On Sunday morning, I met Brian and one other dude for a nice 1.5 hour trail run. The temps were hovering around freezing and, at 7:30am, the trails were sure to be still hardpacked. We left from Golden, and ran up the trails to North Table Mountain Plateau. The trails were indeed dry.
The run uphill was fairly mellow, with plenty of switchbacks. My legs were a little fatigued from the previous day’s climbing. Lucky for me, Brian was taking a fairly moderate pace, so I wasn’t left behind. Also the other dude’s dog kept wandering off, which gave me a chance to catch my breath.
We ran for about half an hour until we surmounted the North Table Mountain Plateau, 800 feet of elevation gain. The sun started to peak out from the hazy sky, and the warmth felt good. There was 4-8 inches of snow up on the plateau, and in short order my feet were completely soaked.
After running around up there for about 40 minutes, we headed back downhill. Yippee! We made it back to the car around 9am and chatted briefly before going our separate ways. What a nice way to start the day!
