Fastest Known Times (FKT's) for Towers Road

  The proper name for this hill (borderline mountain) might be Telegraph Hill (I'll have to check this). But the route follows the Towers Road (a service road) nearly the entire way, so for now, I'll name this route Towers Road.  The summit is about 1662 feet higher than the trailhead, but the net vertical climb to the summit is about 1730 feet. The net vertical climb for the round-trip is about 1800 feet because of some downhill stretches on the way up (which turn into uphill stretches on the way down). This is a fairly easy route (subjectively rated a 5 out of 10 on my trail rating scale), but the service road does have a lot of tricky ruts and a few tight turns.  The average grade is only 9%, but there are some very steep sections. The fleet-footed runner should be able to run the descent in short order. Note: this is a popular mountain biking route, so watch out for bikers.  

Top elevation:     7123 feet        Base elevation:    5461 feet        Total vertical gain: ~1800 feet*       Total distance:    ~6.8 miles

*I estimate that there is 1730 ft of vertical gain on the ascent, and 70 ft on the descent.

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Start:    At the pay station at the Soderberg Ranch Trailhead (the 'other' Horsetooth Mountain Park trailhead, near Inlet Bay) -- follow the Swan Johnson Trail to Tower Road (approximately 0.4 miles), follow the service road up to to the ridge crest (approximately 2.5 miles). The road forks at this point -- take the left fork. There are two hills with towers - at the next fork go right.

Middle:     Touch the corner of the small building across the clearing (this is not the highest point, which is a rocky knoll another 40 or so feet higher and covered with antennas)

End:     Same as start

NOTE: overall FKT times are trailhead-to-trailhead times and DO include time spent at the summit.

The overall FKT's for Tower Road are highlighted in green. The fastest times reported by other runners are highlighted in yellow, ranked by time. Please send me your time if you'd like to be listed.