10.20 trail miles in 2:11:02, 12:51`/mi, HR 158, w/ 1800' elevation change & stretching. Sanity run. Drove up into the Elbe hills so I could hit the trails without the intervening pavement and gravel roads. Discovered a new (closer) connector that obviously was just built. New connector to Snoey to John R to Anvil Loop (East) to Upper Elkspur to new Cougar/Husky to Lower Elkspur, back up Cougar/Husky to Upper Elkspur to Memorial East to the Snoey back to connector and done. Many of the trails are now in pristine condition.....the back country horsemen obviously did some maintenance in prep for their 100 mile ride a couple of weeks ago. The Anvil loop I ran on used to be pretty gnarly but they smoothed it out and its pretty sweet now. The new Cougar/Husky isn't really finished yet, so some of it was not really a trail but some flagging. Most of the elevation change was on that one. Came up on a huge elk, about 20' away, rubbing its rack on an old stump. Got behind a couple of big trees before I made my presence known, but he took off anyway. May want to consider getting and carrying some pepper spray for the cougars and bears....not sure if they'll run. Left hip started bugging me towards the end, and the left ankle was bugging me most of the run, but even with those hassles I thoroughly enjoyed this run and the time in the woods. Addendum: Unfortunately, my left ankle didn't. It has decided to swell up to the size of a softball. Amazing that I could run 100 miles on it without any significant swelling, but a measley 10 miles sends it to the moon. Guess those compression socks worked.
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