February Adventures

 Soup in the Snow:

Soup in the Snow is always the first weekend in February, and it's always one of my favorite events of the winter. This year we had great weather, and the trail was narrow, but mostly in great shape. I ran up with Charles and Erin, and ran back down mostly with James. Overall, a great day with friends.

The Soup in the Snow start.

Palisades is the most beautiful winter trail. I do it so often, that sometimes I forget how lucky I am to live so close to this gem.

The Lower lake and turn around point.

Eating lunch and huddling around the fire with this fun clan.

Cress Creek Area:

Joyce came down to my neck of the woods to get some miles in the Cress Creek area. The actual Cress Creek loop was an icy mess. 

Oliver's Peak:

Joyce and I set out to snowshoe Oliver's Peak on a frigid day. The temperature was negative 4 when we started, but it was a big climb, so we never got cold. The climb was intense, and I was feeling very uneasy about avalanche conditions, so we made the call to turn around around 1/4 mile from the ridge line, and about 3/4 of a mile from the peak. That sounds super close, but with how steep it was, it still would have taken us a while. I just felt like we weren't in a super safe situation, and it's better to be safe than sorry. We'll go back to get the peak another time.

starting our day just on the other side of the Wyoming border.

She's my favorite snowshoe buddy!

It was a gorgeous climb!

We got pretty high, and then just kept climbing.

I love when the trees are frosted.

Getting out and doing stuff like this makes winter so much more bearable.

Wolf Flats:

I did 11 beautiful miles on Wolf Flats with Ashlee and Ashley on a dark Saturday morning. I love running in the dark in the winter time. This route is so pretty along the river in the winter, that it's always a treat once the sun comes up. We saw a beaver across the river running along the water. 

Starting in the dark.

There was a lot of snow! That makes for some hard running!

Ashlee running through the frosty trees.

So pretty!

Palisades:

Steph and I wanted an easy run up Palisades. The trail was great a couple weeks earlier for Soup in the Snow, so we thought it was a great choice. Hahaha, apparently it snowed a lot more the previous week than we realized. The snow was so deep, and no one else had been on the trail. It was kind of runnable for the first mile, and then it got so deep, and there were snow slides everywhere. It's been a long time since I've seen the trail like this. We were also following lots of cat tracks. It was slow going, and we turned around shy of the lower lake, because Steph's feet were freezing. We couldn't move fast enough to get them warmed up. It didn't help that she took a step, sunk really deep in the snow, and came up without her shoe. 😂 We were following moose tracks most of the way up, so were were on high alert. We must have run right by them, because on the way back down, we passed two of them lying down in the willows right off the trail. When we were almost back to the trailhead, we saw (and heard) some hounds tracking mountain lions. A guy showed us where the den was. A little too close for comfort considering all the tracks we saw. It was just the kind of adventure that Steph and I like. 😁

One slight step off the trail and this is what happens.

Even the runnable parts were well above our ankles.

So many cat tracks. It's a little unnerving when we're the first and only ones on the trail.

😅😅😅

I spy a moose in the willows.

We had to have run right by these gals on the way up the trail.

Women's Runs:

It's been so fun being back at the women's runs. I missed so many last year.

T-Rex:

Our first February women's run was a strava t-rex. It's so cute!

The next one was spelling the word LOVE for Valentine's week. We're on a roll with our Strava art. 😄

The third run was around a slushy greenbelt.

Not as many outside runs as usual, but I've been focusing on weights and cross training this winter, so I've been in our gym most morning. I've still been trying to get out a couple times a week though, so I don't go crazy.