Cold Wind

In the middle of the night last night I was awakened by a tempest. Wind blasting, rain pelting down on my roof, furniture flying about on my deck which is normally protected from the trade wind weather. I ended up on the deck half naked, in the dark, pushing the furniture away from the door it had blown up against, grabbing my multitude of running shoes and throwing them in the door while being soaked by the sideways rain. Then I sat in the dark on my bed watching lightening, listening to thunder, wondering how many inches my already 4 foot tall lawn was going to grow overnight.

By morning the storm had passed and the sky was covered with a high thick layer of cloud and by 5:30 I was crater bound. I arrived at the road to the Skyline trail and began my run at 7:00. The heavy mist of cloud was racing across the crater just above the ground so fast it was dizzying. As I peeked at the ground from under the rim of my fogged up glasses I noticed that there was a layer of white on my black running tights. I squinted and looked closer wondering what the heck it was. I ran my finger across it and realized that the mist had turned to frost on my legs. 

A little farther down the trail my glasses cleared, the frost on my legs melted and my breathing evened out. The lower mist had cleared and in its place I saw that the entire crater was covered by a thick smooth cap of steel grey cloud arcing over the landscape. I was running through a barrel wave of cloud, the edges crashing into puffiness to the left of me, the top smooth as glass. The wind roared like the ocean in my ears. I planted one foot in front of me, put my arms out and pretended to surf the earth. Luckily it’s always deserted up there so no one saw the crazy girl swaying back and forth in a crouch on the trail. I stayed high and ran back and forth at around 9300 feet instead of going down the trail and having to climb all the way back up. After an hour I headed to the visitors center and found out that the winds were 35 mph with gusts to 45. With the wind chill it was 12 degrees. No wonder my legs got frosty. 

As I listened to the storm the night before I didn't know what I would encounter on the mountain. I wasn't sure if I should venture out. I'm so glad I did. I'm glad I got to see the beauty and power of nature in action, and so glad I got to surf this big ball we live on.