I recently bought a Groupon for Front Range Adventure Boot Camp (you may recall I did it about five years ago) and spent the entirety of June getting my butt kicked at 6:30 a.m. In fact, I liked it so much I’m trying to figure out how to fit it into our budget starting in August.
Part of my love for this woman’s boot camp is the owner/trainer Robyn Morrisette, who not only coaches but inspires. During the summer months, we leave the gym to climb North Table Mountain Park every Friday.
I can’t begin to share just how breathtakingly verdant this place is right now, particularly because I mountain bike its lackluster brown hills all winter.
Hadley has been intrigued by boot camp and so she asked me if she could come. I mentioned we hike on Fridays and she was game.
“But you’ll have to wake up at 6 a.m.”
“OK!”
Apparently she forgot what dawn feels like; I’m able to do it because I’m barely sleeping anyway with Denver’s blistering temperatures. To her credit when I went to rouse her that Friday morning, she popped right off the couch (we’ve abandoned our too-hot upstairs rooms) and 20 minutes later, we were on the trail.
I’ve biked the North Table Loop countless times but when Robyn mentioned there was a hidden waterfall off the Mesa Top Trail, Hadley and I set out to find it. And I’m telling you that girl did a fabulous job keeping up and surpassed everyone in the group for distance hiked that day.
After an hour, we discovered the waterfall, a curious phenomenon on that desert mesa tucked away behind lush foliage. We bush-whacked to the base and, though the upper-90-degree temps have reduced the waterfall to a trickle, Hadley doused herself with water before ultimately deciding to climb the cliff up the waterfall to a small cave.
Adventure Girl is waaaay crazier than I ever was.
I relished our time together. We spotted deer and their fawns (“they’re doing a mother-daughter hike like us!”), I discovered Hadley has learned to whistle (my heart melted as she belted out “When You’re Happy and You Know It”), tried to identify the wildflowers in full bloom and attempted to catch butterflies with her hat. We picked out our future dream home, a million-dollar horse property bordering North Table and Hadley hilariously asserted, “We need to become friends with those people.”
Two hours later, we were starving as we made our way back to the car and she suggested, “Let’s go buy a doughnut.”
Now that is my kind of boot-camp gal.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 