Trail Monday: Elm Creek Park

This is an "after work" edition of Trail Monday, because I had an irregular edition of "working Mondays".  (Normally I work Tuesday - Friday.  I don't understand how people regularly function on 2-day weekends.)

Trail: I chose Elm Creek Park Reserve for geographical and logistical reasons. Last week I'd found myself unequal to navigating the walking trails at this park, but after careful study I decided if I parked at the Hayden Lake Road entrance, I should be able to pick up a horse trail and have a reasonably easy time following it.

Hills: The hills on the course are for real.  Both up and down.  Though, I found them somewhat fewer than Baker Park Reserve.

Ease of running: I found this path eminently more runnable than Baker as well.  I think even though there was a lot of grass, it was cut shorter or managed differently in some way.  The shorter grass was way more pleasant for running. I am still on the "Larisa Dannis Plan" and not worrying too much about running the ups, or even all of the flats.  But I felt like I ran a lot more of this one than Baker last week.

Nature Vermin: The ticks were crazy nuts here. I hate ticks. At one point I stopped running and pulled six or seven off me.  Only two had bitten, the rest were on my socks and shoes, and one of my belt.  I stopped a few more times and then was crazy careful at the end of my run to check and check and check again.  I learned from last week to pack a change of clothes and was glad I did.  I packed my running clothes up in a plastic bag.  When I got home, sure enough another tick was in there crawling around on my socks.  Gross.

Other animals: I almost stepped on a snake. Even though it was a wee tiny thing, it scared the crap out of me.  I also almost ran into a deer.  You think I jest.  Tons of dragon flies and surprisingly, toads.  I also saw a turtle at the end of the run.  Awesome.

Will I come back: We have really got to figure something out about those ticks.  I run in long socks but my knees were exposed.  I hate to come out here running in long pants in 85* but it may be necessary.  I'm considering it because the running was really good compared to Baker which seemed comparably tick free.