Mill Creek Park - Lily Pond

Morning sunrise

Yesterday I called Mike Keller to let him know that Bob, Jim, Bruce, and I would be running at least one full YUT-C loop at Mill Creek Park today. Mike already had a run planned for today but the trails were calling his name and he decided to make his first trip over to Mill Creek with me. After arriving at my place around 6:30 we were off. On the way there we were able to witness a great sunrise and snapped a few photos.

Looking out the back of my car

We arrived at Mill Creek Park around 7:15 and started running around 7:30. The plan was to head south on the trail from the Lily Pond parking lot and then eventually run into everyone else on the trail. We would then turn around and run north with them. At the beginning of our run Mike and I saw a couple deer and four turkeys.

It was an incredible day to run with the high only reaching into the low 60s with low humidity and a nice breeze. We headed to the YUT-C start/finish and then continued on the east side of Lake Glacier, eventually running all the way down to Lake Newport.

Lake Glacier

Bruce heading downhill on the Monkey Trail extension (note his yellow eyes)

Mike heading towards the Lake Newport Dam with Bob following

Lake Newport

Once we got to the Lake Newport parking lot where Bob, Jim, and Bruce had parked they decided to call it a day...

Slim Jim shows off for the ladies

So... Mike and I chatted with them for a bit and then continued to the YUT-C turnaround bridge as we made our way back to the Lily Pond.

Me next to Lake Newport

On our way back to the Lily Pond I showed Mike a stream of water that runs off of this leaf under this cave that always seems to be flowing no matter how much rain we get. I've always been curious as to just how clean this water is, so Mike decided to fill up his water bottle and take a swig of it. I was also thirsty at this point so I took a sip. It tasted fresh and was very cold, so unless we get sick in the next day or so this may be a new water stop.

As we arrived back at the Lily Pond parking lot we noticed one kid timing his friend who was doing 300 and 400 sprints around the pond so we talked with them for a bit. They were both track athletes from Austintown Fitch High School and the kid timing said he is trying to break the school record in the 400m this year as a sophmore. While Mike and I yelled at his friend for motivation we looked over and noticed a somewhat large turtle sitting on a rock in the pond. There are hardly any rocks that stick out above water so this must be his usual spot...

Total miles for the day - 14.5

Total miles for the week - 37