Tag Archives: adventure

It’ll hit you when you least expect it. For me, it was as I was driving down a narrow mountain road completely mesmerized by the fresh snow on the mountain peaks towering above, happy. Incredibly happy. The kind of happy that makes your insides feel like a perfectly toasted marshmallow. Everything seems right in the world + I was invincible to the doubts of reality.

I’ve spent the last few months…not writing, not overworking + not running. Instead, I’ve been wandering, planning + spending time doing not-so-crazy things with people I really enjoy being around. I don’t want to jinx myself by saying “life is slowing down”, but my life choices seem to be a bit more purposeful. The “because, why not” way of decision-making isn’t going anywhere, trust me. But I’ve been a bit more intentional with my choices lately.

Girls’ Weekend; Colorado-Style at the Columbine Cabins

I live a pretty cyclical life — my summers are spent roaming the country + world while my winters are spent working my leggings off in a resort town. This lifestyle isn’t exactly conducive to a small, close-knit group of friends due to constant movement + a crazy work schedule. Instead, it gives me the opportunity to meet all sorts of awesome people that float through my life from time to time. Every once in a while a handful of these cool kids get the same days off work. This happened last month [after a lot of co-worker bribery]. To celebrate we headed into the backwoods of Northern Colorado for our version of “girl’s weekend”.

I was standing on the corner of a busy street in a foreign city. It was my first time venturing out into Monterrey, Mexico on my own and I wasn’t sure of where I was going, what people were saying or how the hell to cross this street where it looked like everyone was playing human frogger. On the inside I knew I would survive to find the park I was looking for but on the outside everything about me screamed “confused tourist”. I could feel myself trying to be invisible with my crossed legs, fidgety fingers + averted eyes. I knew I couldn’t blend in + I was yet to dig up to confidence to own my foreigner status so I instinctively opted for invisible.

When my count down to the “Last Day At Vail Resorts!” stumbled to an end I jumped right into my two weeks of…freedom. I was finally down to just one job! I had a sliver of free time and I could spend it however I wanted; not just sleeping! And that’s exactly what I did. It wasn’t until late last night that I realized this — on Monday I’m essentially saying “good-bye” to Colorado for…I have no idea how long. Oh, I’m excited, I’m ready for another bout of change and I have an incredible summer ahead of me.

However, I am going to miss Colorado! From the mountain views to the adventurous people to the winding trails to the local cafes….I’m going to miss Colorado and I am going to miss Summit County! Thankfully I’ve been a lucky duck and I’ve taken some serious advantage of my free time…

One of my questions for Merlin while coordinating my WorkAway plans in Gryon, Switzerland was “how’s the hiking + trail running in the area?”, turns out Merlin was not lying when he said the options are endless. From the day I arrived the Tour de l’Argentine has been mentioned by multiple people, yet it still took me about 4 weeks to actually get out there and run/hike the loop. It did not disappoint! And I really should have done it earlier because now I really want to summit l’Argentine but I’m running out of time!

What do you do when the clouds take over the mountain? The same thing you do when it’s a beautifully sunny day — you get your tush outside and find trails to explore! I’ve done a fairly good job of winning the fight against the snot factory that took over my sinuses but the weather has not been very good at supporting my quest to spend all my free time outside. Rather than greeting me with sunny skies and tshirt temperatures it’s been doling out lots of chilly clouds. But I am nothing if not persistent…clouds or not, outside I went!

As my Instagram feed suggests — I did not return to the States with the rest of the Columbia crew. When Columbia first threw out the possibility of running one of the UTMB trail races I was excited about a week in France, then I spent two weeks in Chile and realized that was nowhere near enough time to really explore an area. I opted to extend my stay a few weeks…and then a few months. In Switzerland you can stay in the country on a visitor’s visa for up to 90 days over a 180 day period and that is exactly what I plan on doing.

Remember when you and your brothers spent 20 minutes arguing over who go to use the red legos, simply because they were better than yellow legos at the moment? And remember Mom yelled “get outside, now!” just as her eyes were starting to cross? No? That only happened in our family? Yea…I doubt that! It wasn’t always a lego argument but whenever us kids started to get a little whiny and stir crazy Mom would kick us outside. We thought it was to give her space [probably true] but looking back it gave us a place to work out some of our energy and issues.

Last weekend [once again, a full week ago, not a few days ago…oops!] I finally got a chance to remedy my “I haven’t been up a 14er in sooooo long” whining. After 10 hours shadowing a firehouse ambulance crew I headed for the Fairplay/Alma area where I’d meet up with Robb + Kami for a night of camping before a Decalibron summit. Just before the sunset on Saturday night we settled into camp near Kite Lake, warming ourselves around a craftily created fire before crashing into our sleeping bags. It has been far too long since I drove up a sketchy mountain road to go camping under the clear mountain sky…this needs to happen more often before they’re all covered in snow!