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Yesterday: 20 minute jog in the forest.  I couldn't sleep much that night, just enough for my body to do its post-gluten thing of

--wow, I'm listening to Zeiss Contarex (Autechre) right now, what an superb intro, and what a disappointment that it settled into the semi-normalicy of a beat, but it's turning out to be still interesting--

Anyway, my body tied itself into knots, including one rather sore one in my right calf.  DVT?  lol, I decided to jog it out because that often solves the problem.  And it did, that and walking for a half-hour around lunch time.  We stuck to the main trail but I noticed for the first time a side trail opposite where the smaller loop meets the big one...

Time for some nomenclature!  That side trail, still unexplored, is 1.  2a was the trail that led to a dirt parking lot and street, if I remember correctly.  We ran down 2b today and it led to two further paths, one with Private No Trespassing signs on it, and the other which might be a firebreak along the perimeter of the state property.  It's pretty much a path and we'll check this out later.

3 quickly joins into 2, even before the split, which makes me feel bad for it so it gets its own number.

We checked out 4 for the first time today, and it sure got interesting.  At first, I wasn't sure if it was on private property--the overcast skies darkened a bit, which cast a delightful gloom to the quasi-abandoned trail.  Some portions were buried in pine needles, and some portions were overgrown with moss.  And then small ice pellets began to hit us, a myriad of sharp little invitations to go further wherever, because nobody else would be out.  As we continued, the terrain got choppier.  We walked up a couple of the steepest sections.  No shame, it still counts!  All too soon, however, we ended up at what I thought was 5 (looking back where we'd came from was the same sharp steep trail I'd noticed earlier), and we ran on but didn't reach 5a-b as expected.  Confusion!  So we turned around and went up '5'.  We got to a fork and there was one of those amazing moments where geographical memories stitch together, whirling disorientation suddenly weighted by clarity.  AH.  This was where 5 split into a-b...we'd been on 5a, which has 5a.1 and 5a.2, to be explored later.  5b was the portion which we ran down with my husband and flushed out the deer, and he's gone further down it later and found that it seemed to end in someone's backyard (how cool for those lucky people).  I hope to check this out myself too.

The dog and I ran back, not as quickly as he would have liked, for the ice pellets were turning into rain.   I didn't notice any further side trails.  I suppose that we'll run out exploration soon enough, but I think there's enough for a 1.5 mile loop at least, and maybe even two....or three? miles if that firebreak path comes into play.  Will see!

40 minutes.  Maybe we'll jog again this afternoon.  I've been wrestling books since then and will be doing a partial water change for the koi shortly.  Some somewhat heavy lifting, so I haven't changed or showered yet.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the black female lab that was lost.  She was wearing a collar.  She wasn't interested in us at all, but ran to the entrance of the annex, and then ran around for a bit, including to a car that was turning around in the dead end (and once again, I got dirty looks from a driver while dealing with someone else's loose dog).   She couldn't be coaxed to come with us or at least step off the road.  Was this dog even trained?  I decided to bring my dog home and then return with the leash and maybe jog around a bit with her inside the annex because there were two empty vehicles parked at the entrance, the first time I'd seen anything parked there.   At least I could hang around with her at the entrance so that she wouldn't be running off into the road.

As I approached the annex, empty leash in hand, I saw the dog happily circling around two women putting stuff in one of the vehicles.   A fairy tale ending!  How sweet!  Hopefully it was a learning experience for those individuals (the 2013 me is trying to be kinder). The sign at the entrance actually says that dogs have to be leashed with no longer than 6 feet of leash.