Mt. Roberts Recon... and a Fun Little Race

Today:
Run 13 miles

Yesterday:
Run/Hike 9 miles
Bike Commute 3 miles

Thursday:
Bike commute 3 miles

One week from today I'll be running the Resurrection Pass 50 mile race and as soon as I recover from that I'm planning to spend a lot of my free time exploring more extensively the mountains around Juneau. I do all my running on trails but I've been so focused on specific training that I haven't gotten up onto the mountain ridges and done as much exploring as I would have hoped for. Plus we had so much snow this year that most of the high country stuff has only been available for a few weeks now.

One of the first routes I plan to do is Mt. Roberts to Sheep Mountain and return via the Sheep Creek trail. Including running to the trailhead and back from the Sheep Creek trailhead this will be about a 20-25 mile run/hike with 5,000-6,000 feet of climbing. In other words, more than I'm willing to do right now with a 50 miler a week away.

There was a local race today from town up to the Mt. Roberts Tram which sits a few miles up the trail to Mt. Roberts. Decided I'd show up for the race and then continue on up to Mt. Roberts and if the weather cooperated try to visually scout out the route from there over to the ridge above Sheep Creek.

Ended up feeling great running today, especially on all the uphill stuff. I'm still a bit tired out from Crow Pass but I really only notice it when I'm coming down. Running up I feel as strong as ever right now.

I took about a one hour break after the "race" portion of my run today and chatted with some local runners and then headed back up the mountain. It took a little while to loosen up after this but then I got going and felt great. I wish I carried my camera with me today. It's really impressive once you get up above treeline around here. The views are amazing in every direction.

It was clear when I got to the top of Mt. Roberts and I could easily see the entire route over to the Sheep Creek Trail. When I get back up there in a few weeks I'll try to remember to take my camera.

Totals for the week: Run 25 miles; Bike 24 miles; 7.25 hours.