Colorado Day 4: "What matters the most?"

So last night I got a lot of extra sleep that I am not used to but it was a much needed rest. After running out here a few times, with the runs being pushed pretty hard my body is trying to recover in any fashion it can. I slipped in my ear plugs last night and called it an early night while Kylee went out to hang with some friends.
We hit up the South Boulder Trail today and it was pretty cool. Going out there was an awesome view of the rockies pretty much w/o anything to block the view. My ipod died about 9 minutes into the run which really sucked, but I made it work. I could tell today wasn't going to be a great day so it was just used as an easy recovery day from everything going on. After I set off with a few miles under the belt I heard some high pitched noises off to my right and I see some furry creatures running wild. Apparently they are "Praire dogs", which kind of freaked me out at first.


Prairie dogs (Cynomys) are burrowing rodents (not actually dogs) native to the grasslands of North America. The highly social prairie dogs live in large colonies or "towns" – collections of prairie dog families that can span hundreds of acres.

On the way back from the turn around point I made it a point to observe the same area again and I see this....


Looking around, I actually kind of have a mini panic attack, all of the dead grass around me were actually praire dogs, they were everywhere, I bet there were 50 of them making all kinds of noise.

After the run was done, we headed back to change and move forward to our hike. The day was beautiful and clear outside, I even hiked half way with a t-shirt on while we were in the sun. It was actually a pretty rigorous hike with a good bit of ice at points. We got to the top and unfortunately their were some "starwars" obsessed college students who wouldn't shut up. Aside from that we got some pretty good pictures of the "20ft natural golden arch".





On the way down Kylee expressed her hesitation about going down because of the ice so I asked to jump up front and led the way down. I kind of like challenges like this because I tend to find pretty good footing and have good balance to avoid falling usually. Kylee was not so lucky as she fell a couple times and even cut her elbow on a rock, stupid ice on the path!

After sitting around the place for awhile I decided I might as well do another shake out run, so I hit the Boulder pathway right outside the door. One of the things that caught my eye was this pretty cool overpass crosswalk that went over the highway and it looked kind of like something being shot into space i thought.


All in all I had a nice easy day of running, 8 easy on a trail then 4.5 miles on the pathway followed by some good stretching and staring at the moonlight reflect on the mountains.

After that run, Kylee and I headed to the "Lazy Dog" which was a local sports bar. I really wanted to watch the Monday night football game because it was set to be a good one. One of my good buddies from a few years ago actually moved to boulder so he came out to meet us with his girlfriend. We had a lot of laughs about Boulder in general as well as going back into the past for a few laughs. Their experience with the local running shop "boulder running co" was the same as mine, lots of inventory but lacking in customer service.

Here are some additional photos from the hike that are pretty good.





Having spent so much time outside today from distractions of life I had time to myself and my thoughts. Colorado is an amazing place, thats for sure, great for being active. The society around here is certainly different than i am used to back home in my little box. One of the things I have observed is that people are greatly spiritual out here but not very religious. So far I have only seen 2 churches while riding/running/driving around the area. In Charlotte there is a church about every mile i think. Without really trying to "think" I realized that I need to be near my loved ones. Everyone has a different circumstance but I feel the need to stick close to my hometown mostly because of my younger siblings. Being around as a big brother who is a good role model is on the top of my list above running some trails in colorado. Family is everything no matter the deal....