NRC-184

We are not alone!

I woke up weirdly drained and seemingly low on electrolytes, but this doesn't necessarily preclude a good run.  Sometimes fatigue is the surest entrance to a soft, endorphin-tripped zone, and I was not disappointed.  I started shuffling along, walked uphill when I wanted, and ended up with a comfortable 70 minute foray, including about 40 minutes of jogging.

I found a link between trails 2-3 and trail 4--I'd noticed it before, but thought it a deer trail at first.  It is rather narrow in a couple of sections because it goes over steep terrain.  In fact, the first section I went down was too steep to walk properly, and I had to revert to the old squat-tiny-steps downhill gait that I learned in Korea.  One day, I was exploring, and sliding around on some steep hills there, trashing both myself and the trail and getting kind of frustrated because there were all these old people scampering about with no issues, then I heard what sounded like army cadences sung in Korean: a group of old men caught up to me, took pity and amusement on me and, by gestures, showed me that I needed to lower and push back my centre of gravity, and take small steps.  Bingo!

I'm pretty much on my own here, although we actually met some people at one point.  I was in the bubble and whatever focus I maintained was trained on the roots ahead of me, and then I looked further and saw an old couple and a golden retriever who wasn't on a leash, but at least the man was holding it by the collar.  They were taking up most of the trail.  Because the 2013 me is trying so hard to be nice, I smiled and said good morning, but they weren't in a good mood, the man was trying to drag his dog off the path and the dog was stiffening up and not budging an inch off the trail (not the best sign), and nobody was smiling back.  We got some glares, not an uncommon reception for a pit bull with a DIY fighting crop (for the last time, it wasn't us that cut his ears off with scissors!)  Fortunately, there was a bit of space on the right side and we went by quickly and quietly.   Next time, if we should see them again, they should be more at ease.  We got to delicately handle these folks with their "safe" but ill-managed dogs and biases.  Had it been my dog standing his ground in the middle of the trail, shit would have been thrown.

We were also in the company of cameras.  About a quarter hour into the run, my dreamy foggy perception was suddenly sharpened by an angular plastic gleam, a camera attached to a tree.  Yes, a research project is underway, according to the tag on the first camera.  We passed by at least four or five of them, I didn't count.  Most of them are off the main trails.  What they're looking for, I'm not really sure.  There is a vulnerable bird species in this region, the red-cockaded woodpecker, but the cameras were all barely two feet off the ground.  Maybe the lens is angled upward.

Anyway, the link between trails 2/3 and 4 is very exciting because my present large loop requires going over a section of 4 twice, and now I can avoid one trip by going down 2/3 instead.  It might also add a few minutes to the loop.  What would really rock is a link to trail 1; this will be harder to find because trail 1 is so out of use that it itself is almost invisible in places.  There has to be a secondary (technically, tertiary) trail, though!