Snowplug Loop

Everyone was still sleeping when I left the house at 8:15. It's been a busy weekend, I guess! I headed out onto the Snowplug Loop for an hour long run. I was trying out my new CEP calf sleeve, figuring they'd also help keep my legs from itching due to the overgrowth that I was bound to find out on the trails. Saw a little gopher in the long grass along the playing field before I climbed the steep hill up the side of Mt. A. and found a big wild turkey feather (cool feather ID site, by the way!), which I stopped to pick up for Sam. I tucked it into the back of my hat, thinking it would do double duty there as a deer fly detractor, but luckily, it was windy and cool enough that not many of them appeared during the run.

The woods and trails were soft, squishy and muddy, with some seriously deep puddles along the way. The river was roaring, the iced coffee colored water flowing up and over the banks and onto the trail in a few spots. The calf sleeves did a pretty good job of keeping my lower legs protected from all the long grasses, and felt good too. It's always amazing to me how lush and green and crazy the woods and trails get at this time of year.

Back at the powerlines, I stopped to pick my first trailside blueberries of the season. They seem to always be ripe early in one particular spot - must be the perfect sunny location. Yum!