Our normal bi-weekly Hike Club hike was canceled due to a variety of reasons, but I still managed to get outside and get a hike done.
I met up with one of our Club’s members (even though her last day at work was on Friday, she’s still a member – our membership isn’t too strict after all,) along her puppy dog Nakota.
We elected to go somewhere closer than our original plan because there would be significantly less snow, and she wanted to get a later start because mornings are hard.
The destination didn’t sound familiar at first, but it started to look familiar the closer we got – Eldorado Canyon State Park. Last summer, one our Club’s hikes was at Rattlesnake Gulch, which shares the trailhead for the hike we did – Fowler Trail.
Described as an easy 4 mile out and back, we were promised wildflowers (wrong season,) and spectacular views (oh yeah, we had those!)
There were a couple of man made canyons that we hiked through (that also acted like some serious wind tunnels!) which provided quite the cross section of rocks that make up the Flatirons.
Our hike ended up being closer to 4.5 miles, and most of the time I kept thinking that this would be a good starter hike for K to go on with me, along with possibly bringing Olive along. I’m not certain that she could manage the whole hike, but we should be able to comfortably do half of it.
As per tradition, after our hike we enjoyed a nice lunch. My hiking partner picked this barbecue place that was really close to home that I had never seen before, even though I have been to the shopping center that it’s at many times.
Since it was already early afternoon, they were out of most of their menu offerings, so we ended up splitting some brisket and ribs – which were super tender and pretty damn tasty.
Twenty-Five Days of Running
Even though I had already done a 4.5 mile hike earlier in the day, I still needed to get my daily run of at least one mile in. Luckily the hike wasn’t too strenuous (and my new boots are still working really well for me, which is awesome!) I didn’t feel too worried about having to run afterwards.
I ran for 20 minutes and managed to knock out a 1.7 mile run, so my 2020 running stats are now looking like this:
- Week Total: 20.86 miles
- January Total: 85.44 miles
- 2020 Total: 85.44 miles
- Average Run: 3.42 miles
- Longest Run: 5.19 miles (1/12)
- Shortest Run: 1.32 miles (1/11)