Sunday, December 16, 2012

Winter Views

I took a hike yesterday on the Lost Horse Mine Loop yesterday.  It's the first time I've been back out on the trail since the race two weeks ago.  I've run a few times, but I'm not rushing anything; I want to be sure my recovery is complete before I fully engulf myself in training again in January.  Besides, it's a good time to just do some recreational running and outdoor activities and just enjoy the holidays. 
 
I have to admit, I was surprised to find snow (yes, you can see from the pictures, that around here, we call that snowfall) on some of the peaks surrounding the trail.  While it may not have been much, it was something, and brought back memories reminiscent of the early in the season dustings we used to get back home.  I know here we won't get much snow, but I'll take what's available, while it's available.  Something about snow just excites me, makes me nostalgic, and at the same time leaves me with a feeling of childhood wonderment.  Want to make a grown man giddy like a schoolchild?  Give him snow for the first time, or at least the first time in awhile...results guaranteed. 
 
This is the first time in the National Park that I've been over there to have cloud cover low enough to be able to actually be above some of it.  The thick clouds above felt so close, that you could reach out and grab them.  Lost Horse Mine is quickly becoming my favorite place in the park.  The views here are hard to match in any other place that I've found.
 
 


 










Throw snow on the mountains, and it adds a complete new layer to the effect.  A 10,000' + peak may appear majestic, ominous, even powerful without snow, but add a snow cap to that peak, and it changes things all together.  Something about a snow capped peak on a mountain peering through the cloud tops screams power.  Mount(s) San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, snow-capped, lurking intensely over the Coachella Valley, as if to say "We own this.  This is our land."  A snow capped mountain just appears hardened; like it shows it's toughness and it's success at weathering millions of years in this land, only to say "I am still here."
 
Mt. San Gorgonio peaking above the clouds.
Mt. San Gorgonio in the distance.
Mt San Jacinto lost in the clouds.

Mt San Gorgonio looming over the valley.

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