Salida

Two weeks ago my wife and I moved to Salida.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to live in the mountains. Now we do. It’s totally surreal.

I know that I’m biased, but I think this is about the coolest little town on earth. The vibe is great. Tons of culture for a town this small – plenty of places to eat and socialize. Still in the baby stages of developing a social circle, but everyone we’ve met has been warm and welcoming. It’s exceeded all expectations.

Salida’s a crazy fun place to be a trail runner. There’s a link to BLM land that connects from my house to the Little Rainbow trail, which connects to a bunch of other trails, which then connects to both the Arkansas Hill Trails across Highway 50, or, if you want to get really ambitious, to the Rainbow Trail, which can take you all the way to Westcliffe to the East or to the Monarch Crest Trail to the West, the Colorado Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail, which can take you to either Mexico or Canada. Plus all 14 Sawatch 14er trailheads and 4 Sangre de Cristo 14er trailheads within an hour of my front door. 

After ten years or running circles around Wash Park, it feels like running heaven.

I like it so much I feel guilty -- just super lucky and trying to appreciate that fact. Still, there's no guarantee that my business will do well here, so I'm just trying to enjoy each day and not think too far ahead. 

This morning we joined the Chaffee County Running Club for a jog. Impressive at it sounds, it was only six of us, and that includes me and my wife. I got to run with snowshoe and burro-running legend Tom Sobol for most of it, which woke up the fanboy in me. Man, that guy has some stories to tell. Like the time when he debated signing up for Hardrock the night before the race ($70 entry fee at the time). Super humble and friendly guy. And he can definitely still run.

The move even inspired me to sign up for a couple of races -- first time I've signed up for anything longer than a 5k since 2012. I’m doing the local trail marathon in March and then I put my name into the SJS 50 lottery for June. Figure I’ll be spending plenty of time at elevation, so not a bad time to get back into it. I won’t be setting any competitive goals for either. Just looking to get back to spending a lot of time outside and up high.

With all that said, if you read this blog and you know me, shoot me a message the next time you’re down our way. One of the only downsides of being here is that we’re so far from most of the people we know. So we'd the love the company if you're ever in the area.