Angels Way

October 3, 2003

Stefan and I met at 6:30 a.m. at Chautauqua Park to run the Angels Way Loop. I have done this a couple of times before, but it would be Stefan’s first time. Myke Komarnitsky had the fastest time on this loop when we did it last year and it stood at 1h55m15s. I was out to enjoy the morning and the great scramble up Angels Way, but I also wanted to keep the tempo high enough to go under 1h50m. Stefan was game for this type of morning. It’s great to have companions like this.

We ran down the Mesa Trail and then thrashed west into Skunk Canyon. We avoided too much bushwhacking and only really did a few minutes at most of real thrashing. We made the start of the route in 31 minutes. The climb itself was as enjoyable as ever. This is really a hidden gem and I love the act of scrambling up such perfect rock in a secluded location. Stefan voiced these sentiments as well, “I just enjoy this so much more than just hiking up a trail.”

We topped out all the sections of the thousand foot climb and then descended to the ground and continued uphill, hiking now, to the summit of East Green Mountain and then over to the Greenman Trail and up it to the summit marker. We ran down the West Ridge Trail to the Ranger Trail and I deferred the lead to Stefan. He really smoked down this trail. Pushing much harder than I would have solo, I tried to keep up, but couldn’t match him. I pressed whenever the trail got smooth, but Stefan went even faster there. I kept him in sight most of the way, but that was about it. He graciously did a few loops around the Ranger Cabin at the junction with the Long Canyon Trail and then we resumed our pace down Gregory Canyon, passing the first people we’d seen all morning.

Stefan put me in the lead for the final stretch. I knew he did this so he wouldn’t finish ahead of me. He wanted to finish together. That’s cool. I pressed pretty hard back to Chautauqua, going over 170 bpm. I wanted to break 1h40m and the effort paid off. We got back to the trashcan start at 1h38m47s. What a great way to start the day. We did about 6 or 7 miles, 2500+ vertical feet, and a thousand feet of low 5^th class and 4^th class scrambling. And it was only 8:15 a.m. Fun stuff…