People often ask me, “Why do you run?” Every time I go out on the trails, I know why I run. Sometimes I think…if I could just get them out on the trails, they would understand.

Last weekend,  my daughter Kelly came in town (to Boise) from Los Angeles. Her running usually consists of street running around her neighborhood. I understand that – until I came to Boise, that’s what I did. So, when I told her that we were going to drive 45 minutes to get to a trail I’ve never run before, she wasn’t overly enthusiastic. She wondered why we couldn’t just drive 5 minutes and run on the trails around my house. My answer was that I’d never run these trails, and I wanted her to experience something really special.

And, we were not disappointed.

We went with Michelle, my other daughter who is a Boise trail runner, and my friend Ben, who is a hardcore ultrarunner. (He has been tapering this week for a 50-miler so he figured he could run easy with us on a short run on the trails.)

As you can see from the photos, the trail was spectacular. A few miles into the run, we descended into a canyon where we ran along a rushing creek and also ran into some rain. I added some time on to our run by stopping to take pictures. (These days I don’t leave home without my camera.) When we climbed out of the canyon, the rain stopped, and we were greeting with blue skies.

We trudged through a couple of miles of deep sand (which wasn’t my favorite part of the run), and finished on a gradual downhill back to the car. Michelle, Kelly, and Ben climbed one more mega hill when we finished as I took video of their trek to the top and back.

I suppose I take the pictures for myself because pictures can never truly capture the trail experience. We all loved our run in Wilson Creek, but I think Kelly especially loved it. Maybe she’ll seek more trails around L.A. now…even if she has to drive to get there.