52 weeks in the foothills: week 22

It was surreal to see the snow with green grass and green trees on Monday.  Probably won't see that again anytime soon.  Then it was haze, dust and wind.  Then Saturday it was clear blue skies and sharp contrast.  Seeing a few more wildflowers.  Not a ton, but a few.  Included a shot of some orange flowers growing in the road cut.  

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 21

Turns out that all the survey tape was for the T3 Triathlon Timpanogos Marathon and Half Marathon.  After I figured that out, I was sorely tempted to sign up for it and run the 1/2 this weekend.  But there were two main problems:  I wasn't in shape for it and the weather looked bad.  Not being in shape was ok, I'm still foolish enough to attempt anyway.  But I didn't want to commit to run that distance given the forecast.  And it was indeed cold, rainy, snowy and a little breezy Saturday morning.  I was out anyway and ran into  a few of the race runners.  Looked like a great time.  

Anyway, this week's picture of Timpanogos is just a shot into the clouds in the right direction.  And that's how it was.  But it was fun to try to shoot a wildflower in the snow.  One of the pictures shows a squall line coming in from the north.  I didn't notice this coming through 'cause I thought the weather was coming from the south that day.  I was wrong.  But I did get home 5 minutes before the rain started.

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 20

Good shots of atmospheric effects early Saturday morning.  Had hoped to drop into Battle Creek Canyon from the south but the trail was just too muddy on the north-facing slope.  There's a ton of survey tape in the foothills right now.  Must be some kind of race coming up especially for people who like lots of reassurance that they are on course.  

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 19

Pretty much everything is green and growing except the scrub oak, but the scrub oak near the trail head is starting to bud.  Tried out the trail the mtn bikers were telling me about a couple weeks ago.  It's a nice little jaunt through a large meadow and a picture is included.  Had another first experience this week:  I got passed on a trail by other runners.  I did make sure that I didn't get passed going up hill, so I do have some dignity left.  Saw 8 trail runners this morning.  Now that I've seen more of them, I think my not getting passed up to this point is more about not running on the popular trails and less about being fast.  They were fast, very fast.  All of them.  

Finally, I'm happy to report that on this, the first anniversary of breaking my big toe coming off Little Baldy Pass, that I was able to run this morning and avoid re-breaking my toe.  This also means that I can be nice to my wife on Mother's Day rather than hobbling around the house in pain. 

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 18

The first spring flowers have bloomed and the scrub oak is starting to bud.  Other than that, it was muddy, windy, wet or snowy or all four.  The spring  transition is in full swing.  Shouldn't be long before it looks like summer.

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