Dior and I ran Mullholland this morning after tagging off to Kris on Granny duties. The course has dried out nicely over the last few days. We ran into Iris Packman and Charlie. Charlie restored Dior‘s faith in the canine community. Five minutes prior she had a very scary run in with an unleashed golden retriever with a strong prey drive. Charlie was very sweet with her.
The trail has dried out nicely! I needed to take it easy today, but can see that these are much better conditions for those wanting to go fast.
Highlights were meeting Gillian Haines-Sharp and Dior of tiny dog legend, and Charlie finding yet another leg from the (same) deer??? (I chucked the last one in the creek last week).
I am so impressed that a chihuahua mix ran a half marathon! What a strong pup!
Kris and I hiked Mulholland this morning with our grandson, Julian
We enjoyed all the birds…Baltimore Orioles, Woodthrushes, Louisiana Waterthrushes, Carolina Wrens and many more. Julian especially liked the ducks and geese.
@Challengers A heads-up for all those who are running in Mulholland Wildflower Preserve with your dogs…
I just heard from the trail steward, who is thrilled that everyone is enjoying the park he cares for so much, but he also saw the pictures of our canine friends and wanted to reiterate that Mulholland, like all City of Ithaca parks, requires that dogs be leashed at all times. I know that can feel fussy, especially when no other people seem to be around, but he said that part of the reason is to protect the wildflowers from romping dogs—it really is a wildflower preserve. Plus, he said that some people stay away from the trails because they’re afraid of meeting off-leash dogs.
Sorry to be the wet blanket!
I headed out to this course for my second of this year’s Challenge. Although our place in Ithaca is only about a mile away, I had never been to this trail before! Beautiful and no longer soggy at all.
I took this picture from near the ‘dangerous overlook’:
Speaking of this spot, @adamengst the RunGo directions could be clearer about which one is the dangerous overlook and where to turn left to avoid it. My GPS position was not precise enough in this area to show me whether I was at vs just before vs after the intended turn, and I ended up going off the trail to make sure I didn’t go past it.
Yeah, it’s hard to know what will happen with GPS accuracy varying. I’m not really too worried about Challenge runners since I think the warning will come before anyone gets there, and it’s pretty obvious that the cliff is dangerous if you’re not an inebriated college student.
Signed up for the challenge this year… it’s been longer than I thought since I did the last one! I decided to start with this course since I was just thinking last week that I hadn’t been over to the trails since the snow melted. It wasn’t too busy when I went around 4:00pm, I saw a few walkers and one cute pup. I did manage to scare someone with a friendly “hello there” as I approached them from behind. I guess my huffing and puffing wasn’t as loud to others as it sounds in my own head. ha.
