New local discovery of the day: Thomas Creek has at least four trailheads! I thought a bunch of friends were leaving from the trailhead I thought of as the “lower” one, but it turns out there’s a lower one still. Then two in the middle and one more up high. Maybe more, who knows? It’s kind of fortunate that I check out the middle trailhead with the big map, because it makes it clear that the run I want to do is longer than I thought. So Ann drops John and I off as close as the subaru will get to the upper trailhead, and we get underway.

What a beautiful day for a run. The golden orange aspen make the earth glow. The run is still pretty long for us in our current condition, so we hike parts of it, and find Ann sipping tea by Galena creek. The only bummer is that she leaves her GPS there, but figures it will make for another good hike tomorrow.

Thomas Creek Aspen

Me admiring aspen

The part of the trail in the upper Bronco creek valley is new to me. It’s a little wiggly but well made and hits some good views. Makes a great point-to-point outing.