Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Happy Days to Pine Grove

I headed over to the Happy Days Lodge around 6:30 tonight and did a solo run over to the Pine Grove trail. Did one loop of this trail and then headed back to my car after running a loop around the big field next to the Overlook for a total of 5 1/2 miles. These trails are heavily used so the snow was packed down nicely and made for very runable conditions. One more warm day or a little rain though and they're going to be a sheet of ice.

A scary thing happened early in the run as I was running the ledges trail... Just before the small bridge leading up to the Ice Box Cave I slipped on a very icy downhill section and my legs went airborne. Usually I pay special attention to this area since the ledge next to the trail blocks any snow from falling here, thus leaving nothing but ice from any snow melt. The fall sent me flying backwards and briefly hit the back of my head. For a second it felt like everything was in slow motion. Thankfully it was only a glancing blow and my arms/elbows took the brunt of the fall. As I sat on the ground stunned for a second, I thought to myself that I was lucky it wasn't any worse considering nobody else was with me at the time. These kind of experiences are a good reminder that you need to be ready to take full responsibility of your actions on the trail and be ready to respond accordingly.

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