Trailz, geocaches, bridges, trains, and ticks

After a Sapulpa appointment was short and done, I took advantage of about 45 minutes of remaining daylight to hunt for a geocache. This excellent time wasting activity often takes me places I'd never go, and sometimes spills over into new semi-trail-like places that lend themselves to further adventures. This day was one of those days.I suppose it is a bit misleading top show this picture, because this is where I parked. However, the geocache was on the other side of the road. Still, this could be another adventure. Google maps show this dirt-ish road winding around for about 2 miles. Can you say "out-and-back?"
Down an embankment, over some rail road tracks, and down another embankment, through a creek, over a fallen tree, through a barbed wire fence, and WALLA!! I was within 7 feet of the geocache!!

Ahhh--there it is!!! I wrote the date and my name in the log, along with a TFTC. This old dead tree was right beside a TRAIL!! Of course, there WAS an easier way to get to the cache than the way I came.
The trail called, and of course I followed.
I'd love to tell you the trail meandered along the stream, winding over hill and hollow--but it just led to a bigger creek, and under an old railroad bridge.
An old it was. This bridge is older than Betty White!! This bridge looked like it might have been drinking headquarters to some of the locals, and no doubt they were the trail groomers. And quite an artistic bunch too. I took a few pictures of some of the graffiti, but decided against posting them as I don't want a "graphic material warning" on my blog.

But wait--do I hear something? Could it be?? YESS!!! A TRAIN!!! I edited out most of the video as it was a looooong train. I headed under the bridge, and climbed the embankment on the other side to the road and walked back to my car. This journey of ~1/4 mile was done in street clothes, and Rockport Loafers. What do you think? Log the mileage, or not?

In a sick yet exciting way, the best part of the trip was when I got back to my car. I had a couple of stickers on my jeans, and noticed one of them was crawling.WOW!!!! The tick-o-meter has started. On January 18, I have my first tick of the year!!!!

Saying good bye to Rocky

This post is not meant to be a downer, but instead a celebration. We said our goodbye to Rocky Sunday afternoon. Dana and I took his ashes to Turkey Mountain and set him free on the trailz where he loved to run. The highlight of Rocky's life was trail running--and I regret not taking him more.Our first stop always was the pond on the blue trail. This was his first swim of the day, and his favorite place for a swim or a soak.Rocky loved the yellow trail, all the ups and downs. We'll never run through here without thinking of him. Good times.This is the Sitting Rock. We have always called it this. After running the lower yellow trail north, there is a short steep climb to this point which overlooks downtown Tulsa. This rock is a great place to rest for a bit, which meant Rocky usually received some ear scratching. It seemed fitting for a part of him to rest here too.This is my favorite picture of Rocky and I from 2004 or 2005. I am a new trail runner in this picture, and Rocky felt like he was my guide. Dana and I were glad we were able to do this for Rocky, and I know he'll have all the best trailz scouted out when we meet him again.

TOTs run

It was barely cold enough to wear a jacket on our run Sunday morning. I actually could have gone in shorts, but at 7:30 I opted for warmer garb. I met the TOT group for some Sunday AM miles, and it had been so long since I'd been out to run with the TOTs, I wondered if anyone would remember me. My gimpy IT Band plagued knee has kept off the trailz for the past several Sundays, but it's getting better.Stormy was gone, as was Cole and Tim, but I still had Jeff to lead the fast group--and John could have as well. I made some quick announcements and we split into two groups. Edward has been leading the six cylinder group, but let lead the group while he kept watch over the back of the train. Running the Snake Trail, we moved along at a 11-12 minute pace plus a few stops. At the above stop, Edward was run up a tree.
We did coax him down for a group pic. Near (before) Rock City, we took a new trail that went down down down, and took us to Pepsi Pond in about 45 seconds flat. I am not sure if this was an old seldom used trail that has been groomed, or a fire break trail that was more or less plowed during the fires last year, or a trail cut by the mountain bikers. Either way, it was a fun downhiller, and enables you to get across the mountain to different parts quickly. I could not talk anyone into hill repeats though. Passing Pepsi Pond, we pink-trailed it for a while, and then took another seldom used trail south paralleling the Powerline Trail. Some of our running for the next mile was on newer trailz, and some old, but it was a newish route that skirted two different ponds. We covered quite a few dips and climbs over sometimes technical sections.
While it looks like the sun is just coming up, we are just down behind the hill across the way.
Our gang stayed together for about 4 miles, and then we split off, sending a few back who needed to wind things up, and the rest got another couple of miles in. The fast group finished minutes ahead of us, and we had nearly as many miles as they did. Maybe we're better than we think.

Next week, we'll go to Osage Hills State Park to run the awesome trailz there. MAKE PLANS to join us.

First snow

Night running

Some of the best runs are at night.Some are great with friends, but some are great alone.
Nothing but the sounds of the night to make you feel alive....
....and the light of the moon and the beat of your heart to keep you going.

Tuesday Night at the Botanicals

Tuesday Night, the Night Crawlers migrated north to soil near the Botanical Gardens. Eight of us--Nine, including Stormy who met up with us around 6:15, got in mileage ranging from 4.2 to 6.2.  Cloudy skies did not dampen our weekly outing--actually, it was great running weather.
Mitch, Wes, and I started a little early and got in almost 2 miles before meeting the rest of the gang at 5:30.
Michelle, Laurie, Troy, and Kathy joined us and we decided to take an alternate route. We did stick to gravel roads, and as always, did an out-and-back. I had mentioned on Facebook that everyone needed to bring a headlamp or flashlight. Everyone did--except for me. As the sun set, the lights came out.
A slight variation from our usual route involved a little hill work.
Wes is on top of the world. My video taken here was less than desirable, since my heavy breathing was recorded and it sounded like a heavy petting scene.
With a bit of photo-editing, I was able to salvage a couple of pics. 6.2 miles agreed with me and my knee--I am well on the road to better.

We'll do Botanical Gardens for another two or three weeks. Come join us!

Geocaching with Jake

Saturday afternoon, I was feeling like a bum--having not ran in the morning due to a ran down battery from the night before. See, I got home Friday afternoon, and had about an hour of daylight and thought I'd find a new geocache on Turkey Mountain. My iPhone was dead, so I turned on the instrument panel in my Prius and charged the phone while I changed clothes. Jake quickly noticed I was running, so I decided to take him. I grabbed my phone and headed toward the trailz, but forgot to turn off the instrument panel, leaving the normal battery, and the big batteries dead by morning. So, I missed the Saturday morning run with my friends. I spent the morning with my car on the battery charger, and it powered up and is now fine.

Jake and I were zero for two Friday afternoon, but daylight was fleeting. So after my car was charged, we decided to hunt caches again.
Jake is excited to go--but he is not really sure why in the heck I STOP and stand in the woods looking around. The first search was for a cache called Big Mouth, which could be named for a rock formation near the cache's location, or maybe there is another explanation for the title. We has also searched for the Oklahoma Rock geocache on Friday. SO now I have two strikes in this search. Jake was frustrated with tramping slowly around in the woods, and did not understand why we were not running on the trailz--was that not why I brought him in the first place??
Jake is more of a wader than a swimmer--kind of odd for a lab. I thought sure he would chase these ducks, but just got his feet wet (and muddy.)
It was a weird day for picture taking. The sky was mostly blue, but most of the sky looked white in my pics.
Running with Jake makes hills easy. I hang on and shuffle my feet, and away we go. After 2 consecutive days and almost 7 miles, my leash arm is sore.

I am still running just a little. I have not had a long run since Mitch and I ran 25 on new years eve. I do need to get at least one good long run in before Rocky--two would be better. I also need to have my knee (IT band) to be 100% in four weeks. Makes geocaching seem more enticing.