Colorado is my new favorite place to be during spring, it might be my favorite place to be year round if the ski resorts weren't so far away from most major towns... and if the snow was as good as it is here in Utah. That aside, Colorado has way more to offer this time of year, most of the snow is melted and there are a ton more lower elevation trails that have dried enough to play on. Plus, the people are flippin' awesome compared to most I've come across on my outdoor excursions in the past year. I hiked Pike's Peak's Barr Trail and saw more people in one morning on that trail than I have on all of the trails I've been on in the entire 11 months I've lived in Utah (pathetic Utahn's)... not only does Colorado boast more healthy and athletic people but they were all super friendly, none of the competitive, local pride BS.
I stayed in Colorado Springs with some So IL homies and scoped out the Barr Trail for the PACU/AirMed running crew's next adventure. The trail is in pretty great condition considering how much foot traffic (and one bike while I was there) it gets. It has spectacular views and could be run-able with the right training. The only sucky part was the outrageous elevation gain. My house in Salt Lake is at 4400 feet and the Barr Trail head is at about 6900 feet so I was at a slight disadvantage from the start but by mile 4 (8800 feet) it seemed like my heart was working pretty hard for a 3 mph-ish hike... by mile 6 (10000 feet) I was hiking with my mouth open. Barr Camp is at mile 6.5 (10200 feet), I stopped to read all of the bulletins and the topo map and ended up talking with the woman in charge for the day. She was kind of a bad ass hippie, we talked a little about the trail and how most of the locals train for the Pike's Peak Marathon. There was a fair amount of snow a few miles past Barr Camp and my new hippie friend mentioned waste deep snow at the Summit House so once the snow was ankle deep Sydney (my four-legged hiking partner) and I turned back for the nine-ish mile hike back down. I'll definitely be registering for the 2010 Pike's Peak Marathon... I just need to convince the rest of the crew that running up and down a mountain could be fun.
I'm pretty much in love with Colorado for now, maybe it's a good thing I can't shake this school girl crush.
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