Thursday, January 8, 2009

Well the trail run was just as I expected and more. I started in the dark and had to weave my way to the woods and cross the creek to get to the trail head. It was slow going in the dark and the ground was really wet and slippery. All the creeks were fuller than normal with slippery wet rocks. Then as I started to climb and the sun rose, I entered a winter wonderland. There was a 1/2 inch or more of ice on the branches. Sometimes the trees formed an ice tunnel that I ran through. But there were also trees down everywhere. I had to stop and either crawl on my hands and knees under the limbs, or crawl over. Sometimes I had to do both. A couple of times my feet got tangled up in the vines attached to the trees, and I had to extract them. Still I pressed onward. On a really steep climb, there was ice all over the trail. Knowing I would have to run back down this section, I put on my Yaktrax. This was crunchy ice, like someone spilling buckets of ice cubes on the trail and the Yaktrax worked great on that. Finally, I came to a great ice wall, 10 feet tall and covering the trail. I didn't see away around it or through it - the branches were hanging down from the bent tree like a glass jail. So I turned around and plowed my way back home. 10 slow miles total.