Boise, ID — Despite an early snow fall, the weather here in Boise is now stuck in “inversion” limbo. An inversion is where cold, typically damp air, is trapped in the valley below warm air above. When this occurs the temperatures in the valley typically don’t make it out of the 20’s yet it could be sunny with blue skies and 45° at Bogus Basin. But you would never know that driving around the valley, it’s just cold and foggy with awful air quality. Thank goodness for the Bogus Basin web cams and snow reports! I check them daily to see if it truly is an inversion. Since it is, I decided to drive up to Bogus Basin road and do a hike/run. I drove to Bogus Basin road and took a few pictures of the frosty trees before heading up.

By the time I got to the top of the switchbacks the fog started to break. I put my hand out the window and it still felt cold, so I decided to continue up. I parked at the turn, right where you can drop down to Sweet Connie. I took a few pictures and then started running down the access trail. When I hit Sweet Connie, I turned uphill and walked up most of it to the Stack Rock Trail. I wore my heart rate monitor and hiking uphill can be just as good as running on flat ground. It was really toasty at this point since this ravine is south facing. It felt like it was 50° or more! I made a left on Stack Rock trail and started to jog. Since this section of trail is in the trees, it was colder with snow on the ground. Most of the snow was packed down so it was easy to run on. It looks like I wasn’t the only one with this brilliant idea. I turned around at the No Trespassing sign and jogged my way back. It was a good workout and it was great to breath some fresh, clean air!