Road trip!

Act One

We had some time off from work and hit the road for some summer down time last week. We shuffled our recreational plans a bit to make a "quick" dash over to Iowa to visit Kathleen's folks. Kathleen's mom is battling cancer and was just home from a third operation in a year. Not fun. But we had a good visit and got to spend a little time with her brother, sister in law and the two nieces.

Here we are enjoying some nasty ice cream goodies.

If you are ever in Sheldon, Iowa you must visit Dairy Dandy. They have some spectacular ice cream and make a wicked chili dog - available in regular or foot-long depending on your running/caloric intake needs!!!

When you have ice cream, you must balance it out - right?!?!

The ONLY trail in the surrounding area - the Puddle Jumper. Two miles of dirt oasis in the middle of farmland USA. We sometimes take our plethora of public access land in Colorado for granted.

Finishing a run with two things we are not accustomed to - Oxygen (good) and humidity (bad)!
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Act Two

After spending some time with the family, we headed out on the highway for some down time in the mountains. Fourteen hours in the car, touching 5 states and we were ready to be rid of driving for a while. However, that little trip landed us in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, one of our favorite mountain towns. We headed up Rabbit Ears Pass in the morning to catch some trail on the Continental Divide.

Wildflowers galore and the Rabbit Ears - remnants of a volcanic plug on the Divide.

We ran parts of the Wyoming Trail and Base Camp Trail, both are on the Continental Divide Trail route. Both are also part of the Run Rabbit Run 50 mile race - anyone interested in that would have some unreal scenery to distract you from the elevation gain and lack of oxygen! We have biked or run most of the route at different times and it is a whale of a course.

Steve on one of the smoother sections of the Wyoming trail.

Fishhook Lake - unspoiled, high alpine beauty!

Kathleen on a more "rustic" piece of trail coming to a water crossing.

Stopping for a quick group photo at Lost Lake.

Another view of Lost Lake - of course, we found it!

Amazing wildflowers still going strong in August!

High alpine meadow surrounding Dumont Lake - closest Lake to the pass. We ended up with a 13 mile run and some great scenic memories - we will be back to explore more on the pass.

Mr J from Montana.

We met J while we were out on the run - he is through hiking the Continental Divide Trail this summer from Encampment Wyoming down to Mexico. Steamboat was his resupply and "connect to civilization" spot for the week, so we gave him a lift back down to town, showed him where the post office was and dropped him off at the library to do some email. Good luck on your hike!

Stay Tuned ... To Be Continued ...

Ute Valley Park is Green!

Awoke to thick cloud cover and damp, gray skies early this morning, so we were not in a huge hurry to be motivated to run. Add to that Versus tempting us to watch the formalities of the finishing day of the Tour De France on the Champs-Elysees in Paris and, by the time we laced up to hit the trail, the clouds were almost burned off and it got hot quickly.
We started out with a great view from our neighborhood of some of the remaining clouds lifting from Blodgett Peak, at least temporarily...
We headed over to our "backyard" trail system, Ute Valley Park, for some good dirt miles. Although I tested it briefly on Saturday, this was my first "real" run in two weeks following a bad ankle sprain. Ute would be a good test, too, as it is quite technical in spots. On the initial climb to the outer rim, we had a nice view of Pikes Peak - bare today but it snowed up there yesterday!

Kathleen makes her way up the middle of the park, heading for the western ridge.

We have had the most consistent rainfall this spring and summer that we have had in a decade. It shows everywhere that we run. Ute Valley Park is a rugged, natural park and, by this time in the summer, is usually brown and oh so dry. Not this year - waist-high grasses abound and everything that can hold water is green. Nice! For the first time in years, the little Forest Service bear signs have the "Fire Danger" pointer on "LOW" - what a relief.

Testing out the ankle and glad to be back on the trails!

...And the clouds are returning. The build up that usually starts after noon could not wait. Good thing we got out when we did! This is the view from the top of the park looking out to the foothills and the southern end of the Air Force Academy.

Kathleen on good form cruising down the trail!

I have never seen a deer with his mouth this full. I was close enough to hear him chewing and he had a HUGE salad buffet going! Another park "user" thankful for the abundant moisture this year.
Did I mention it was good to be back on the trail? I was able to get in 8 miles and Kathleen did an extra loop to notch 10.5, so it was a nice day on the trails! Hope everyone gets out to enjoy the summer scenery while it is here - Happy Trails!

Shoes - Saucony Progrid Xodus

Lots of Stuff...

I was eating breakfast and getting ready for work this past week and walked out of the kitchen to see this guy staring in the front door at me! How rude of me to interrupt his flower grazing...!!! He has frequent flyer miles at our salad bar, ummm I mean, garden!
Kathleen's xeric garden has been exceptionally active this year. Although all of these plants survive with little or no additional water, they have really enjoyed our unusual rainfall pattern this summer.
Aside from attracting our daily deer traffic, the humming birds and bumble bees have been quite appreciative of their smorgasboard of delicious nectars!
We arrived at Cheyenne Mountain State Park last Sunday to new postings - Great, now Cougar's Shadow is not just a nifty name for a trail!?!? Although we are aware of the lion population along the foothills, even near our home, we sometimes operate under the "out of sight, out of mind" principle, which unfortunately plays right into the hands of mountain lions. The signs just give that extra precaution that we live at the intersection of wild and civilized! Some better news about CMSP - The Xterra Marathon of Trail Races will hold marathon, half marathon, and 5k trail races here October 3 - awesome!
Kathleen cruising on the Coyote Run trail. It was a great day for running and we had plans to get in about 10 - 12 miles. However, Steve severely sprained his ankle on one of the easier trails in the park and had to cut off at 6 miles. What a drag! I was deciding how I would navigate around an older gentlemen with walking poles and hooked my left shoe on a root snag - that was all she wrote, run over... Kathleen was able to get an extra loop in, though, and finish strong with 10.5 miles.

Group photo after Kathleen finished.

Another interesting wildlife side note. One night this week, we sat straight up in bed to the sound of splintering/tearing wood at 3 AM. Not a comforting noise to hear in the pitch black but I could not see much in the direction of the noise except the neighbor's motion light on the back porch. A few minutes later he is in the back yard with flashlight in hand, obviously rudely awakened from his slumber as well. As it turned out, a bear was in his back yard and panicked looking for an escape route. He tore an 8 foot section of fence free and then ripped the gate off in order to exit the front and down the road. WOW!

Went to the doc Thursday for an exam on the appendage. X-rays were clear, joint was stable with no dislocation, so I was given the blessing from Dr. Z to gradually work back to running. He was greatly relieved when I told him my plan to only attempt cycling this weekend!

So, yesterday Kathleen got to head out for her run, sans husband with gimpy leg. While she ran, I prepped road bikes so we could head out when she finished. Kathleen ran Ute Valley Park and got in 8.5 miles of trails to get warmed up.
We were able to get in a nice 20 mile ride, with warm sunny weather and relatively no traffic. And a bonus brick workout for Kathleen - run and ride!!! We took a couple shots over by the Sisters of Saint Francis complex, just over the hill from our home. This abbey's nuns established a hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis in 1887 as Colorado's climate was ideally suited for the arrest of the disease. Lots of history there. Kathleen is riding here just below the abbey with Blodgett Peak behind.
Steve riding just up the road a bit. Good news, too, as the ankle responded well to the riding. No additional swelling and no pain. Cool!

Today, Kathleen headed out for a run and I headed out for another road ride. It was hot early today and we started later than we anticipated because we were watching live Tour de France coverage!!!
Running has kept us strong, we found out, as we were able to do some climbs (in similar split times) that we have done frequently in the past. Since these were the first 2 times on the road bike for me this year, I was not sure how my legs would work, but they were good. Today I climbed 26th street/Gold Camp road to the end of the pavement, which is about a 4.5 mile climbing section. It felt great and the views from the top were great as always. Here is the view down to the Gold Camp Reservoir and the Broadmoor Hotel complex.
And here is the view north, with plenty of blue skies ... for now. I summited Gold Camp approximately 12 miles out from the house, and by the time I crested Flying W Ranch road at a mile and a half from home, there was lightning behind Blodgett Peak and the rain started within 5 minutes of being inside the house. Weather moves FAST in the mountains! Ended up with 24 miles and am a bit saddle sore ... oh well!!!

Kathleen got in a nice 8.5 mile tempo run on Santa Fe, and keeps getting stronger. Her "spring break" is, hopefully, going to be a distant memory soon!

Happy Trails and have a great week!