Trail Running Adventures

I know it has been awhile since my last post and before any rumors start, I need to tell you that I have not been in rehab. I'd like to say that I have been on a glorious summer vacation far far away, but I've been along the Ausable this whole time.

Honestly, sometimes life here does feel like a vacation. My early morning trail runs have all the elements of a great getaway: beauty, laughter and wildlife.

I see the same landscape everyday and it never gets old. I could run up the Lake Road from Ausable Club to Indian Head a billion times and I think the view would take my breath away each and every time.

Ausable Lakes from Indian Head

Some mornings aren't as peaceful as a running break on top of Indian Head. On Tuesday morning, Drew and I headed over to the trails in Ausable Acres and in the first mile, I tripped on a rock. I flew through the air and fell flat on my stomach in the dirt. Within seconds of landing on the ground and realizing I hadn't broken anything, I began laughing hysterically.

Drew stood over my body on the ground and said, "Wow! That was impressive. You're laughing, so I guess you're okay. I really wish I had a camera right now!"

I stood up with tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard and discovered that the entire front side of me was covered in dirt. He now refers to me as Pete Rose.

The rocks and roots brought me down that day, but it wasn't enough to keep me away from the trails this morning with my friend Amy, who was visiting from Lake Tahoe.

As we were gabbing away on the Wilmington Flume Trails, we heard something in the woods off to our right. This was not the sound of a pine cone falling to the forest floor. We stopped dead in our tracks when we saw a black animal running away from us. At first I thought, "How rare, I've never seen a black fox before." But then we saw a better view of the animal and knew for sure it was a black bear cub.

No, this picture did not come from my camera. The picture I took was a blurry mess. I spent half the day obsessing over images of Black Bear Cubs because it was so darn cute.

As we slowly walked backwards, our eyes scanned the forest around us. We were nervous that we were on the trail between Mama and Baby Bear. A couple minutes passed and we felt safe enough to continue running forward while the cub scurried up the mountain. Amy and I picked up the pace for that section of the trail and made it back to the car without seeing the mother.

I wonder what might happen during tomorrow's run?