Naked Wild Basin Yoga (not in that order)

Yes, you read my title right - I said naked! Now that I have your attention, I'll get to that part at the end of this post. Today I went snowshoeing with Rachel and Matt Bishop from the Wild Basin trailhead, just south of Rocky Mountain NP. We hiked on the Finch Lake trail to a really nice overlook of the mountains - most notably 13,911 ft Mt Meeker. The first mile of trail was along a road and so really easy. Then it went up hill along a ridge to the east, before switching back sharply to the southwest. We eventually made our way to a drainage, which we followed for "only" .9 miles - but it was pretty steep and all fresh snow, so it was pretty challenging! But the view at the top of the trail was well worth it.

I was very happy to be out in the mountains today. There was a nice mixture of sublime tree-lined views and dramatic mountain views. Sometimes it is nice to remember why living in Colorado is the best, and to have time to not think about anything except where to step next, how peaceful the sound of the wind through the trees is, and how close God feels when I am in nature. Overall it was about 3.3 miles each way. I've never been to this area before, but it seems to hold a lot of promise for future hikes for any season.

The hike was also the perfect distance. We got an early start and were hiking by 9:20, but we were done around 2:00. So I got home before 4:00 and had time to relax (even though I should be working on the newsletter). I watched a little of the superbowl, but then went to a 'restorative' yoga class at 7:00 - it was wonderful! Have I mentioned yet that I am really enjoying yoga lately? I might be getting hooked!

The class ended with about 10-15 minutes of basically laying in some very comfortable poses. I was completely relaxed by the end. I left the gym and was driving through campus and heard some yelling ... and then saw two guys running by my car completely naked!!! Ahh!!!! Crazy college kids!! Maybe they are Giants fans?? Who knows.

Well, that was my Sunday. I am feeling kind of lazy as the week begins. My motivation is pretty low because it seems no matter how hard I work, something always goes wrong with my research to set me back. I am starting to feel like what is the point of working hard. The latest set-back occurred last Tuesday, when I discovered that I was going to have to re-run my models, and just as I was realizing this the disk with all my code went down. So I couldn't work on the bug last week. Hopefully everything is up and running for tomorrow! See ... it is hard to want to work when things always go wrong!! But, I am sure I will wake up tomorrow morning ready to work hard! (HA)

Also, I am missing Chris!! He has been gone for over a week, and I kind of want this week to be over so I can see him on Friday. I think all of these things are making me want some alone time over the next few days. I know that Chris is going to come back from Nigeria a little changed, and I want to be receptive of whatever new ambitions this trip has spurred in him. Another reason for the alone time is I feel like I should take advantage of having an empty house. In some ways, it is really nice to be able to do whatever I want.

Anywho ... I have now rambled enough. Thanks for reading and have a good night!