Blue skies on Barr trail with Jill, Mark, and the Incline club

Sunday was a day that reminded me, once again, why I love Barr trail in the winter so much!

It was a bluebird day after a lot of snow during the week. And with the expectation of more snow in the forecast on Monday, lots of Incline clubbers headed to the hills to make the best of a clear winter day.

As an aside, since it is a new year and hopefully I have some new blog followers, I wanted to share the link to the Incline club website. They also have a link to their Facebook page, which is updated more frequently than the website. But generally, we meet at Memorial Park in Manitou on Sundays from Nov to Aug. 8 am in the winter, 7 am after Memorial day. All are welcome to come join us!

After some cheery conversations at the start, I headed out with Jill to Barr trail. I brought my nanospikes, which were very necessary, since the trail was a sheet of ice from the very start. It was that kind of crunchy ice that has been beat up by lots of spikes already.

Near the Incline connection trail, Tim was coming down from his Incline trip. We stopped and chatted for a while.

Our conversational pace wasn't too terrible because when we were moving, our pace felt athletic. Soon we were already at No Name Creek, where Jill's turn around for the day was.

After No Name Creek, the trail conditions were much better, mostly packed snow with a few patches of ice.

After Bob's road, I decided to check out the rock overlook that Jill and I went to two weeks ago. This was a quick off trail photo stop, since I wanted to grab the clear views of the Pikes summit with blue skies while they lasted. (And the afternoon skies did cloud up later.)

I love this view to the south from the overlook. It is a peek through to the Bear Creek drainage, with Cameron's Cone on the far left behind the rock outcropping, and Almagre to the right of the photo (with all the snow).

Soon after my photographic detour, Mark caught up to me on the trail! He'd started later, but he was moving at quite a speedy pace compared to the relaxed stride I'd fallen into. He gave me quite the boost! We had great conversation and made it to Barr Camp in what felt like no time.

At Barr Camp, I was very happy to see Zach, since he might not be a caretaker too much longer. Zach has always been warm and friendly during his tenure here, and it will be sad to see him go on to other adventures.

Of course we all wish him the best!!

Barr Camp has traditionally been a natural gathering hub for the trail running community, and it will continue to be. But it won't be quite the same without Zach, the ultramarathon guru!

After a lovely amount of chatting at Camp, including hearing all of Craig's latest adventures, I had to head back down the big hill.

The downhill felt like coasting all the way to No Name Creek, after which the trail had melted out a ton from the morning, and was basically completely slush. It was a sloppy mess of downhill splashing that I can't say I didn't enjoy, but certainly demanded an extra level of attention.

At least it was warm enough to go to a tank top! There is an extra layer of elation when running downhill through the forest on a warm winter day, feeling the breeze on your skin.

When I finally arrived back at my vehicle, I was close to 16 miles for the day.

And of course, as I sit at home now with a fresh layer of snow covering everything, I'm thankful that I was gifted the opportunity to share another lovely Sunday with friends on the Barr trail.

I'll leave you all off with some photos from my downhill, and I hope to see you on the trails soon.

Almagre in the distance, from Bob's road. 

Pikes Peak from Bob's road.

Deep snow at No Name Creek! That sign is several feet under. 

Cameron's Cone on the right.

Engelmann Canyon, clouding up and waving goodbye as I return to the city after a day in the sky, with good companionship and soul-refreshing energy.