This was a fun day! On the drive out, I saw a fox!
For the run, I started around sunrise and hustled up the first climb to Flattop where the clouds surrounded me at treeline. Luckily, it wasn’t raining yet, but I battled through 40mph headwinds for a mile or two. The Sierra Designs Tepona wind jacket handled it well. Past the windy portion, the running was solid with beautiful misty vibes and views. The last 6 or so miles to Grand Lake are somewhat never ending, but the North Inlet trail sure is pretty, and it’s recovering well from the East Troublesome fire.
I arrived to Grand Lake (in 3:49:35), touched the water, ran along the shore, and zipped back up to the trail. Feeling decently, I ran the next 9 miles to the bottom of the steep portion by the 4th of July switchbacks, and on the way, a moose trotted through one of the meadows near the trail! A few miles before arriving to the mountain diagonals, the skies let go of their pent up moisture and soaked me through. The good news was that this let the atmosphere settle a bit and allowed for the views to open up some revealing the expansive Continental Divide.
Eventually, I topped out and started running up to the summit of Flattop, but the next few miles were atrocious. A heavy rain returned with 40+ mile per hour winds, and visibility was down to 0.1 miles. The only good things were that this forced me to run faster, and the wind was mostly a tailwind. Luckily, the wind did not throw me to the ground, but it did invite hypothermia when combined with the rain and lower temperatures. The windchill was likely in the 30s. For the first time in years, I was unable to warm up by running, and my back, even with the jacket and pack, became cold.
After topping out, I tried to maintain a decent pace down the mountain while not falling down. The rain never let up, but the wind did abate once I reached treeline. The trail was soaked and under water at times, but the drains mostly did their jobs. Shoutout to the Rocky Mountain trail crews! I made it down in about 8 hours and 10 minutes and proceeded to use 15 minutes to change in one of the bathrooms. I was sopping wet, and it was still raining.
I was cold until I arrived home a couple of hours after finishing, but it was still a fun day. I'd do it again, but with less rain and/or wind.
Nutrition: 3.5L of water and 1900 calories (Peanut butter sandwich, Skratch chews, Skratch bars, Clif Z bars,and Trader Joe's mini chocolate chip cookies)
Gear: Fenix 6s, Sierra Designs Tepona wind jacket, Patagonia Terrebonne joggers, Salomon ADV Skin 12 vest, Smartwool socks, Vital Outdoors sun hoodie, Terignota Colchuck cap, and Hoka Torrent 2s (sadly discontinued in wide)