Blodgett Peak & Crashed Airplanes

Blodgett Peak 9,423'

We ran a very long 17 miles today. Leadville Trail 100 kind of miles. Rough steep terrain where the going is slow and exhausting. 4 hrs 40 minutes to run/hike 17 miles. A true CRUD run. Max & I ran from my house to the Woodman Rd. Trail Head and met the rest of http://www.teamcrud.com/ (so we actually get credit for 18 ½ miles). From there we followed trails through the south end of the Air Force Academy to begin our climb up Blodgett Peak. These were very rough and somewhat dangerous trails. I wondered many times how we would get down.

Max Looking Down at me and saying "Yes this is the trail"

It turns out we didn’t come down the same trail we went up, we went down the other side which was even more radical in places. Mountaineer kind of trails. Going up I fell way behind. If it weren’t for Max I probably would have never made it. Many times it was impossible to tell which way everyone went, so I just followed Max. The altitude, footing, and steepness of the climb were destroying me. Those 3 ½ minute climbs I’ve been doing in San Diego just aren’t cutting it! We got to the top and the view was worth it.

At the Top with Pikes Peak in the Background

Paul & Tara at the Top Looking Down on Colorado Springs

Steve taking a break on Airplane Wreckage

Coming down was slow and treacherous. Climbing, crawling, sliding, grabbing tree branches, whatever it took. We also came upon the remains of plane crash from World War II time frame.

On the Home Stretch!

We finally made it to a real trail. We had only covered eight miles in over three hours. We were on trails that we could actually run and covered the last nine miles in about 1 ½ hours. Ironically, I was feeling strongest the last 4 – 5 miles of the run. My legs are trashed now though! This was a fun adventure run that only Team CRUD would do. I love running with these guys & gals.

Running: 4.6 hrs, 18.5 miles, 3660'

Steve Bremner put together a great slide show of our little adventure at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/swbremner/20090228TourDeBlodgettPeak?feat=email#slideshow