Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: Summer in January
I ran five miles once when the temperature was 0. My lungs ached the entire run and I chaffed in unfortunate spot, a condition that wasn’t revealed until I hopped in the shower afterward. I skied at Crested Butte once when the lodge thermometer read 40 below. (For the record, the official low for that January day in 1976 was -34.) I spent a frigid night on Mount Rogers when the temperature dipped into the low teens, far-exceeding my sleeping bag’s 30-degree rating, and I mountain biked in 16-degree weather once at Umstead. My thighs are still defrosting from that episode.
I like cold weather. But there are limits, and we are about to meet those limits, at least in my book. An overnight low in the single digits? Time to stay inside and think about warmer times. Digging through the 90-Second archives, I looked for the escape that brought the biggest bead of sweat to my brow. Not surprisingly, it’s a paddling clip I originally ran during a likewise frigid spell last year.
Put on your jams, pop a cold one and enjoy!
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