It was just one of those runs where everything comes together and you feel like you could run indefinitely and just did not want it to end. At every junction, I debated taking the longer way.
From the summit of Green, I was originally planning to head down one of the shorter routes on the front side, but felt a strong urge to visit Long Canyon for some nice cruising. I even came across quite the mess of a deer carcass right in the middle of the trail, which made me pause momentarily and look over my shoulder.
I was also testing a new pair of shoes (new shoes always make you go faster right?), the Puma Faas 900. The Faas 900 is a road shoe, with very little traction, but it has amazing cushion, stability and control and I found it to perform very well on this run.
Also noted 3 OSMP maintenance trucks/and crew as far up as they could drive on the Green W. Ridge Trail, presumably working on the new Green/Bear trail (which looks like it might be ready fairly soon).
Was up on Monday and there were a ton of folks out working on that new section to trail. Looks pretty nice from what I can tell.
ReplyDeleteI noticed a bunch of new flagging and also a bunch of fresh dirt on the current Green/Bear trail just below where the new trail intersects on the upper part of the ridge, so I am guessing the dirt is the first stage of them making the old trail disappear. They do a pretty good job, one day you are just running along and before you know it, you are thinking something is a little different and realize you are not quite where you thought you were.
ReplyDeleteThey are continually trying to re-route trails out of the drainages which I see why they are doing it, but at the same time, I really enjoy those areas.