Iowa trail running???!!!

This past week, we loaded up Sage in the truck and headed off to northwestern Iowa to visit my family (Kathleen's). My mom was recently diagnosed with appendix cancer, a vicious and little known cancer. Mom had a related major surgery about 4 weeks ago and will have another, what some people have described as M.O.A.S. (Mother of All Surgeries), the first part of November. She is feeling good so we wanted to spend some fun time with everybody before that surgery comes around. Of course we packed our running shoes intending to check out all the trails that had to weave in and around the corn and soybean fields. We Googled trails in their area and found one (ONE??????????????? How is that even survivable????????? We are so spoiled!) - the mighty Puddle Jumper Trail. It was, ahem, a 2 mile long flat gravel path that travelled between the corn and soybean fields. Seriously, though, it was a very lovely trail and we were thankful it was available for our perusal!
One of the trailheads started through this beautiful canopy of big, shady trees. After this canopy, it was out in the open bordering the corn and soybean fields. I thought the soybean fields were particularly beautiful. Everything was so green and lush compared to our dry and dusty high desert of Colorado. It was refreshing to see the green and a reminder of how dry our climate really is in Colorado. Sometimes we forget.
Did I mention we had oxygen??? We haven't been at low altitude in years. Orange City, IA sits at 1400 feet above sea level. Our house in Colorado sits at 6800 feet above sea level and we frequently go above 9000 when we head to the mountains to run, bike, and snowshoe. Coupled with the FLAT Puddle Jumper, we eeked out our fastest run average EVER!!! Even pushing it, we weren't out of breath - our problem was that our legs didn't know how to go fast!!! :-) Weird. Flat, fast, and extra oxygen - what more could we ask for? It was fun!
Here I am with our two nieces, Heidi and Gracie. We are sitting in the dark on Mom and Dad's back porch watching the fire flies. Very cool. You can see Sage peeking out from behind the girls on the bench - she didn't want to be left out! We enjoyed our wonderful visit to the beautiful (and green) state of Iowa. The endless rolling hills of tall corn stalks and the lushness of the soybeans, although not our beloved Rocky Mountains, certainly have their own refreshing magnificence. It was great to see Mom feeling well and preparing for her M.O.A.S., Dad doing well, and visit with my brother, his wife, and our sweet nieces. And don't forget, getting to sample the mighty Puddle Jumper - it made for a blessed and memorable few days!

Run at Monument Fire Center

We have mountain biked extensively in the Monument Fire Center over the years, but this was only our second trail run there. The Fire Center is home to the Pike Hotshots and Monument Helitack - guys and gals who will jump into the middle of the flames in order to help fight wildland and forest fires. This is their training center and it is filled with a mixture of some very technical, and some very smooth, singletrack, most of which were cut as practice for establishing fire breaks. Along with the great trails, there is a very nice memorial grove to honor fallen firefighters.
Above, Kathleen rounds a bend in front of an awesome rock spire, with Mount Herman in the background.
Steve blazing a path between the scrub oaks.

This is perfect narrow singletrack - just how we like it! It is a great place to hone your running and biking skills!
We were able to string together 9 miles of awesome trail running and there is plenty more for next time we head out to the Fire Center - the 1000 acre site has 26 miles of trail, and there is plenty more USFS trail area that can be linked easily on Mount Herman.

Another wonderful day running in the Colorado Mountains - Happy Trails to all!

Spruce Meadows and Spruce Mountain

Went to Greenland, CO today (find that on your map) to run at Spruce Meadows / Spruce Mountain Open Space. The Meadows portion is mostly single and double track trail through open prairie between Greenland Open Space and Spruce Mountain. As usual, it was windy and quite warm. Anyone needing an early season ultra - Greenland could be your spot. You could get warm and sunny or cold and snow at that time of year - just roll the dice!
Ready to get started, you can see the rolling prairie and the top of Spruce Mountain in the background.
That is Spruce Mountain as seen from about the halfway point of the Meadows trail.

Once on top of Spruce Mountain, there are great views of the Front Range of the Rockies, looking north toward Denver above. Hard to imagine that only 600' of raw elevation change can yield such awesome vistas! With a little over a mile of switchbacks and solid climbing up onto Spruce Mountain, there is a very nice and rolling 2 mile loop on top that has scenic viewpoints in all directions.
On the bottom end of the loop there are great southern views, including Pikes Peak off in the distance in the photo above. Far below, at the end of the valley, the town of Palmer Lake sits nestled in front of Mount Herman.

Coming off the back side of Spruce Mountain, Kathleen is ready for the cruise across the Meadows trail to finish up the run. We got in a great 10 mile run today and soaked up some bluebird sky and bright sunshine - Good Times!