Kent and I had a great trail run this morning. The weather was perfect. Wayne and Larry (on his bike) started out with us, but Wayne could only run for an hour and they both turned back at the top of the water tank hills. From there Kent and I headed up to Rock Pile then continued on toward the saddle of Baldy. At a fork in the trail we saw two runners ahead of us who took the left fork. Neither of us had been up there before so we decided to follow them. They turned out to be two strong female runners. We didn't get their names, but one of them mentioned that she had won the masters division in the St. George marathon. We ended up stopping and talking together for a few minutes at the top of Dry Canyon. They seemed to know the trails so we asked them about a few of them. It sounds like the run up over the Baldy saddle is a nasty run, so it's could we followed them on the left fork when we did. They headed down Dry Canyon and we headed north another 2.5 miles to Battle Creek then headed down and followed the pavement 2.75 miles back home. I stopped my Garmin at one point and forgot to turn it back on for a while, but I think we went about 14 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes. After the first 7 or 8 miles my uphillers were beat. Fortunately there weren't too many hills after that, but my legs ached on the few there were. I especially enjoyed the downhills, especially the gradual downhills. Unlike on the Squaw Peak 50, my hip didn't bother much on this run and I was able to open up on the downhills. The scenery was beautiful the whole run, but some of the vistas, especially a few overlooking the valley, were breathtaking, with the morning sun stretching across the valley, lake, and distant mountains on a clear, cool, sunny morning. I can't imagine too many better ways to start a Saturday.
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