The Lure

Having the day off work, I was left with the opportunity to engage in a more adventurous and spontaneous run today. From a purely specific-training perspective with my upcoming road-marathon in mind, this should have inevitably lead to a longer tempo run of sorts, perhaps a hard set of 800's or the like. But, as I looked out my window, seeing the sun breaking through the clouds and the fresh dosage of snow on the mountains from the previous evenings precipitation I felt that lure. That inevitable pull that the mountains can have over the mind and body of those who have experienced their ways. With that, I headed out my apartment door with today's project visibly in sights: Lynn Peak- glistening in the early morning sun with a low snow-line no more than 1000feet up.

There is something inherently appealing about starting a run from your front doorsteps and seeing your ultimate objective in mind. Knowing that it is just your feet that will power you to that point. In the end, I arrived back at my steps satiated after a solid 14miles/2:50minutes/3000+feet of vertical gain on a beautiful morning.

The run in picture:


Some of the initial trail leading to the base of Lynn Peak- no snow yet


A little icy and frozen through the early sections made the climb a little more challenging


Some accumulation of fresh snow about 1500 feet up the climb



Eventually hit fresh snow- thigh deep at points-made for a brutal climb but great descent


Sun breaking through


Goofing around with the timer feature on the camera- the traction was pretty good for the most part, tactile


I was the only person on the mountain this morning- the only other tracks I saw were bunny- thankfully nothing bigger


The tunnel of snow-laden trees leading me back down the mountain- the snowy descent made things a lot easier as I simply just bounced and slid my way down- much easier than the usual rocky and technical descent Lynn Peak normally presents