Back Way into Highland Green

I only had a 3-mile run on the schedule for this morning, so I would have gone out even if it had been raining or snowing, but that wasn't necessary. I awoke to overcast skies, but didn't have to deal with any precipitation during my run. Of course, it's raining as I write this, but at least it's not snowing!

I decided to try something a bit different today. I headed across the street into the Mt. Ararat High School driveway and veered off onto the gravel road that leads up to the tower on the hill behind the school. The way had been cleared up to the top at some point recently, so there was no snow to deal with. I took a few steps off the road onto one of the trails I run the summer to check it out, but immediately postholed up to mid-calf and was pitched forward onto my hands and knees. OK, not today.

Back onto the road and up the short hill I went. I then continued on the old paved road on the backside of the hill, which had not been plowed, but which had seen a fair amount of snowmobile traffic and was packed down. It appeared I was not the only runner or walker who had headed up this way. There were quite a few footprints, making the surface pretty uneven, but still runnable in a careful sort of way. Having my Inov-8s on helped a lot too. The road leads down to a construction area for Highland Green, where I veered right and popped out on the main Highland Green drag by the clubhouse. I did a few minutes on the road to round the numbers out, and headed back the way I had come in. Not bad. I was only on the pavement for about half of the run, and it was nice to not be doing the same out-and-back down the Connector.

After my run, as I was eating breakfast and putzing around the kitchen cleaning up, a flock of approximately 20 juncos swooped into the backyard. A few sparrows and chickadees were in the mix too. Ronnie was going crazy. He hunches down by the patio door, his tail twitches and he makes these cute little 'meows' as if to say, "let me at 'em!" It was neat to see the birds flitting around out back, chasing each other through the trees and grazing on the ground which has just recently emerged from under the snowpack, and when I left for work, Ronnie was still by the door, entranced.