Sunday, November 16, 2014

Wonderland


Today was one of those days when I thank my lucky stars that I am able to get out and about to enjoy this extraordinary planet of ours.

This has been a heckuva weather week.  The morning the radio announced it was 7 degrees with 7 inches of fresh-fallen snow, I was up and out as quick as could be.  There is nothing quite like running early in the morning of fresh snowfall...a hushed white-blanketed world.  Subsequent days brought more single digit mornings but the snow had turned to ice along the roads, sidewalks and bike paths making running quite a challenge - unless you turned to the trails which is just what I did today.


Running west from home up up up to the trails beneath the flatirons. As I scrunched along the snow-covered trail through the pines I heard chatter ahead of me - a group of walkers and a dog off-leash.  At that moment I realized that one aspect of the run I was most enjoying was the peace and quiet.  How to avoid the chatter? Two options. One: turn around and head back the way I had come, cutting the run short and giving me an out/back - my least favorite kind of route. The second: take a trail heading south that would lead me to a steep downhill route off the mesa top I was on.  I am quite a tentative, fearful, lousy downhill runner (credit a fall down a long steep narrow flight of stairs when I was a youngster). But today I decided I'd had enough of recent wussiness and that it was about time to tackle a challenge head-on.  So down the steep snow-covered trail I went - and it was glorious.  Quiet, beautiful, and a perfect exit to a trail run through a winter wonderland.  Yes, a very good day to be able to be out and about on this planet of ours!

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Exquisite Autumn

Taz relaxing post-run on his bed of autumn leaves


The glorious golds - and scarlets and bronzes and greens - of autumn seemed to be in great abundance this year wherever we turned.  And we turned from Colorado to Michigan and back again.  What a great year, and time of year, for a road trip!  And, as an extra bonus, we got to help my mom celebrate her 94th birthday.  Some highlights:


Birthday mom and her partying daughter

Every morning in Petoskey, at dawn, I got to run along the Bear River to Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan. Ahhhh


One of the most spectacular autumn views on the planet: Cut River in the U.P.

Back in Boulder. Amber surprises her cousin Paul with a handmade (by Amber) bench for his newly landscaped (by Amber & Paul) backyard



Anita & Connie during our run up Skunk Creek Canyon on a glorious autumn day in Boulder


The waning days of autumn from the Meadowlark Trail