Boulders, Roots, and Ice... Oh my.

At 8:00 a.m. and about 5 seconds (because it was very cold standing around) eight of us headed out along Forbidden Drive; John T and John C, Marjorie and Jeff and Marjorie’s sister Amy, Sammy, Julius and me. Pete was out of town today but he left instructions.

“If you would like to try some beginner trails, my recommendation is to try the trail on the opposite side of the creek from Forbidden Drive. To do this, take Forbidden Drive down to Bells Mill Road (the road you must cross about 1/2 mile from Northwestern Avenue). Cross the creek here, and catch the trail just at the other side of the creek to continue down the creek. This is a bit rocky in a few places but pretty level and quite scenic if you stay next to the creek. You can cross back over at the covered bridge or the stone bridge. After the covered bridge it gets a bit hilly, so I recommend some caution. This rates about a 3 on the Adventure scale, or a 5 if you go past the covered bridge.”

Now that I’ve read his instructions again, let me say that we owe Pete some apologies. You see as it turns out we did go past the covered bridge, past the first stone bridge and continued to the next stone bridge just before Valley Green at mile 2.5. However, all of us, me included, managed to read the instructions and focus on the highlighted words. With those words in mind, as we ran we debated Pete’s sanity, his definition of "pretty level" or at least his rating system. Ooops. Next time we'll read more closely.
In the end, though, I believe I speak for all of us though when I say we had fun! It was a very brisk morning with sunshine and even a few flurries as we gathered to start. Once again no injuries and this week John T. gets the "Buzz Lightyear Falling With Style Award". We're still trying to figure out how he did and didn't get dirty!!

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