End of our hike on Devils Hole trailWhen I finished school in June, I vowed I would spend more time with my kids and take advantage of the gift I have been given to live in such a fruitful place like Colorado and all it has to offer. Summer whips by me so fast that before I even catch my breathe from the past school year, it's time to start back up again.
This whole house painting thing really tanked a few weeks of my summer away and I can't believe that next week marks the start of my annual trip to the Midwest. Upon it's return, so ends my summer and it's back to work. I dread it.
Anyway, the boys (especially Brendan) have caught the 14er bug; hiking to the top of 'em has become a new obsession. I promised I'd do one with them this summer. Not sure why I did that, other than it was one of those things to spend more time with them cuz hiking those things really take a beating on me..but I wanted to go. They attempted to climb Mt. Evans a couple weeks ago with their dad but the weather was really bad and and they never made the summit so without thinking, I opened my mouth and I said we'd try for it this week. One night last week, a group of us girls went out to Baker Street Grill to celebrate June birthdays. I was mentioning the hike to my friend, Marianne, and she said she's like to go. We planned it for today. I totally forgot about it...really. I thought about it on and off throughout the week but as of yesterday, I had put it in the back of my mind and not until Marianne sent me a FB post asking if we were still in did I remember.
It was close to the last thing I wanted to do today, but I knew I wasn't going to have time when I returned from vacation so now really was the only time. So we loaded up the car, picked up my friend Marianne and her son, Andrew, and set off for Summit Lake to climb to the top of Mt. Evans.
When we got to the road to the trail, it was closed.
Plan B involved a quick detour to the Forest Service office and a new trail was devised and we ended up hiking this trail near Mt. Evans called Devil's Hole. Not sure where the devil or the hole into play -- it was just a gorgeous trail - though difficult. 4.3 miles (one way), about 2000' elevation gain, rocks that killed the bottom of my feet, a very struggling Ryan who could not make the last mile, pretty warm temperatures, me doing a little trail running to catch the group ahead, taking in the serenity of the reward at the end, a little more trail running to get back to Ryan, some great one-on-one conversation with Ryan without constant interruptions, an arduous decline down....and 4 1/2 hours later we returned to the car. A little 4:30pm lunch in Idaho Springs, indulging in way too many calories, and we returned home a little after 6pm.
Before our little off-road adventure this afternoon, I headed to the park for a tempo run. Still struggling with the pace this but feeling slightly better about it. I learned a lot of things on my tempo today, for which I will post tomorrow since today's hike has already taken up way too much blog space.
I had a great day.....but I am exhausted!!!!
My glute did not bother me much while hiking. I felt it but it behaved slightly better than it has pre-massage. The funny thing is, Charlie only massaged my left leg and glute and maybe it's psychosomatic, but my left calf really felt great hiking today whereas my right was really tight. Hum. I'm thinking I'm going to try to get a massage every other week upon my return from vacation before my Portland Marathon.
7 miles run
9 miles hiked
Me - and beautiful blue skies
Ryan and Brendan crossing a stream
Andrew, Marianne, Brendan, Me; top of Devils Hole trail GORGEOUS!
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