Friday, February 5, 2010

North Table Mountain - Easy Run

Time: 1:05
Distance: 6.4 miles
Effort: Very Easy
Body: Fair
Weather: Chilly and partly sunny



Made it out of Washington, D.C. before the snow storm hit there.  Good thing, too. My Friday Frontier flight, by yesterday, had been postponed to Saturday. Today, when I landed in Denver, I had a new e-mail from the airline saying my flight had been postponed yet again, this time until Sunday. I ended up having to buy a new return ticket flying USAirways to Boston, then United to Denver. Happy to be home!


On the way home from DIA, I stopped off at North Table Mountain, a 1,945-acre Jefferson County Open Space park just north of Golden. I parked on the east side of the Mesa at a ball field park. After a quick change into running clothes, I set off on a steady climb up singletrack bound for the the mesa top. As the trail crested the rim rock, a remarkably beautiful undulating grassland plateau spread out before me. Doubletrack and singletrack rails snaked here and there, weaving over and around small hills and rock outcroppings. Good views were to be had in all directions. The mesa is, in places, about 1,000 feet higher than the surrounding plains. The trails weren't in great shape, though. The only remaining snow on top of the mesa was in the trail furrows, leaving some of the tracks damp or muddy from the melting.


Still, it was a relaxing 6-mile jog on some new trails. And, it was warm enough for shorts and a light long-sleeve tech t-shirt. Not a bad way to reenter good ol' Colorful Colorado... 



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