Bradbury 10

I thought I'd hit the Brad today for a run. I haven't had too many chances to run there, and today seemed like a good day for it. Bright blue skies, no wind, and climbing temps. My plan was to run the White Out course, and then head to the east side to finish up my miles. Ryan suggested that running the snowshoe course probably wasn't needed - Ian had already told him there were some pretty squirrely sections on the Boundary Trail and the South Ridge, so Ryan was already pondering some alternative routes for the race. But, I figured it would be a good way to get in some hills, so that is where I headed.

The beginning might have been the worst of it. All the traffic on the Northern Loop, plus the melt around the waterbars left that first 1/2 mile pretty sketchy. The Terrace Trail was much better. Only a few small stretches of sketch as I made my way up. Out to the Bluff (nice view!) and back up to the Tote. I could tell that we weren't going to be snowshoeing on this course. Running, maybe. But snowshoeing, no. Too many bare spots, and open rocks and roots to catch a snowshoe on. As I got to Krista's Trail, I had already changed my mind about going out on the remainder of the course. I really wasn't into tiptoeing the Boundary and slip sliding down the South Ridge. Krista's looked like it had only seen minimal traffic. And the snow cover looked pretty good. Into the twisty-turny single track I went. Oh, it was fun! One person had made it part of the way around, and then it was just me, following the packed down trough from the first snowshoe race, for the rest of the way. Well, except for all the deer who had been using the trail too :-) There were lots of other tracks out there - rabbit, squirrel, a little mice burrow, and what I think was probably fox, but it was hard to know for sure, as the tracks were no longer distinct.

After that fun little add-on, I made my way across the street, where I found the trails in much better shape. Ryan had asked me to do a little recon on this side, so I ran down the Knight's Woods trail and connected up with the Snowmobile Trail. Decent. Some ice, and one or two bare patches, but good running. In fact, mile 4, 5 and 6 were my fastest of the day. All along the nice packed snowmobile trails. I ran out until my Garmin read almost 7 miles, and then I turned back. I always forget until I'm out there, that the Snowmobile Trail is pretty much all downhill on the way out, which means some good climbs on the way back. I was slow on the uphills, but steady. I turned off to run Fox West. A few ski tracks for a ways, and then I was just tromping through the snow. Good coverage for the most part. I finished up by running in the Link, with a very short foray onto Lanzo, just to see how it looked. Looked good. And a few people had been out on their mountain bikes! Brave souls!

I ended up with 10 miles on the nose in 1:46:10. It was a fun morning on the trails, made even better by a stop at Edna & Lucy's to use my gift certificate for a free lunch from the summer series. Can't believe I hadn't used it yet! Delish!