Muddy adventures

So I've had this little obsession with trails lately. I think it started when I went back to Memphis and enjoyed my long time fav yellow trail. I've been in search of all local Ridgeland trails the past week. Now I definitely appreciate the multi-use trail that is approximately 400 yards from my front door. But it's paved, and runners know what that means. Excitingly they're extending it along the Trace in the other direction, and they haven't finished, which gives me about 2 miles of hard packed dirt with a few dozen hard-hatted construction workers to dodge. It's a real off road adventure. But being only 2 additional miles leaves me looking for more mileage. 

I heard of the elusive privately owned trail system near where I ride my bike, and set out to find it. I had specific directions but would have still taken a wrong turn if I hadn't trusted the car in front of me when turning off onto what looked like someone's driveway.

Use of the trails requires a membership or at least a day pass, and I found myself with only a $20 in cash, which was well above the day use fee.  *I promise I'll pay next time!*

There were a few other cars with bike racks parked in the dirt lot, so I assumed I'd be dodging and dodged during my run. I never saw another person (and yes, I had my phone to call 911 if bitten by a snake; and yes, I'm more afraid of snakes than other people!).

After giving the trail map a quick glance and deciding not to bother even trying with it, I ran into the woods and found beautifully manicured, smooth, winding trails.  Now look at this picture and tell me it's not adorable:

I imagine"adorable" isn't exactly what they were going for, but it is! After wandering around for about 40 minutes, not having a clue where I was despite the random orange and black arrows, I suddenly came upon this:

Well of COURSE! That's where I am! See the small black arrow on the right? And then I popped out into the open trail leading to the parking lot. I decided not to risk going back in again, since my run plan was for a length definitely shorter than a few hours, and the potential for getting lost was great. 


A few days later it was time for a rainy trail run. Jeremy may not get quite as excited about our little adventures as I do, but he was up for it. This time we headed to the Natchez Trace hiking trails. Unfortunately, I got us lost, insisting that the trail that had wound up on the road after a quarter mile continued on the north side of the trace instead of the south side. J was right, but not insistent enough. We ran a few miles on the road before finding a bridge that crossed a muddy gravel road. After sliding down the hill from bridge to road underneath, we ran a few miles on it, then a few more on some pavement, then found the real marked trail, which we took back toward the original parking lot. 


The excitement about running the trails around here, especially those near the Reservoir, is the possibility of a significant wildlife sighting, in particular a sighting of one of the 3000 gators that live in the lake and river. Still nothing I've seen, not that I haven't been trying. I've nearly run off the road on my bike staring down stumps with interesting spiky patterns. The search continues. Jeremy and Laura have both had sightings of some sort. I'll keep you posted. 


Now off to find more trails!