My "New to Me" Trail Adventure

I had the afternoon off today and so I decided to go on a trail run.  I was by myself, didn't feel like doing the usual trail by my house, was looking to do some hills without going all the way to Gatineau.  I decided to go to the trail behind Remi's work - it's hilly, I can do however long I want as it attaches to other trails- perfect.  Off I go.

I start on the trail, it's a gravel trail, used a lot by bikes as well as it goes all the way downtown Ottawa.  Last time I did this trail, I remembered it was quite hilly and had to walk up a few of them.  However, when I ran it today, I kept thinking where are the hills?  I didn't have to walk even once - that's good!  I guess the hiking and running in the Gats may be paying off.  Anyway... back to the adventure.

When I got as far as I wanted to go, about 2.5 km, I turned around as I wanted to go off on the little paths that would bring me to a single track trail back down "the hill" -which as I mentioned was non extistent today.

The start of the trail is actually quite pretty - it opens up on a bed of flat rock - probably some fossils around if you looked for them.  I take a second to look at the map, to make sure I am where I think I am.  Yup! Off I go again.

Picture this:  Me, happy I'm in nature, running, just enjoying the beauty...When all of a sudden, something big and wet "is on my leg".  I start screaming and jumping around and screaming some more (those who know me have a vivid picture in their heads I'm sure!).  I suddenly see what had hit me... A big frog!  I love frogs- just not when I don't expect them and they jump in front of me!  The poor thing - I don't know who was scared the most... I wonder if the darn thing now has a concussion!   I was able to get close and get a picture of it.   Off I go - after this frog, I saw many others -jumping around - little ones, big ones, green ones, brown ones - all over the place.  I just needed the one to wake me up I guess!

I ran for a short while when again, I came across wildlife - a wild turkey.  When I first saw her, she was in the middle of the path.  She must have spotted me as by the time I got there, she was hiding behind a bush.  I slowed right down as to not scare her.  Well!  I've never seen such a nutty bird!  All of a sudden she started "yelling" and running around like a maniac.  I thought "What the heck is wrong with you?"!  I looked down, and there, right in front of me were these little puff balls!  Baby turkeys!! That explained why mom was acting so crazy!  I took one second to get a photo, all the while telling mom not to worry, I wasn't going to hurt her precious babies.  I'm not sure how many there were, I saw lots of movements, but only 2 of them stopped where they were and crouched all the way down.  I walked slowly as to not crush any cute cotton ball size birds - as mom was still running like a maniac, trying to get me away from her babies.  Wow - they were so cute!

I don't think the next part of the trail has been used in a while.  There was lots of "mud".  It's more like swamp dark earth.  You don't want to stand in it as you don't know how deep it will sink - you know what I mean?  My shoes were under the mud multiple times.  I wish I had taken a picture... I didn't want to stop as it's also the kind of stuff mosquitoes love... so no stopping.

I came across what I named a fairy bridge.  It was so pretty!  Something out of a fairytale book - old bridge, with pretty little green grown on either side, water on either side.  I of course had to take a couple pictures... which as usual, don't really make it justice...

The rest of my run was pretty uneventful.  I ended up doing 6.5km.











 I did take a picture of my legs when I got home, once I had changed my shoes and was heading out for a short bike ride.


What a perfect day!

ps-click on photo for larger version