When I came down with a full-fledged cold on Friday, I decided I wasn’t going to let a minor bout with sickness slow me down or change my weekend plans. Jesse and I drove to Alpine Lake in Marin for a six-mile route we found in our trail running book.

While Jesse frequently bikes up the intensely steep Alpine Dam, I had never experienced the trails in this area. We would have never found this route without the assistance of the book, and we’re so glad we stumbled upon it. The perfect weather (70s and sunny) made us appreciate the abundance of year-long outdoors activities in the Bay Area (especially with the Indian Summer San Francisco is currently experiencing).

I told Jesse to run ahead of me because I knew my temporary handicap would force me to run a bit too easy for his liking. This loop was gorgeous, providing a sampling of all types of flora and terrain we encounter during our trail runs in the Bay Area, from exposed rock to damp Redwood forest floors and Manzanita trees lining the lake. The first half of this six-mile loop with 900 feet of elevation gain was spent climbing, with the final few miles descending down a fire road. I reconnected with Jesse at the trailhead, happy to have sweated out a bit of the common cold.