"I danced among deer in the golden rod laden foothills, it was glorious!"

Yesterday, the deer didn't follow me this high (picture to left), roughly 6,400 or 1k above Boulder, nothing to sneeze at, just fun.  I love the views, the peacefulness, the silence.  The views are majestic at worst, breathtaking at best!  I'm always amazed when I come out for run that within a 7 mile radius of my house I have so much to play on down low and up high. I'm not kidding, my eastern most point was roughly 7 miles, my northern point was no more than 6 miles and my southern point was the house itself.  I love where I live, I am grateful and thankful.

 I'm making my way back and loving every minute of it.  I'm not really sure how I managed this weekend, but I did.  I just went with the flow and let my legs take me where they wanted to go.  

The picture to the right is off the Hogback trail, Sunday I went south and searched out other playgrounds in the distance. 

 So for me Sunday arrived and I was out the door again for another run.  Yesterday I went north, more mild grades and elevation.  Today I drove south to Chautauqua and ran from there.  What was suppose to be an easy out and back turned into an exploration of the soul.

The Mesa trail was warm and the sun was still shining, that would soon all change.  After running south along the Mesa trail, I ascended Shadow Canyon fully expecting snow, ice and poor conditions.  I was pleasantly surprised.  In fact most of the trails I was on this weekend were fairly clear and passable with caution.

Here, atop South Boulder Peak (8,549 ft), I found a lot of snow from the top of Shadow to the peak.  Yak-Trax or some form of traction would have been nice, as well as some warmer clothes.  The temperature dropped significantly during the ascent and I was woefully under dressed in shorts, long sleeve shirt and vest.

You can't ascend South Boulder and not also climb Bear Peak on your way either to Green Mountain or the West Ridge for a trip home.

There is this one derelict, stripped to the bone tree near the summit of Bear (8,461 ft), this tree represents all things good about perseverance or it's just a dead tree that has yet to decompose, choose your story.

From here I descended the West Ridge and connected with Bear Canyon and then onward to Chautauqua on the Mesa trail once more.  Needless to say, I'm beat, but feel good.  It's been a joyous return to the trails this weekend, more than I could have asked for from my body, I'm humbly grateful.

Contemplate this if you question anything,"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”