Glacier Lake Road

Sunday, June 25th

One of the cool things about different outdoor activities is that they take you to different places. I've been rock climbing in places like Eldorado Canyon, Moab, Yosemite, the South Platte; climbing 14ers has taken me through towns such as Como, Buena Vista, Leadville, Lake City, and Westcliffe. It's the same thing with running - we've been to some pretty cool places.

On Sunday we did a run along "Glacier Lake Road", which is a glorified name for Forest Service road #120 outside of Boulder. To get there we drove up Boulder Canyon, turned north on Sugarloaf road, and drove for about 5 more miles. From there, it's 5.4 miles along Glacier Lake Road to Highway 72 (aka Peak-to-Peak Highway). Total elevation gain is about 650 ft - so it's a very gentle grade. I've probably been up Boulder Canyon 50+ times, but never have driven up Sugarloaf. Views from there are spectacular. We could see parts of the Indian Peaks, as well as the back sides of Green Mountain, Bear Peak, and South Boulder Peak in the flatirons. There was some mountain bike traffic on the road, and I saw two motorbikes (it is still a road), but overall it was a great place to run. I felt pretty good - no pain in my right shin which I had been having for the last week or so.

We met Jennifer and Conrad - the 3 of us ran while Molly hiked. I should say that Jennifer and Conrad ran while I struggled to keep up. I kept pace for about 20 minutes but they run just faster than me that it's not a comfortable pace for me on a long run. They made it to peak-to-peak in exactly an hour, and I think I was probably 3 or 4 minutes behind. They continued on for about 5 more minutes, and I turned around. And they both passed on the way back to the car....arrrrrrggggggg...

Total mileage: 10.8
Total time: 2:05