Hi, Brian, and Taturs,
Dana and I were the only ones who showed up at 7:00 Saturday morning at Turkey. We missed the sunrise by about 15 minutes. We have decided we need to get there about 20 minutes before sun up, and be on the east ridge trail overlooking the river and the eastern horizon to catch the sunrise. It was so beautiful 15 minutes after old Sol had shown up.

Sunday, we ran Gobbler's Peak again. We ran up the hill to the old parking lot, and then cross the power lines, and kept bearing left. We wound our way around on awesome single track to the trash dumps, and then down a trail that had old tires about every 100 yards. Then we headed west on lesser traveled single track and found our way to trails near HW 75. We found some new Frisbee golf cages in the deep woods. What a hard course that must be. From the YMCA, we headed east, over trails that I knew about from a few years ago, but I have not been on in a while. At one point, I was waiting for Dana to catch up, and heard some rustling in the old dried leaves by my feet. I thought it was a lizard, and started poking in the leaves with a stick. Then, I saw what it was....a SNAKE! My Steve Irwin alter-ego kicked in. I just had to get a better look. I saw it slither, and noticed the brown and copper pattern, and realized it was in fact a COPPERHEAD. I gave it it's space, and Dana said she saw it try to strike the stick, but I did not see that. Of course, I was not wearing my glasses either.

We then headed east, and by the pond with all the old abandoned milk trucks, I headed up a path that went straight up a hill northeast of the pond. I stumbled upon the TENT, that I had came across 3 years ago. There is still someone LIVING there in a tent, but it is a larger tent than before. There was lots of stuff scattered around the tent. A trail led up to it, and there was a NO TRESPASSING sign by that trail! It was creepy. I wonder if that is private land, and if the authorities should be aware of that???  Maybe they are just peeps making the best of their situation.

We then made our way to the end of the ridge trail, my fave!! We were running short of water, but kept moving at a fairly decent pace. I told Dana to SIUP (Suck It Up, Princess) and lets finish strong. She told me, "That was TRAIL Princess, to me!" When we were near the end, where the path is wide and the grade is a gentle downhill, she BLAZED by me, and left me with my jaw on the ground. That crazy woman has some speed held in reserve!! It was a very good run.

Friday night, we blew our date night by going to Oolagah to the Centennial trails. We took a Camelback and a backpack with sandwiches, chips, wine, 2 plastic wineglasses, and our dog. It was slow running, but the loop was good, and the view at the halfway point was spectacular. We picnicked on the beach as waves lapped up at our feet. My pack was 2 sandwiches and a half bottle lighter for the return trip. This would be a great place for a group run, sometime in the fall. There are a few ticks, but we had doused our legs with DEET, and only had a couple. Heck, we even picked up a couple ticks at Turkey.

Hope your weekend was great.

Ken and Dana