The “long” 4th of July weekend was pretty crap, even by my very crap standards. I did next to nothing but mow the grass and stew in a pool of my own sweat and depressive juices, a pool that was reaching ocean-sized proportions by Monday afternoon.
Despite my mood being one phone call away to Mindbender III (A New Hope) our vet to help a brother out with some high octane horse tranquilizers, I found myself in the woods on Monday morning, fully expecting another round of bug bites, crap no photos, and miles in my feetz. And that’s exactly what I got for 6.13 miles.
The rest of my free time on Monday was spent regretting 46.5% of everything I’ve ever done, and 53.5% of the things I never did. Who says Monday’s suck?
Going up (for a change).
I knew on Tuesday that I needed to shake things up a bit, so instead of my normal trails, I headed to the Bundy Hill Preserve (the highest point in Isabella County) to work on my glutes and hamstrings with a couple of loops, followed by some Gravel Tramping added in for good measure.
It was nice to be somewhere different. I only did 4.33 miles, but I was still a sweaty fool by the end. And despite the shorter distance, I’m just a few steps off my two-day average.
My greeters this morning.
Photo ops weren’t great, but I did have a couple of nice deer interactions, including getting a pic of a doe and fawn before I even got out of my car in the parking lot! Not a great photo, but always nice to see the little one with their mama.
Also, on my first lap up to the “summit,” I 100% heard a deer snorting, yet I could not see it anywhere! I stopped, looked around, and heard it again. Still nothing. It must have been hunkered down in some brush, OR I am actually going insane.
Feet on dirt roads doesn’t have the same feel.
One last tidbit…
I was about 200 yards down the trail when I could vaguely hear a car on the nearby gravel, and then pull into the small parking lot of the preserve, so I no longer had the place to myself. Then, as I was descending the backside of the loop, I saw a hiker coming towards me; a 65+ year old man with white hair, wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and big ol’ work gloves like he was off to work a fucking smelter!
Gravel™ spider.
When I finished the loop, I saw his work van in the lot, and it seemed as if he was doing a pre-work loop. I’m still not sure why he had the work gloves on; it was nearly 60˚ at 7 AM, and I was sweating like a pig. Either way, good for him getting out before he has to deal with customers and knob-heads all day.
Hoping to do more “new” stuff in the coming days so as to try to break up the monotony of modern my life.
Later.