Brad Feld

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Snowshoeing in Colorado

Dec 31, 2005

Amazingly, I’ve lived in Colorado for 10 years and haven’t ever gone snowshoeing.  Since I lost my Pilates virginity this week, I figured I’d try a second kind of cross-training in two days.  Dave Jilk took me up Long’s Peak Trail to try to get above treeline.  I strapped on my brand new MSR Denali Ascent Snowshoe (awesome snowshoes) and took off after Dave.  I settled into a groove in about 30 minutes – it was a completely different motion than trail running or hiking (if you’ve ever snowshoed, then you know what I mean when I say “hip flexors of the world unite.”) 

We ultimately got up to about 10750 feet before we were overwhelmed by 80+ mph gusts, the complete inability to see anything, and brutal cold bursts.  We didn’t quite make treeline, but we still got wild views of Meeker and Twin Sisters.  We turned around and hoofed it back, happy to be going downhill and get out of the wind.  We celebrated our success with a stop on our way home at Royal Wok in Lyons for some spectacularly appropriate chinese food in the middle of nowhere.

Enough cross-training – time to go for my run – although it won’t be the long one that I had planned because my entire body is sore and tired in weird places from the past two days (I ran on Pilates day also, so that probably added to my general feeling of overwhelming physical fatigue.)