On the Trails

Over the last weekend (July 4), we went camping up near Red Feather Lakes at the Beaver Meadows Resort. It's about 60-75 minutes out of Fort Collins, CO, way in the mountains at around 8500-8800 ft of altitude. It's remote, with the camp sites lacking power, running water, and there's no cell service. Outhouses were around, and it's a nice wooded area.

We camped out, cooking over fires, and I managed to go running on the trails nearby. It was hard to run at altitude, and I felt sluggish for 3 days, only really running well the last day. I also struggled to get past all the flies and mosquitoes, which were constantly attacking.

However I did enjoy the trails, cruising down wooded trails similar to those that I used to run at in some packs in my native Virginia. It was nice to move along, and I had my daughter for company a couple of the days as she rode her bike next to me. The hard parts were helping her up some hills there, when I had to struggle up myself while pushing a 100lb girl on a bike.

Still it was good, and it was the chance to see some beautiful scenery in Colorado. I stuck to similar routes, as I tend to do, mostly because I like a routine, and I have a chance to avoid any turned ankles by watching where I'm going and having some familiarity.

I don't love camping out there, but it was nice to get out and run, on my own schedule, without anything pressing on me.

The one memorable run was Sunday, when everyone else was fishing, I decided to get out and run before a thunderstorm. It had sprinkled a bit, and so I took off when the clouds cleared a bit. I managed to get out about .8 or .9 miles and then turned around. However the temp was dropping, a few drops hitting me from the sky, and my shirt was wet. The nipples started to hurt, and so I took off my shirt since I didn't have any lubricant. As I ran, the bugs attacked, forcing me to swing my shirt constantly, hitting my back to ward them off. Haven't had to do that since Seashore State Park in Virginia.