White Ranch

Sunday, August 20th

This weekend was going to be my last really big weekend. I wanted to do something at altitude, and something with close to 5000ft elevation gain. I love Longs Peak, and I wanted to tick Mt. Meeker off my list, so those two would be perfect. I thought Molly had to work on Saturday, so I was planning on going then. However, she had the day off and the long week had caught up with my so I just decided to sleep in. It was just as well, as when I woke up around 7 it was raining. Later in the day I called the backcountry office in Rocky Mountain National Park and they said it had been raining all day, with reports of ice on the homestretch (the final section of Longs). So - I guess Longs Peak was out.

Molly and I were out late on Saturday night, and sleep got the better of me again. I woke up around 8am and decided to check out White Ranch, just north of Golden. Jefferson County has great open space parks - maps at the trailheads, and well signed and well maintained trails. Of course, you have to deal with the mountain bikers, but I guess that's a necessary evil. My trail running book describes a run around the perimeter of White Ranch - 17 miles and 3,100 feet of
elevation gain. I figured this would be a good goal (with lots of walking) - I wanted something that would take ~ 4 hours.

I started at about 9:00. I was a little worried about the heat, so I took my camelback with about 60 ounces of water, plus 30 ounces of gatorade in a separate bottle. The first mile is pretty consistent uphill - probably about 9-10% grade and I think I must have just gone out too fast. I started hiking after the first mile, and my legs just didn't have any power in them. They didn't feel bad - just didn't have any sort of spring in my step. Not a good sign. The trail went uphill for another mile, and then I continued on a downhill single track. The trails are excellent - not too rocky, and I didn't have to deal with many mountain bikers. I was able to run the downhill and anything flat, and then hike the uphill. I made it to the 5 mile mark in a little over 1:15, and decided I would shortcut the run back to the car. White Ranch is a great place - there are so many trails that you can really make a run of any length.

I jogged nearly the entire way back to the car, making a nice loop. There wasn't really any tree cover, and it was getting pretty hot near the end. I was pretty happy because there was one really steep climb on the trail back (probably 15%), and several sections of uphills (around 10%), and I was able to run everything except for one short section. I was pretty tired at the end - kinda like on Thursday where I just don't feel like I have any energy.

Total mileage ~ 9
Total elevation ~ 2200 ft.
Total time: 2:15