Springtime in the Indian Peaks.

Shadow reading the news.

Despite other changes in my daily life with my decision to invest full-time energies into my historic preservation work, my running routine continues to be Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. That has served me well for 15 years or so, I enjoy it, and it's become an important part of my week.

For cross training on other days, I often bike in the warmer weather. In the cooler weather it's hiking or snowshoeing.

Outside my back door in the Indian Peaks region of the Colorado Rocky Mountains I step directly onto a trail system that weaves around some sections of the vast Roosevelt National Forest. For hiking it is incomparable. For running less so, for reasons I've noted elsewhere.

Moving into terrain further from home in the forest, this week I've discovered an entirely new network of trails to explore. They really are beautiful, and quite a bit of the network is trail that could be runnable, by which I mean it could allow me to do more than stay upright on rough terrain. Like, look around.

Here's a sample of it today, with my hiking / running companion reading her news along the way.

About a mile and a half into the hike today I had very good news myself. Springtime has officially arrived in our part of the forest.

Pasque Flowers, 04.30.14