“The Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Linkup or “WURL” is an incredible ridge route circumnavigating Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. The route mainly consists of scrambling, boulder hopping, and a few rugged trails. It is ~36 miles long with ~18kft of elevation gain…There are at least 21 names peaks along the ridge and a handful of unnamed mini-summits.” - Jared Campbell

Summer is officially here. Time to ride bikes and run up things! To kick off my favorite season of the year, I decided to go on a Tour of the Front Range of Colorado. I planned to leave from my front door and go on an adventure. Simple as that! I wanted to explore my backyard via biking and running to more intimately learn the place I call home. I’m barely even scratching the surface with this trip, but it outings like this that prepare you for even longer journeys. My goal for the trip was to link up as much dirt as possible on the bike and tag two new (to me) 14,000ft peaks. Below is a recap of my 3 day Tour de Front Range.

I pedaled away from my doorstep at 4:37 am, ready to embark on a full day of moving my body in the mountains. I had that giddy excitement that comes with setting off on a big adventure in the mountains. My mind was wide awake, but my body was still processing coffee and breakfast sandwich. Thirteen minutes after leaving my doorstep, I passed the ‘Used-to-be-Bus-stop’ and turned left onto Highway 36. My body would take a minute to warm-up (it was 27 F degrees outside), the air was frigid and cold on my face, but knew the 14 mile stretch from Boulder to Lyons would get the body warm. The full moon illuminated the highway, patches of ice on the shoulder glimmered and cut through the darkness.

Running Up For Air (aka RUFA) is an endurance mountain challenge that was started by Jared Campbell to raise money in support for improved air quality along the Wasatch Front. Jared had the idea in 2011/2012 to run up and down Grandeur Peak just on the outskirts of Salt Lake City to help raise awareness about the poor air quality that SLC experiences, which becomes dangerously unhealthy during winter. Jared ended up running for 24hrs for a total of 10 laps and 34,000ft of gain that first year.

Summer is the season I dream about all year long. It is the season in which the mountains open up and allow for fast travel. All the goals I have for the year are almost always focused for the warm and prosperous days of summer. The long days allow for ample amount of time outside; sun up till sundown. Reflecting back on the last couple of months has me feeling extremely grateful and fortunate to be able to spend time outside. As the leaves begin to change here in Boulder, I've started to reflect back on my summer. I can't help but get excited for the cool crisp days of Fall. I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. Here is a look back on some of my favorite days of the summer.