Like Night and Day

Last night (Friday night) Leanne, Iris, Iris' coworker Gretchen and I did a night run. We went out to the "Pig Farm" figuring there would be a lower chance of an animal encounter of the bad kind. When we first arrived, we found this sign posted on a tree in the parking area:

If you can't read it, it says that they were charged by a "brown furry mother bear with cuddly cub" on the southern end of the stateland area and then they ask: "do you think it was heading to Farm-to-Market Pork for dinner?" I really liked the description of the bear as "furry" and the cub as "cuddly." We did not see the furry mamma nor her cub, nor did we see any other animals. No surprise since there were four of us with lights -- none of us using our inside voices.
I realized that running at night really is quite different than running in the dark of the morning. Rather than beginning to get light, it gets darker and darker. Running single track in the dark dark is a very surreal experience. It was almost trance-like. I can see how easy it would be to trip and fall or even fall asleep while running. I really enjoyed our run and very much look forward to running at night in a couple of weeks in California. I did learn that my Fenix flashlight is VERY bright. I will keep it in my waist pack and pull it out when the ground is especially tricky or to wake myself up. I also learned that my Brunton headlamp needs new batteries. The waist headlamp was awesome. Whoever thought of that is smart. (Wasn't me obviously.)

The best part about night running is that the timing is just right for a cold brew afterwards. We enjoyed the peaceful darkness while drinking like bad high school kids in the woods.

Today Iris and I ran in Glacier National Park -- the first "summer" experience of the year. The weather was absoultely perfect -- a welcome relief after a snowy dreary misery-inducing week of yuck. It was also very busy -- I forgot how busy it gets if you wait until afternoon to visit. We ran the trail that parallels Going to the Sun Road until it hit the Avalanche Lake trail -- which we followed to Avalanche Lake. There were so many people on the trail, it reminded me of Chicago a little. On a nice day in Chicago, the parks are so packed with folks it's like a festival. I don't think we were in much danger of grizzly action today.

This has been a nice weekend. Tomorrow I am going to distribute Foys to Blacktail Trails propeganda at the triathlon, cheer on Sharon and Rebecca and hand out Herron Hustle brochures. I am getting more pre-registrations and think the race will easily exceed my modest goal of 50 entrants. Yay!