Carbon Canyon: Telegraph, Four Corners, Bovinian South Ridge, Easy Street Loop

Day 48:  I carpooled with running friend Kelly to meet up with running friends Hank and Judi and a new running friend and fellow blogger, Lisa (Mom to Marathon).

I had no preconceived notions for today’s run.  I looked forward to running new trails and running with friends.  If anything, I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  I was a little tired on my 48th consecutive day of running.  Turns out, Lisa’s on a running streak as well – day 66!  When she told me that she’s aiming for 100, I started thinking, “I might be able to do 100.”  Then I had to shake myself, “Snap out of it Lauren!  You said you would stop Jan. 31.  THEN you said you would stop at day 50!!!” 

From left to right, Me, Judi, Lisa, Kelly (Hank had not showed, so we took off without him, but then I realized that I dropped my camera and had to run back.  Wouldn’t you know it!  Hank had just pulled into the lot as I made my way back to the ladies.  It seemed like fate : )

The trails were lovely, green with lots of shade, and when not shady, we had the comfort of a cool breeze.  Judi did a wonderful job of mapping out a lollipop loop for us.  We ran through Telegraph Canyon up to Four Corners.  That’s right “Four Corners.”  I guess there’s more than one “Four corners” in this state, on this planet.  Comment if you would be so kind, if you have a “Four Corners” on your trails.  I would love to see how many there are.

A quick stop at “Four Corners” before heading upward (Hank, Judi, Kelly, Lisa, me):

From “Four Corners”, we ran Bovinian Delight Trail to South Ridge.  Hank and Kelly took the lead, when suddenly we three ladies saw Hank turn around and run fast back toward Kelly.  Then Kelly turned around to run as well, and yelled to me to get out my knife.  Well, all kinds of things ran through my mind, most of all MOUNTAIN LION.  We hollered out “What is it?”  Kelly pointed, but I wasn’t really focusing on the direction, I was just mentally prepping for the possible scenarios.  I knew that it wasn’t a rattlesnake, because they had by then ran way out of striking distance.  Besides that, I wouldn’t need a knife for a rattlesnake.  Chance were that a bobcat wouldn’t cause them any problems.  And a mountain lion, well, it would have caught up with Hank by then.  Still, mountain lion was all that I could think, so for a split second, I thought that we might have a scenario of 4 ladies attacking a mountain lion as it pounced on our friend.

Turns out, and this is very odd, I’ve only heard of this happening a few times from others, a couple coyotes crossed the road in front of Hank.  Then a 3rd one crossed, a very large one.  But then on his/her crossing the animal actually charged at Hank.  Scary!!  I usually see only scrawny coyotes, but once on one of my solo runs I saw a very large coyote in the mist, and he really spooked me. 

Afterward, we all stood about rapidly and nervously talking about the incident, then went forward on that same trail, fortunately with no encounters.  Lisa laughed and said to Kelly and me, “I can’t believe you carry knives.  Man!  I gotta get me a knife.”  That comment cracked me up.

After all the excitement (more so for Hank and Kelly) we ran on some more for GORGEOUS views.  Then we took Easy Street Trail back down to the canyon.  Though “Easy Street” was easy running because it was downhill, it was not a trail that you’d want to trip on (I don’t mean “trip” as in “trip-out”, but that too.  I mean fall.  A fall would plummet you down a cliff with a possibility of severe injuries).  Oh the exhilarating fun of being a trail runner.  : )

Miles run today:  13.61 (21.90 km):