Thursday, March 11, 2010

Back On The Trails


Well, Mister Picture-of-Health here has spent the last three nights sleeping in a fetal position with a pillow between my knees just trying to find some position where my lower back doesn't hurt like hell.

On the positive side, Breeze and I have had some great nature runs now that the trails are open for running again.

Monday, the chilly air throughout the entire woods was a mist of sparkling fog crystals dancing in the morning sun. We rounded a bend and started to make our way along a passage of the trails where to our left and about fifty feet off is an abrupt 20'-30' rise to a clifftop, and to our right is a creek rapids gurgling loudly.


And as we rounded that bend, standing between Breeze and me and that cliff was a herd of ten deer staring at us through the foggy mist. It was eerie. They were standing stock still -- their bodies all facing random directions, but their heads alertly looking our way.

We stopped and stared back at them until seconds later they bolted in unison. Breeze nearly took my arm off.


Then on Tuesday's run, just as I was griping to Breeze that because we were following a mountain biker through the woods, we weren't seeing any wildlife, Breeze's ears went erect and he bolted toward a pasture that borders the woods . I couldn't see what Breeze saw, but I continued to run. Hard. Finally as the trail turned parallel to the pasture's edge, there it was....a fox. Running with it's quick-legged gait just ahead of us, looking for some advantageous place to finally break into the underbrush.



Then, on this morning's run, in exactly the same spot where we saw the fox on Tuesday, a deer broke across the trail no more than twenty feet ahead of us. And it was followed in quick succession by three more deer. And they weren't doing that normal deer woodland conga line gait -- trit-trot, trit-trot, hop, hop -- trit-trot, trit-trot, hop, hop -- trit-trot, trit-trot, hop, hop. No, they had their heads down, their backs flat and level, and they were running for all they were worth.


1 comment:

  1. Isn't it just the coolest to see things like that. We saw some deer down our back hill running like that just yesterday. Maybe they have spring fever too and are kicking up their heels.
    Denise

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