Since a long Sunday run won't be possible, I got up early Friday to do one. Really early. The night before I filled my water bottles, grabbed a couple chews, made a piece peanut butter toast, laid out all my clothes and gear, and set a 4 am alarm to make sure I was out the door with plenty of time to get back before school time. It was a good plan! I went to bed so early that I wasn't exhausted when my alarm went off and I was out the door in about 10 minutes, even with having to scramble for a working flashlight. I somehow forgot it's DARK at 4 am.
This week's training schedule called for a smaller distance recovery run of 12 miles. I had mapped out the route so I knew where to turn around and head back. I was feeling so good that went past my turn around spot a bit and ended up doing 13 miles instead.
It was a really unique run. First, it was my first "long run" without Lisa so it was much more quiet and introspective. Second, the first 1/3 was pitch black with only moonlight and my dinky LED flashlight. Just after my turn around spot the sun started to peek above the horizon and I got run in the beautiful pink and orange light of that magical hour.
I saw very few people (less than 5) before this point so imagine my surprise when I came upon a group of about 15 railroad workers getting ready for a day of putting in new rail ties. Um, and did I mention that this was the first day I ran in SHORTS? Mortifying. For the past week or so the new ties have been sitting by the train track that hugs the LoBo trail for a 2 mile stretch just past Longmont. They STINK. The sun heats them up and the tar just creates the grossest cloud of fumes. Hopefully with use of trains on them the stink will go away more quickly now.
I got back home with plenty of time before school starts for Eisley and got to rest for about an hour. I kissed Shane and my boo boo goodbye and got ready for the day's next big adventure. Lisa and I wanted to hike the full loop at Heil Valley up in Lefthand Canyon. Well, it was all Lisa's idea and I was just tagging along. We reached the trailhead about 9 am ready for a long day and hoping to catch some of the famous wild turkeys that frequent the area on camera.
We started out on the mild mannered Lichen Loop and then headed up the hill on the Wapiti Trail (I've included the map so you can "see" where I'm talking about). Along the way you see several strange rock structures and sadly there aren't any placards that give you the history. So we looked around a bit and made up our own stories of how they were used. The Heil Valley trail system is used by mountain bikers mostly and is one of the most beautiful and uniquely created trails I've ever been on. Lots of natural Rick paving and rock bridge work.
As we continued on the trail and switched over to the Ponderosa Trail things got rockier and rockier. Not a "normal" rocky where your footing is sure and you have jump or step from stone to stone but instead smaller loose rock just big enough to help you twist your ankles every which way. It got a little old...especially after having ran 13 miles before this. But we continued and marveled at how beautiful it was regardless of sure footing. As we got close to our lunch spot and scenic overlook, we saw and heard two ladies whistling loudly and talking to someone. They were talking to us? "Did you see? Two black bears!" After hearing Kami Semick's scary account of encountering a mama black bear and cubs at Western States a few years back my first reaction was to rather rudely blurt out "WELL?! ARE THERE CUBS!?!?!?" No, no cubs. Whew. Ok let's get pics or it didn't happen...right? So we spent about 5 minutes snapping pics until one bear seemed to find the sound of the shutter interesting and changed course toward us. We stopped the photo shoot and started making noise and talking loudly to each other and the parted ways with the other ladies. I've seen other black bears here in Colorado and only once more besides this when I wasn't in a car. This was by far the closest I've been and the most remote if something were to happen. I think I'll invest in bear mace.
We ate lunch on a beautiful overlook of Highway 7 snaking it's way toward Allenspark and Estes Park. The bench we sat on actually gave us a birds eye view of Hall Ranch where we ran the other day. We felt so high that day and here we were looking down on it. It was surreal. I was going to wrap up the second half of my sandwich when I dropped it. Gah! I rinsed it off and decided I better just eat it all then...grit and all.
We came to two roads diverged in a wood and we took the one less rocky and that made all the difference. Instead of staying on Ponderosa we took the outer Wild Turkey Trail back down the mountain. The trail takes you through several meadows and there are tons of wild flowers. If you have 5 hours and want to see some beautiful country, check out Heil Valley!
It was a beautiful albeit long hike. Lisa parked herself at the trailhead picnic area to eat the second half of her undropped sandwich. Earlier on the trail she remarked that there were no bees up here and that she had an irrational fear of them thinking they would swarm her. So of course a few bees, probably attracted to the sweetness of her Gatorade, started to hang around. Lisa flew from the bench and dropped her sandwich too. She picked it up to throw it away and the bees came again and she dropped the sandwich a second time. I had to save the day and toss the sandwich for her.
So after 5 hours of no turkeys, bears, loose rock, and bees we headed back to civilization and Starbucks.
1 comment:
I dislike bees.
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