Carharts Runnin'

i absolutely love this time of year.  we just had a storm four days ago that dropped a couple feet of new snow in the mountains, and now we are in the middle of a "warm-snap" ~  mid-winter mildness when we get days of sunshine and warm weather that is so perfect for ~ everything.

this morning, i went skiing up and Solitude and did a couple of slack-country laps.  (slack-country means you are just outside the boundaries of a ski area, technically in the "back-country", but using the ski lifts to access the terrain.  some might say that this is the lazy-man's way of ski touring.  i say, work smarter, not harder.)  it was a beautiful bluebird day.  the birds are actually chirping in the trees this time of year.  i found some excellent fluffy snow, four days after our last storm.  very fortunate.  it feels so good to be back at Solitude and see so many familiar faces and be greeted on the hill after missing the first half of the ski season and wondering if people would still remember me.

i only skied a half day, because when the weather is this nice, i just feel like i have to get the dogs out on the trail for a jaunt as well.  we did pretty much the same loop as yesterday, up above Salt Lake City on the Shoreline trail, a loop near Prayer Flag Hill as i like to call it; because one of the peaks has a pile of rocks and a pyramid of prayer flags strung above it.

it was gorgeous.  muddy, but gorgeous.  55 degrees, sunny, friendly people and dogs on the trail, and a beautiful pink sunset that could not be captured on photo.  Franklin even got some stick-chewing in on the pass, and Artemis chased some birds down the hillside.

it was about as close to perfect of a day as i could have asked for.  why did i call this post "Carharts Runnin", you might ask?  because after a half-day of skiing, i wasn't expecting to go all that fast on the trail with the dogs in the afternoon.  i wore my Carharts expecting just to stroll along, but the moment got a hold of me, and i ended up running in my Carharts...  you know they are the perfect amount of being broken-in when you can do a 4-mile trail run in them!