From Yesterday:

I decided to take a day off of CrossFit today and went for a run instead.  It was during my job as a raft bus shuttle driver, and we were loading boats on the Lower Roaring Fork.  Once the trip, replete with guides, parents and little kids, was off and floatin’, I slapped on my running shoes and took off to the top of Mushroom Rock adjacent to Carbondale and just across thehightway from the river put-in.

Mushroom Rock is a great trail, winding its way up the red rock hills that make up part of Carbondale’s spectacular mountain scenery.  The best part is the reward once you arrive up top and can climb out onto the rock formations that are Mushroom’s namesake.  From there, a view of the entire Carbondale area and the larger part of the Roaring Fork Valley unfolds.  It is a great place to see Mt. Sopris (12,963 ft) and check out lines for next Spring’s ski touring.

A quick run down the hill and I was back at the rafting bus, ready to make the drive to Glenwood Springs where I would gas up and meet the rafters at the end of their half-day journey.

Feeling good, I decided after work to make good on a promise to my friend Kate that I would finally come in and check out her Bikram yoga studio.  This is what they call hot yoga, and whoever ‘they’ are, they definitely weren’t kidding.  I had practiced yoga stretching with Kate and a few friends before, but it was always on our raft trips down the Colorado River in Cataract Canyon.  In that natural environment, with sparkly white desert sand between our toes, it always seemed a great way to connect with our bodies and the earth.

But, here I was, in a hot room with twenty other sweaty people in tight clothes.  And it was fine.  No, better than fine, I felt like I had taken a hit of some crazy drug that lifted my mind to the ceiling!  I’m not sure if everyone feels this, or if it’ll happen again after the first few times, but wow, I think I need to go back…

Big thanks to Kate for hookin’ it up and getting this ski bum to stretch out!  Click here if you’re on Facebook, and you can see Kate and I racing home from Yoga!