12 miles @ easy/hiking pace
Larry, Jolene, Wayne and I hiked/ran up to Rock Pile then east on a trail called Middle Earth that was recommended to us last week. The weather was cold and the trail mostly uphill at the start, but still enjoyable. As the sun came up it warmed up, the skies became crystal clear, and the trail changed to mostly level and downhill. The scenery and valley vistas were amazing. The company was even better.
We met a couple of women, from Ogden and Indiana, who had a map of the trails but couldn't quite figure out where they were. We ended up walking with them for several miles until we got them back on a trail towards their destination.
At one point in the middle, as Wayne and I were running together on a single track trail through trees and frost-sparkled grass high on the mountainside Wayne commented on how people who have never run in the mountains don't know what they are missing. I heartily agreed.
At one point, Larry, who has been struggling to get back into shape, commented about being weak. I tried to point out that weak people don't get up on dark, cold mornings and go run/hike 12 miles.
As usual, there are some great life parallels in this run. I'll leave those to the reader, or maybe save them for a future lesson or talk at church. It was an amazing morning. I am truly blessed by the beauty in the world and in the people around me. Sure life's hard sometimes, for everybody, and usually often, but if we look around and count our blessings, we can begin to appreciate how blessed we are, and how much our Heavenly Father truly does love us.
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