Tag Archives: trails

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Monterrey’s Mountains: Cerro de la Silla

11 Jun 16
Heidi Kumm
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one comments

The city of Monterrey is surrounded by mountains, lots of them. They aren’t exceptionally high mountains so you won’t need to worry about elevation but they are steep. Really steep + the trails don’t exactly “switch back” so you’re often hiking straight up the mountainside.

The biggest obstacle I’ve had while attempting to explore the mountains down here is the complete lack of trail markings or obvious trailheads. But, through trail + error I’ve found a few routes up Cerro de la Silla, the iconic ridge of summits you see in a lot of Monterrey photos.

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Monterrey’s Mountains: Pico Norte of Cerro de la Silla

17 Mar 16
Heidi Kumm
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7 comments

From the snow to the sunshine…in posting order + in real life! I’m in the process of repacking all that winter camping gear into my car for a weekend of car camping + trail running + rock climbing in Moab. It’s a sorta solo, sorta group trip. I’m headed that way to take on another outdoor education class [lead sport climbing] but it sounds like I’ll have plenty of free time to explore trails…trails without snow!

Speaking of trails without snow, La M wasn’t the only mountain we hiked while I was down in Monterrey, Mexico. It was only the beginning of a handful of adventures out onto the trails near the perimeter of the massive city. We had settled into an AirBnB near Cerro de la Silla, a really nice neighborhood that butts up against steep mountains leading up to a jagged ridge.

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Escaping Zermatt

07 Oct 15
Heidi Kumm
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6 comments

Zermatt is a tourist city, there is no denying that. The moment you step off the train you feel the “tourist vibe” humming around you. The people behind the desk at the tourism office have a rehearsed spiel, the streets are teaming with selfie sticks and each little shop has its own carousel of beautiful postcards.

Personally, I am not a fan of the “tourist vibe”, as hypocritical as that may be. The cities that have grown to accommodate tourists always feel stifling + staged…but they grew for a reason. The mountain trails + wilderness surrounding these kitschy tourist cities are stunning. And the true perk of these overgrown cities? Most tourists stay in the cities, or at least close to them, leaving the more remote + challenging trails empty for people like me!

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Trails: More Than Just Dirt.

09 Sep 15
Heidi Kumm
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While I’m here in Switzerland I’ll be spending a lot of time on the trails. There will be plenty of day hikes and long runs, just because I can. Trails will become a huge part of this little adventure for a few reasons — they are cheap, they take you to amazing views, they make me incredibly happy and they bring people together. The first two a pretty obvious, so when REI asked me to share what trails meant to me I wanted to share the effects dirty single track has had on my life!

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Currently.

01 Aug 15
Heidi Kumm
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2 comments

The stressful part of my summer is officially over! As of last Thursday I was officially done with my classroom EMT training! I am “practically certified”, if you will. I have passed all of my NREMT practical exams but still need to take the intense written exam later this month. Up next, more training and classwork [IV, EKG, etc]. Turns out you spend a LOT of time advancing your knowledge and experience when you’re working in the pre-hospital field. Makes it rather depressing that we barely make minimum wage. Talk about irony – people can’t live without us but we literally cannot live by saving their lives. American priorities seem to be a little jacked up.

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Wildflower Running

16 Jul 15
Heidi Kumm
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2 comments

There is one thing you learn really quickly when you don’t have a lot of time to fit your runs in – you cannot wait for the weather to be “just right”. If it’s 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky…you’re going running. If it looks like rain…you’re still going running. If it is actually pouring raining…you’re still going running. Same goes for your pre/post run fueling and such. Not sure how a Lunchable for breakfast will fuel you’re long run? Let’s find out… [spoiler: it did a great job!]

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Just Go Get Dirty

29 May 15
Heidi Kumm
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one comments

Here in Colorado we have had a LOT of rainy days and many people have been very vocal about their dislike for this gloomier-than-usual weather. Sure, there is a very good chance that 2015 will fail to delivery the “300 days of sunshine” Coloradoans like to brag about but I’ve been kind of loving the cool days + rainy weather + cloudy runs. The trails have been muddy and, while it does make running tricky, I think mud is fun. And since mud running is about all I’ve done outside lately I’m going to go ahead and talk about muddy running, again!

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Go Get Muddy!

29 Apr 15
Heidi Kumm
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4 comments

If you’ve had a rough day and need a little break from your own brain I’ve discovered the solution…go get muddy! Yes! Muddy! Stop pouting, pull on your big girl running shorts, lace up those shoes and get your tookus outside! If you’re a runner leave the GPS behind. If you’re a photographer leave the fancy camera behind. If you’re a hiker leave the pack behind. Just leave it all on the kitchen table or in the passenger seat of your car and let your inner child play for a bit.

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Finding Trail Love

24 Apr 14
Heidi Kumm
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6 comments

Remember that one time I said I had a game plan for surviving the Quad Rock 50M? And then how I wrote about fitting runs in for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Then I had a really great long run at the Palmer Lake 24 Hour Race! How about that painful run that reminded me that the little things matter, too?

Well, it’s been a long month with my mind and body taking a beating. I’m leaning heavily on my plan to ride it out and make the most of the race while hoping that the 37 strong miles at Palmer Lake say something about my ability to show up and run when needed. We’ll see…soon!

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A Miserable Reality Check

15 Apr 14
Heidi Kumm
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10 comments

Just a heads up – this post is going to be whiny. I had a rough run this weekend and I want to talk about it. However, there is a pretty good chance you don’t actually care about the running part…so I’ll give you a little mountain eye candy.

On Saturday morning we headed west to Buena Vista to run a chunk of the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run 25M course that Chris will be running on next month. He wanted to get a feel for what he would be racing on and I needed hilly miles on single track…done and done! Turns out I was also about to get a miserable dose of reality…and, now that it’s all over, I’m incredibly glad that Saturday’s run sucked. Because I needed a bad run to make me appreciate the good ones…and I needed this craptastic run to go down before race day on a different course.

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