First Flat Top hike of the "summer"

One of my favorite things about summer time is hiking, and living in Alaska I have many, many options within a very short distance. One of the best (meaning leisurely and great exercise, plus scenic as all get out) in town is Flat Top, which is a mountain that is probably the most popular hike in Anchorage. Amy and I already hit it up once this year, but considering today was a nice day I figured I'd take my first stab at running up it.

Running up Flat Top is something my buddy Matt and I started doing last year, and it's been a bit over a year since the first time when I ran it in 29 minutes and 53 seconds the first time through. By the end of the summer last year I was down to around 23 minutes, but that was a long time and many beers ago. Plus, last year actually had a summer that resembled a summer, as Flat Top was heavily marred by snow and mud all the way up.

However, even with those natural impairments to my path, I still made it up in exactly 30 minutes, and all the way back and forth in around 55 minutes. The way down was slower than usual because I have a natural aversion to death, and considering that the top of the mountain was a special fusion of ice and snow, I decided to slide down as if I was sledding...but you know, without a sled. All in all, it was a really good time and fantastic exercise, but I really, really wish it was nicer here so I could have hikes that didn't require me to tread through snow.

Oh well.

Fun fact though...side benefit to running up and down the mountain? When I was running down the stairs and coming out of a flat stretch at near full speed, I came upon a group of four people - two guys who looked like they were about to die and two really cute girls, one of whom stared at me with a mixture of "who's this hot guy?" and "why am I not hiking with him?" as I ran by with a hurried "hello!" Fannnntastic!