My favorite gear for winter trail running (and in the dark)
Trail running gear for running in winter, cold temperatures, and in the dark. Updated December, 2021.
dark
Just Outside the Door, Over There
The first time I ran on my current backyard trail was April 2017. RK and I went to central Oregon hoping to mountain bike and instead we went running in sideways rain/sleet/snow.
Super! Blood! Blue! Moon!
When is the moon not super? I mean… really. A beautiful, glowing rock that appears in our sky in a variety of shapes at different times of day. It affects tides as it orbits the earth, lights up a dark desert night, keeps you company on a road trip, illuminates the trail on a nighttime MTB ride.
Thursday’s trail run
I pulled into the parking lot at the trailhead a little before 6:30 on Thursday morning. The nearby houses were dark. There was one other car, a gold SUV, in the parking lot but no sign of the driver or anyone else.
Spooked
You can’t trust your senses in these dark autumn mornings. The wind blows naked trees branches together and they sing like ghosts or maybe a small child in a place where there is no trail and should be no children.