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| Early Morning Drink |
The day started off with a very easy warm up walk towards the Crag's Crest trail head. I started my GPS on a dirt road that claimed Crag's Crest Campground was 1 mile ahead. Before the half mile mark, the Boy Dog had a dump, chased a chipmunk, & took a little swim. I noticed that my legs loosened up much quicker than normally, my posture was relaxed, & my stride was strong.
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| Lower Loop |
I knew that the thunderheads were rolling in & building during the heat of the day so I opted to transition to the lower loop. Being electrocuted at 11,000+ft was not on my list of things to do for the day. The 1st 1/4mile is quite the hike and every time I looked at the GPS it was a 21min mile pace. Looked again, 27min mile. I became discouraged by the pace knowing I should be quicker than that. But the wildflowers more than made up for it.
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| Reds, Blues, Purples, Whites, Yellows, & Pinks |
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| Shadow Was Pulling Me Along |
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| Center Left of this Photo is Alexander Lake |
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| The Boy Surveys His Surroundings |
The trail flowed into a sweet uphill, shaded by Aspens, through some rock gardens, down to crystal clear lakes, climbing back into Pine Trees, & diving back down a single trail of switchbacks. I was totally looking for bear or moose because of the density of the forest. Lions and tigers and bears…..
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| My Colorful Outfit As Not To Be Mistaken By Hunters |
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| Best Day Ever |
The Lower Trail spit us out above the Visitor Center. Shadow Boy & I knew that we still had about a 2 mile stretch before we were done. We jumped onto another single track trail that looped around Lake Alexander were wildflowers were shaded by the Evergreen Pines. Most of this trail we ran while the Columbine Flowers danced in our wake of speed.
I then plugged in the old Garmin & couldn't believe my eyes. Shadow & I hiked/ran 7.71 miles in 2 hrs 11 min. We started out at 10,103ft and peaked out at 10,972ft with a pace of 15:41min ave mile!!!! I was so stoked!!!! Again, every time I looked at my Garmin, it was like, 22min mile or 35min mile, & I had no idea what was my running pace was. I ran the flats & some of the easy decent if the footing allowed. It was more like a shuffle when I was falling uphill.
Totally feeling much better about the Lead King 25K in Sept. My next post will have photos from my B-Day lunch, The next day of trail running, update on how the legs felt/recovered, & tile work from the Animal Hospital. Still can't believe its almost Aug….. Thanx 4 Stopping By
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