The mountains are a year-round playground for those who get
their kicks in the outdoors. Each season
brings new opportunities for fun. While,
weather-wise (in the Rockies), one can experience all the seasons within a few
hours time, for eight to ten months out of the year the highest parts
of the mountains are covered in snow (usually). There
is plenty to do on the snow, but for a short window each summer the high
country dries up, revealing spectacular rocky peaks, high alpine meadows, and crystal
clear lakes to be explored. Although a
lover of snow, I have to recognize this short window of snow-freeness in the
high country as the most wonderful time of year.
The mildness of this past winter opened up the high country
earlier than usual (at least where I’ve been (mountains around Leadville , CO
Every morning my first thought is “Where should I go?” as I
jump out of bed and pound down a cup of coffee.
I’m so excited to get out, I skip my habitual second and third cup. When staying in town, it is less than four miles
to get to treeline. Here, I usually
pause to take it in and lay in the thick, spongy alpine tundra, noticing what
new wildflowers are showing themselves today.
Every few days a new color joins the party. Then I continue on, usually exploring somewhere
new for me, climbing over ridges, through valleys, up another saddle, down the
other side. At the tops, I usually just
look around and decide what to do next time.
Most of these excursions have ranged from 3-6 hours so far.
The last two summers, I have done my best to be uncommitted
to anything else during this time. It is
so short and sweet that I cannot dream of being anywhere else. I’m not even training for anything specific,
just roaming around for the pure enjoyment of moving in the most beautiful
scenery I know of. And I am loving it.
Last week, I left my happy place, on short notice, to
return to the swamplands (Midwest ) for a
funeral. While I faced slight withdrawal
symptoms (especially because I didn't run for a few days
because it was too hot), it just makes me more excited to get back up
there. On my last outing, the
wildflowers seemed on the verge of peaking.
I expect them to be mind-blowing when I get back tomorrow or the next
day.
“I came for the winters, but stayed for the summers,” is a
common explanation for mountain transplants.
Spend a week up here in the summer and it is easy to see why…especially
if coming from the swamplands of the Midwest ,
East Coast or Southeast. The lack of humidity
was reason enough to never return to the air-conditioned confines from which I
came. While there can be a whole other
set of discomforts-dust, fires, tourists-I’ll take these any day over feeling
the need to shower after a walking out to the mailbox. And I don’t find any of these inconveniences
above treeline. So, if I go missing, you
can at least narrow your search to anywhere above 12,000’.
