Things to do at night when it's cold

It's the dead of winter, but that doesn't mean you HAVE to be dead. While some people headed home from, work to the warmth of a fire and the smells of hot soup and warm bread, some crazy trailrunners donned headlamps and headed for the trailz. There are 22.15 miles of trailz on Turkey Mountain (if you don't believe that, just ask everyone, and then add all the estimates together and average it out) and we chose about four miles of the lot to explore. Philip led the way, and Alan and I did a good job in the caboose role. I demonstrated a textbook face-plant for Alan after climbing the necessary and hit the ground so hard that my headlamp continued down the trail for a few feet. Alan, who was studying the finer points of the zombie-shuffle, decided that maybe that wasn't for him.

We did a Snake Trail loop and upon hitting the old upper parking lot, decided on doing another short loop on the east mountain. I led the way, knowing a perfect place to see the light of the city and a rising full moon.

Midway down on the upper Yellow Trail, the view was even better than I thought it would be. A change in wind direction preceding the incoming arctic blast had cleared the air, allowing the light of the moon and city to illuminate this January evening.

After some chit chat, we headed back toward the lower parking lot. We ended up with around four miles, which felt satisfying to me anyway. These Tuesday evening runs are a real treat, and I think every trail runner should experience Turkey Mountain in the dark at least once.