the Way of the Turtle

6.1 Mile Run at Five Rivers
Saturday, November 7, 2009

OK, change of plans. I found it nearly impossible to get in gear this morning and it ended up being 2 PM before I was ready to head west. Since that meant Ann would already be off at her ems/fd commitment by the time I got there, I decided to take advantage of the remaining daylight and a fairly pleasant day and headed over to Five Rivers for a run.

I ended up hitting most of the major trails at least once. No great surprise, there were lots of squirrels and chipmunks rustling in the leaves... spotted a few ducks down in the Beaver Pond as well. The last time I was here I saw freshly chewed trees indicating that there might be beavers in the Beaver Pond again; saw more today, as well as what I think is their lodge on the shore of the pond.

After I left the pond and headed back up toward the fields, I spotted a deer near the spot where the service road goes off of the driveway from the main parking lot. I guess in the fading light she couldn't figure out what I was, because she hung around for quite a while as I moved closer despite looking a bit alert to possible danger every now and again. I cut off from the service road down to the research ponds to get some shots of the sunset and surprised another group of deer, three this time. They also seemed to have trouble figuring out what I was, though they didn't hang around nearly as long before heading off into the bushes.

It would have been fun to run someplace out near Rochester today, but so it goes... I have no one to blame but myself for how long it took me to get my act together this morning (or early afternoon, as it happened.) And a run at Five Rivers is almost always a good time, so I really have nothing to complain about.

JMH