My battered legs rested all day, stretched at 3:30, drove 15 miles to the Pleasantville trailhead and started on trail at 4:39. This is supposed to be one of the easiest of the 4000 footers, 2.3 miles with a gain of about 2400 feet. I figure at best I'll get up in an hour, at worst 75 minutes.
It's a great trail; the bottom 2/3 is almost all runnable, both up and down. I didn't run up, but after yesterday's adventure, every step that wasn't balanced on the corner of a broken piece of granite felt like a foot massage. There is dirt on trails!! The grade was consistently steep, and wet all over, of course, but I was able to maintain a steady pace with about 4 fifteen second rests spread over the first hour. Because the pace felt quick, I decided to rest at the top, rather than after 60 minutes. At about 57 minutes, the grade began to level off and there was light from a clearing up ahead, so I rushed ahead and reached the mist-blown summit in just under 59 minutes. That works out to 26 minutes/mile up an average grade of over 1000 feet/mile. That really felt refreshing, in addition to the cool, clammy winds blowing strands of mist across the broad, flat, tree-surrounded summit. Nothing but gray. I enjoyed the feel of the wind for about 6 minutes, then headed down at 65 minutes. The top third of the mountain isn't much faster downhill than up, but the trail downhill is easily runnable for the entire last 1.5 miles, with some sections on the bottom you can even open up on a little bit. I really must consider making this a regular recovery run. Made it to the trailhead at 1:52, for a downhill time of 47 minutes (20 min/mi). Every time my feet landed on dirt, it felt like Dr. Scholl's gel insoles. Even the rocks felt soft. And less than 20 minutes away. What a country.
Summited at 5:38. 5 peaks climbed so far, each summited between 5 and 6 pm. The happy hour 48, I'll call it.
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