... After the last few runs being quite cold, we opted for WARM!!! We started on the Sundance trail and climbed up to the Talons. We climbed Talon proper and then did the North Talon/South Talon loops at the top. Pictured is the massive cairn that marks the top of North Talon and prepares you for an awesome reward for the 3.5 miles of climbing you just did - almost 2.5 continuous miles of downhill! We were expecting a lot of mud, especially on the higher and more western areas, however it was mostly dry with just a few lingering snow/mud patches. Sweet!
Preparing for the descent off of North Talon back into the trees. It is odd as you run out of the trees nearing North Talon's summit, you are almost on a "moonscape" - barren talus field for about 1/4 mile - then you dive back down into the forest.
South Talon offers some fantastic rollers, in and out of dense forest, and has a very nice and damp pine-needle cushion to run on - awesome for some fast descending!
Kathleen emerges back into the sunlight as we rejoin the Sundance trail. Another climb, and then some nice, smooth descent through the prairie dog colony at the base of the park.
We were not ready to wrap things up, so we climbed the start of the Blackmer loop, headed for the junction with Boulder run. Here Steve negotiates some of the rock steps on Blackmer.
We had never descended the Boulder Run trail, so we were having a blast with that. Here I caught Kathleen "flying" down the trail! It was so sweet to be out in short sleeves in December, however, we came home to find this on our weather forecast:
... Oh well, we maximized an awesome "winter" day and we are thankful for every day we have to run on any of our wonderful trails in Colorado - warm or cold! Depending on what the storm brings, we might just have to dust off the snowshoes! (And running in snowshoes is some HARD WORK!!!) It was great to get out and run today - we got in about 12 miles and felt really good afterwards. Good Times!
6 comments:
Kathleen,
I noticed a few posts back that you finally ordered your purple Atalanta skirt! It looks very good on you! I hope you like it; you'll have to report on your blog what you think. It really does keep the bum warmer, though, huh?
I ordered another skirt and top from them over the weekend - 25% off sale! I didn't get the purple - I should get the order in the mail tomorrow, so look for the outfit in a trail run post coming soon...
We are going to Silverton on Christmas Eve, and returning on New Year's Day to Tucson. We were talking about going over to Ridgway for some Thai Spicy Basil Fried Rice (yum!) - I sure wish there was some way to hook up with you all then. I am planning on coming up to Silverton twice next year - once earlier in the season (maybe I could meet up with you then?), and then I'm going to do the Imogene Pass Run in September (maybe you might do that????
:)
I'll email you soon - I've been so crazy busy for too long. I love your blog - I check it often!
I love the purple skirt - it is my "birthday" skirt! I would love to meet up with you - it will probably have to wait until sometime next year (unless you and Kenny will be able to travel some from Silverton) because Steve's parents are flying in from NY on Christmas Day and will be staying with us for 10 days. They are always a joy to have visit. I will look up the Imogene run to see if I can survive! I will watch for your new outfit. Glad you are recovering from your injury and getting back in the swing of things! I always look forward to reading your blog!
You guys always seem to know where you can drive to beat the weather. I bet there could be 3 feet of snow blanketing Colorado, and you'd know a canyon somewhere with lots of trails where an underwater hot spring warms the canyon to where it's always 64 degrees. It's amazing!
And, do you ever take a bad picture? Keep the great posts coming.
Love it!
Nice to come here ....read, look at pictures, close my eyes and visualize the mountains......
then lace up my shoes to go run on flat sidewalks :-( what a buzz kill -lol
TZ -
We might need that ability to sniff out dry trails after tonight, we'll see what happens. They are saying if we get north wind - 1 to 3 inches, but if we get northeast, find a tape measure! Oh - that's Trabuco 2 I broke in today :-)
Bob-
Sorry, but not really ;-) You get warm days to run that sidewalk while we're freezing our buns off!
TZ -
As for the Pix, we have been pleasantly surprised with the Nikon Coolpix L11 we bought in the spring. I was afraid of dropping and ruining a camera while running/biking, so we went with something reasonable to see how things went. It has been more than good for what we use it for. Plus my Canon is too big to carry in the Nathan pouch.
S
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