Lucky Dog

Yeah, I know, the last thing all you people in the midwest and on the east coast want to hear about is how we've had temp's. in the 60's for the past 3 days and how it's going to get even warmer well into next week. The punchline to this cruel joke is that in 2 days I have to leave paradise and go to the frozen tundra of Chicago which I believe had a high of 18 degrees today and that was good compared to the -40 wind chills and 18" of snow they had the few days before. Let's not even talk about the plane fare for this little excursion either. Let's just say there really is no such thing as bereavement/emergency fares which were actually $90 higher than the regular ticket prices on the website. But my family is in a bad state and I need to go so there's no choice but to suck it up and quit my whining.

I did manage to squeeze in a bike ride yesterday and today though my knee's been acting up so I couldn't go for very long, maybe 1 1/4 hours each day. Still it was nice to enjoy a couple of beautiful sunny days on the trails and feel actual sweat dripping down my back. Don't worry, winter will be back soon I'm sure.

I took some photos of the fire damage along the Foothills Trail and looking towards the foothills from the Eagle trail. It still smells like smoke but it wasn't too bad. It will grow back soon enough and by spring I'll bet you won't even be able to tell there was a fire. It's good for the plants and soil too.




This is not a fire damaged area but I liked the view of the Boulder Reservoir from the top of Ice Hill on the Eagle Trail. You can see the snow-packed trail on Ice Hill. I turned around here because I didn't feel like dealing with it with my knee feeling gimpy. It's much steeper and longer than it looks from the photo.


Today's wildlife report includes a coyote in a field off a dirt road and a Golden Eagle that swooped down to eye level and crossed the trail right in front of me. Amazing! Of course I didn't have my camera today and even if I did I never would have gotten it out of my pack in time. Will have to enjoy it as a memory. One of these days I'll go out with my camera with the intention of taking pictures but it's hard to leave my bike at home, especially when it's shorts weather in January.

I shot some running dogwalk video in my yard with the plank at 4' but I think I'll wait until the plane ride to process it. Today's results were 8/14 (45%) for the morning session and 10/10 (100%) for the afternoon session. I think the poor results from the morning were because I had the plank set too high on the table. This changed the angle of the plank and also made it harder for him to get on the plank as he had to come in from the side. Or who knows. I think the break from training next week will do us both some good.