What a special morning , most of which happened on my drive to my trail head. As I enter the other side of the Provincial park, I have a 2km drive to reach the trail head which would be the start of my run today. As I get about a km in, I see a gorgeous ring-necked pheasant pair cross the road, the male in all his glory and his dowdy Mrs following closely behind as they scurry into the bushes. A white-tailed deer then bounded in the bushes beside them. Another 500 metres or so I come across a large flock of sharp-tail grouse that are in a barren field beside the road. I slow right down as a few make it on to the road. Lo and behold, what do I see?!? I was treated to a spectacular sight! I had happened across a lekking ground and the males were in full dance mode. They were putting on quite the show - their little tails in the air exposing this gorgeous white flash of feathers, their wings held out and down from their sides, their feet just a-stomping as they go in a tight circle. They were very focussed on their courtship dance - I wish I had the foresight to pull out my phone and videotape them but I was so preoccupied with not hitting any of them as I crept along in my truck, I didn’t think of it until I had safely passed, discreetly slipping by this amazing display. I had hoped they would still be there on my drive back after the run, but alas, there was no sight of them an hour later. I finally get to the trail head, in complete awe of what I just witnessed, get out of my truck and Pow!!! The sounds!!! Wow! There were so many different types of birds, all singing away to each other across the different areas of the park. It was so loud, and there were so many different songs as all the different types of birds contributed to the chorus. It was almost overwhelming. I quickly got my gear on, performed a few quick dynamic warm up stretches and headed out on my 8k run.
The run itself was fairly unremarkable. I chose to run the beginning part of this trail as an out and back due to the runnable hills it has at the beginning in hopes of mimicking what my trail race next month should be like. It is a new trail race a few hours away from me so there will be no reccy runs happening but I finally found some information on the course. They claim there are no steep climbs or ridiculous elevation change but instead rolling hills. I spend most the summer climbing ridiculous hills that I find I maybe resort to walking a little earlier than I should when running easier hills. I had hoped this would be a good test run to push me to power through the runnable hills and not give in to my walking gremlins as easily. I’ve only ran this trail once last year but my memory (and peeking at the elevation chart from my run last year) was correct... for the first 3k. I had a steep climb near my turnaround point but had brought my poles to test out the built in pole holder of my hydration vest once again. I’m still not happy with how the poles stow so have decided more gear is in order 🙄 and will order the naked running belt to carry my poles and phone in addition to a pair of dirty girl gaiters to help keep debris out of my shoes from the same shop. Maybe my shopping will then be done? Nah, who am I kidding? There will always be more gear that I’ll want.
On the running portion of my adventure today, I spooked up another white-tailed deer, flagging his tail as he darted into the hills, saw what I believe to be a plover fly by and many, many blackbirds beside the trails. I could hear many other birds as well and saw a few other little brown birds but am uncertain what they may have been. Regardless, a lovely 8k run, full of spectacular sights, and the promise of more shopping. Yay!
I got back to the boat, had a nice hot shower and made hubby his favourite breakfast for Father’s Day - Eggs Quesadilla 😋. What a great morning! I hope all the fathers out there are enjoying their day!
This mornings run!
