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My Trail was founded in 2015 in Boulder, Colorado to bring outdoor adventurers durable, lightweight trail gear and more, all at an affordable price Company

13/05/2019

Check out the Men's K2 Ski wear now on our web store. Women's coming soon!
https://mytrailco.com/collections/discontinued-and-sample

10/05/2019

24 Hour Flash sale. Now until 3pm MST Saturday. Get 10% off our already great sale prices. Just use the coupon code below at checkout.
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01/04/2019

Starting tomorrow April 1st, My Trail will be open Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm at our new location in Boulder. 2400 Central Ave Suite C. Come by and see us!

19/02/2019

Come By and Check Out Our Winter Blowout Sale!

15/02/2019

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15/02/2019

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15/02/2019

Hiking is like Moving Meditation.

6 hours, 11 miles, 1000 feet up and down shushing through ankle deep snow, what do you think about? I think about everything. And nothing.

Everything includes family, friends, work opportunities and challenges, the perfect place to take each of my 2 planned food and water breaks, every place I remember along segment 3 of the Colorado Trail and how I remember them from a campsite I shared with my wife Kim and son George in 2016 to a rock I sat on wearing a poncho tarp in a driving rain 15 years ago, and whether we live in a universe or a multiverse.

Nothing isn’t really what it sounds like. A completely empty mind has eluded me the few times I’ve made the attempt. But a clear mind, a calm mind, a peaceful mind, that I achieve every time I hike for several hours or more.

Feet fall rhythmically upon the snow – slower going uphill, faster going down, the pace changes but the underlying rhythm remains. Trekking poles planting in sync. One plant per step on the way up and across, more often one plant for every 3 steps on the way down. Evolving but ever perfect harmony between upper body and lower body. This is not plowing up hill and bolting back down – it’s flowing over hilly terrain smoothly with moderate effort remaining a near constant while speed varies with the topography and footing.

There is more quality time in this flow state later in each outing. Some of that due to the transition time required to move from civilization into a wilder state. But some is due to the lightening load as the outing enters its later phases. The less I’m carrying the easier it is to connect with all around me. Every 2 hours or so I stop for food and water. When I put my pack back on, it’s almost 2 pounds lighter. Every 2 pounds matters and is massively noticeable on a day like yesterday when my bacpack weight went from about 9, to 7, to 5 pounds. As the load carried approaches zero, I become far more aware of the infinite.

The flow state of moving meditation gets interrupted by conscious thought often. That’s not a problem – the conscious thoughts are usually high-quality insights that spring from the work the subconscious mind has been doing. They aren’t to be ignored; they are to be captured so that I have access to them tomorrow. I generally capture them by sending myself a text or an email that I voice dictate. My phone may be in airplane mode but the messages show up the next day when I’m back at my desk. And then what a treat to see which ideas seem even better than I thought, and which turn out to be junk.

Meditation is good for you but not everyone is adept at achieving it by sitting still. Some only achieve it at far higher speeds than I do choosing to trail run or mountain bike to center themselves. But I find a moderate intensity, extended duration hike to be the best way for me. How do you meditate?

13/02/2019

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13/02/2019

Almost every season I get lost on my first outing. Rusty navigation, lazy preparation, and cabin-fever induced exuberance all contribute to losing my way. Just once a year though – getting lost in the wilderness focuses my attention and reawakens all the good skills and habits latent within me. This season’s different, I didn’t get lost until outing #6.

Weather was great, the northern half of Colorado Trail segment 2 had tracks from the trailhead, and I’ve hiked it plenty of times before, so out I went without map, compass, or way-points. Both hikers who made those tracks went the wrong way at a subtle junction a few miles in, and without a thought, I followed the tracks off the trail. So much looks so different in winter that it was an hour before I was sure there was no way I was on my planned route. By that point I’d encountered the others who were on their way back, so the tracks stopped in the middle of nowhere.

Had conditions been marginal I’d have backtracked to find where I’d gotten off route no matter the time or effort required. Had conditions been bad I would have just hiked back to the trailhead and returned another day. But it was a great day and I was having a great time and in no danger – I just wasn’t where I planned to be, but so what? Many of the most memorable outings are when the unexpected happens and true learning is never what you expect. I pushed forward.

A few hours later, navigating with The Force, I intersected the Colorado Trail exactly at my planned turnaround point. But instead of getting to its junction with Raleigh Peak Road alone, after hours of solo silent travel I ran into 2 hikers, 2 dogs and a local resident in his truck, all of whom reached the junction just moments before me. There may not have been another person in a 5 mile radius but here we all were together by sheer chance. As usually happens when people cross paths in remote parts, we talked and drank, and talked and ate, and talked some more. I learned all sorts of fascinating things, especially from the man who lived on the mountain we were right next to who had built Raleigh Peak Road. When we were done, I headed back down the Colorado Trail to the South Platte River for 3 beautiful hours buoyed by the serendipitous visit.

After 5 out-and-backs, yesterday was my first Colorado Trail Winter Lollipop route. And I don’t think it will be my last. Not that I’d like to get lost again, but the unplanned detour up a high ridge showed me terrain I’d otherwise never have been on and allowed me to view the whole region from vantage points I’d otherwise never have visited. I may look for similar opportunities proactively later in this effort.

12/02/2019

Yesterday I had an awesome work out! (But I could’ve had a better hike.)

The snow at the trailhead starting the Northern half of Colorado Trail segment 4 was well-trodden, so I left my gators and snowshoes in my Subaru and off I went. First few miles were great – I saw a few hikers, whose loads suggested they’d spent the night, packed down the trail well. But after I reached their turnaround point it was knee-deep post-holing the rest of the way. My mood was unaffected but my pace was decimated. The next 3 miles of uphill slog took over 3 hours and felt more like a mountaineering trip than a hike.

In Summer, you see lots of people in the first few miles starting out from many Colorado Trailheads, then the further out you hike, the fewer people you see. It’s the same dynamic in Winter except that you typically go from seeing a few people to seeing none. Consequently, the snow usually looks well-packed at the parking lot, and it is the first few miles. Then, more often than not, the tracks end and it’s just you and the deep snow. If you brought your snow shoes, you put them on. If you didn’t, Doh!

Some would’ve turned around where the tracks stopped, but I had lots of food and water in my backpack and there were many hours of daylight left, so I hiked on at the slower pace. I doubted I’d get to my planned turn around point, but I was eager to get as far as made sense to reduce the extra-long hike I’d have from the other direction next week. I didn’t and I did. I ended up heading in for 4 hours and 40 minutes and out for just 3:10; not only was out mostly downhill, it was also with the benefit of having broken my own trail.

I’ve found there’s an art to that too by the way. Knowing that I’ll be heading back down the same trail I headed up, I compromise between the ideal stride heading up and what will be the best foot placements going down to optimize hiking in both directions. First, I take the very easiest path I can. For instance, in some places, the snow was hip deep in the center of the trail but thinner near the Northern edge which got more Sun. I hugged the Northern edge in those areas. Second, everywhere deep post holing was unavoidable, I made my stride just a little longer going uphill than I felt like at the time. This paid off on the way back when I was a little closer to the ideal longer stride I’d prefer heading down. The difference is subtle though – it’s no good burning yourself out on the way up. Third, in the occasional areas where I was breaking trail going downhill, I shortened my stride a lot so I could take advantage of every foot hole on the way back later.

I’m looking forward to hitting the same segment from the other side soon, with snowshoes on my feet and hamstring muscles that much stronger for yesterday’s spirited effort!

11/02/2019

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