BBMM

Started from Mt. Hope at 9:14 am. Ran sidewalks and Greenbriar, then turned off into open space at a gate and ran down to lower Big Bluestem. Big Bluestem up to Mesa. Mesa to Chautauqua.

I then ran the Baseline Trail over to the Gregory TH, but it looks like we were supposed to run Chautauqua to Ski Jump to Bluebell-Baird. Up Gregory, Ranger, and West Ridge to Green. Quite a few folks went up Green, but a number of folks bailed after this.

Down West Ridge and Green Bear. I think two guys, maybe three, went down Green Bear ahead of me. Initially, they stayed on the trail, but down lower the leader lost it in a few spots.

I stopped at the start of Bear's West Ridge trail to get water from the creek. Above, the trail looked unbroken, although Tom Masterson e-mailed BTR that he had been up this way the day before. There was a depression indicating his passage for some of the way up the West Ridge, but it didn't really help as it had apparently drifted in with the winds overnight. I ended up breaking trail solo, much of it knee deep and occasionally crotch deep in some drifts, until part way up the final steep climb when I ran into a large CMC group descending. Boy, was I glad to see them. The going up the last part of Bear was much easier after this.

At this point, I had no idea if anybody else was behind me. I thought I had heard voices a few times, but I was surprised that I hadn't been caught since I was breaking trail.

Anyway, on over to South Boulder. Past the Shadow junction, I could see only one set of footprints heading up South Boulder, and it looked like they hadn't come down yet. Sure enough, a ways up there I ran into two girls descending. They mentioned that they hadn't made it to the top, but I thanked them graciously for their track nonetheless. Turns out they had made a wrong turn a couple hundred feet below the top, heading too far left below the talus field. Following this part of the track was tough with lots of tree branches buried under the snow. Their track ended probably only a hundred vertical feet below the summit. Breaking trail from there to the summit was tough, as it was all crotch deep, with more buried downed trees, and then talus.

I opted to descend the trail, which meant breaking trail downhill for a few minutes. A couple of drifts here were probably the deepest snow of the day, but at least it was downhill. Quite fun actually.

At the top of Shadow, I ran into a number of runners, including Adam Massey, Megan (Baker), Mike (?), Jorge del Plata. Sounded like they were all opting to skip South Boulder. I got some nice props here as they mentioned that I was likely the only person completing the entire route. I continued down Shadow at a pretty good rate. Adam mentioned that he might run ahead of the others, so I thought he might catch up to me, but I never did see any of them again. Down Shadow, Towhee, Homestead, left on the Mesa, Big Bluestem, lower Big Bluestem, and back the same way we started.

0:00 - Chambers/Bradley intersection
1:50:02 - starting up Gregory Canyon trail
3:01:58 - Green
4:54:42 - Bear
5:23:50 - South Boulder
7:02:22 - Chambers/Bradley intersection

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