52 weeks in the foothills: week 35

Sunrise was unusually spectacular. Unfortunately, I slept through the
best of it. Saw a fox again. This time it was a younger fox with an
apparently injured back leg.

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 34

This week included a trip to the summit.  Running to the summit is very different than hiking.  Rests are periods of walking rather than periods of sitting by the side of the trail.  And just to be clear, "running to the summit" meant "running about half of the way to the summit and walking the rest."  This was not a record-setting trip.  The main difference, compared to hiking, is that it goes incredibly fast.  I usually like to make it a two part, one night trip with a lay over near Emerald Lake.  That gives time to really savor the beauty.  This time around it was all a blur.  Not even time to really feel the thin air on the way to the summit.  But it was ridiculously fun.  Included a few shots of landmarks on the way up, a close up of an insect and then Primrose Cirque filled with rain about 3 hours after we got down.  The mountain goats were out on the other side of Hidden Lake Cirque.  

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 33 (take 2)

As promised, the pictures from week 33.  As expected, they show hot, sunny trails with dust and clouds.  There's a snake in this set as well.  

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 33

Well, looks like we are going to take a bit of a vacation this week.  The pictures were taken, of course, but are sitting on my camera which is sitting in a guest lodge up at Aspen Grove.  As you might imagine, the pictures show hot, dusty trails with brown grass and green trees.  A lot like weeks 29-32 for that matter.  But just to make things interesting, I will say that I did get a good picture of a snake during week 33. 

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 32

Last December I came over a ridge and found myself about 20 yards from 2 bull elk and a small herd chewing their cud.  I wished I'd had a camera.  So I decided to start carrying one and that was the beginning of the 52 weeks project.  This week I captured a similarly difficult shot:  a lightning leader in full sun.  This isn't so hard to get at night because you just open the shutter and wait.  What makes the shot more remarkable is that the leader appears to pass between me and the bushes about 3 feet in front of me.  I went back and photographed the spot where the leader may have hit the ground.  No burn marks, no nothing.  There's some summer in the foothills shots as well.  It was hot, it was dry, it was dusty.  But it was also windy and stormy and that was interesting. 

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Close lightning strike

I took this while coming out of the foothills ahead of a storm this afternoon.  It's a frame from a 2 minute video.  Note the bolt extends to the bottom of the frame.  I'm pretty sure that lightening is not as close as it looks because I don't remember lightening striking the ground at my feet.  Interesting shot.   

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 31

It was hot, it was sunny, it was dusty. It was a lot like last week.
Did see a bee working over a thistle. Would have made a great insect
shot except I couldn't convince my camera to focus on the bee. So I
included the blurry shot to show what might have been.

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 30

Generally, each week has it's own charm and uniqueness. Except for
week 30. Pretty much dry dusty and much like last week. And the week
before, and the week before. Ran into a neighbor just after taking
the grass close up. She has said she sees snakes up there. I'd never
seen one until after I ran into her. Maybe they follow her or
something. Picture from near Lake Creek junction thrown in just for
variety.

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 29

Needed to see some different dirt this week, so we trooped up to the Y and then to the canyon south of Y Mountain.  That was great, except now my IT band hurts.  Very nice to get into the lush forest south of Y Mountain.  Dragged through a run the day after just to keep the legs loose after Y Mountain.  Great to be out as the sun set over the valley.  Lots of pretty flowers this week.  

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 28

Another week of summer in the hills. I did have my first up close
encounter with wildlife this week: I think a bee stung my ankle while
I was running through knee deep foliage.

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 27

Two unique wildlife photos this week: a bee and a hawk. I think it
was a hawk. Whatever it was it was cruising above the ridgeline and
sort of passed behind me. It didn't seem to concerned about me being
there. Lost the trail a couple of times in the weeds. It's an
interesting experience to put your foot down onto a trail you can't
see through thigh-high weeds.

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 26

Better late than never.  Seems we've got a very effective schedule randomizer in our house.  She's very cute though.  Grass is drying out down low.  Not sure what else is going on as this was a minimal running week in which I got out once for a 20 minute jog.  

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 25

Just a few shots this week as the more interesting photos were down in the valley with our new baby.  It's green and warm up in the foothills.  Pretty soon it will be brown and hot.

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