Mid-March 2024 update

Hope everyone is having a fun winter!

Pippin and I have had a lot of adventures in the month since the last update.

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In mid-February, in between snowstorms, Pippin and I had a long day in the mountains.

It was a clear and nice day, and we made it up past our usual overlook.

Way up on trail 667, the snow began to get very deep, and we were following the trail gully that was trekked in by others, but it eventually became too time-consuming and we had to turn around.

We still made 10.3 miles and almost 4200 feet of climbing on this nice day!

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One evening in February, we went to Cripple Creek to see the lighted ice sculptures.

Another evening, we had a family walk in Larkspur along the railroad tracks, and the train conductor waved to us as we watched the sun disappear behind the Rampart Range.

And we attended the Carnivale Parade in Manitou!

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One day, I didn't have Pippin with me and I decided to run an out-and-back on Rampart Range Road.

It was then that I discovered that it was far harder to run without a dog! I've had Pippin on every run this year prior to this.

The muscles and balance involved in canicross are slightly, yet in a significant way, different. Pippin is so strong and such a good teammate that he contributes more working force to our combined effort. Maybe I'll have to look for some canicross races so I can bring him along!

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A few days later, we took a day trip to Denver with the family, visiting the Denver Zoo and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge.

This little prairie dog was a curious fellow!

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After another round of snow fell on the mountains, I took Pippin to our usual snow run in Bear Creek Canyon.

I love snow days in the canyon, and this was another picturesque foggy day.

We wound our way up through the foggy hills towards our overlook.

Above the junction of 776 and 667, the snow was completely untouched!

Pippin was pretty great at breaking trail for me.

We made it to our overlook, and climbed up and down the rock outcropping in the deep snow.

On our way back down High Drive, I met some folks who I'd passed earlier on the uphill. Jeff was kind enough to snap a photo of me and Pippin cruising on the downhill!

Pippin is determined and stoic; meanwhile I'm a goofy looking human! But I'm so thankful to have this photo of me and my adventure buddy on this snowpacked day.

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Our next run, quite the opposite of our snow day, was filled with blue skies and dry trails.

I took Pippin for the Section 16 loop from 26th Street.

Pippin was enthusiastic as ever, zooming on the beautiful trail as we completed this classic trail loop with a lot of newer singletrack at the beginning, getting 9 miles for the day.

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Before the biggest snowstorm of the season, Pippin and I topped out on a small hill in Palmer Park and watched the calm sunset (upper left in the photo collage.)

Then it snowed and snowed for several days. When the clouds finally parted, Pippin and I returned to Palmer Park to a very different magical landscape.

The clouds rolling off of Cheyenne Mountain were just the tail end of the cold front, ushering in warm days to the Front Range once again.

And now it's officially spring in Colorado, so the erratic weather will probably continue! But that's the beauty of spring in the Rockies - blue sky days followed by big waves of the white stuff.

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