The Hopeful Wanderer: For the sake of knowing what's at the top

When we first moved to Denver a year and a half ago, I remember exploring the meandering trails at Bear Creek Lake Park a lot. At that point, my Wisconsin lungs were perfectly content with the whole three switchbacks up the side of "Mt." Carbon. I put "Mt." in quotes because it is really just a small hill. I ran there a lot simply because I didn't know about the extensive network of trails off in the distance. One day, Cory came home from his first run on Green Mountain in Lakewood and just couldn't stop talking about how beautiful it was. He couldn't wait to take me there.

That weekend he went up to watch and pace at the Leadville 100 and I ran an 18-miler at Bear Creek Lake Park. I ran into these two women and I was excited just to see other trail runners. I ran and chatted with them for a bit and they said they lived by Green Mountain. I told them that my husband said it wasa great place to run and they exclaimed that it was much too steep and that people definitely don't run there. I laughed a little inside. Since they were locals I asked if they knew what the taller pointy mountain was directly to the west of the park and if people could run there. They seemed pretty clueless about it.

As time went by I gradually came to know and love pretty much all of the Jeffco and Denver Mountain Parks. I figured out that the mountain I had wondered about was called Mt. Morrison and that the trail through Matthews/Winters went to a plateau just beneath it. Every time I ran M/W with a friend I mentioned that I just really wanted to bushwack up to the top and see what it was like and they would give me a look like, "Hell no, don't make me do that." But if you have a mountain in your backyard, you should see what's at the top right? Why NOT climb it?

Well, Cory and I both had the day off today and I got that sucker checked off my list. At the top there is some radio towers with signs that say some blah about the radio frequency not being good for the public. Whatever. There were no "No Trespassing" signs, so I took those signs as "If you want adventure, then carry on." It was worth the view.