Adventure

I'm off work today and decided to kick off my morning with my weekly long run, which frees up the whole weekend.  I decided to keep my lakes routine going and scrounged up a route that took me past the lesser known but still delightful Crosby Lake, part of St. Paul's Crosby Lake Regional Park. This park feels wild but is really minutes from downtown St. Paul, a few minutes down a path from busy Shepard Road, and the paths usually have enough walkers, runners, and bikers for me to feel good and safe.

See?  Crosby Lake. Pretty nice.

The temperature was 18 degrees when I started and it was another lesson in how marvelous the sun is this time of year.  I forgot my gloves and didn't really miss them until the trail took me down, down, down to the river.

Brr!  It was a little cold.  But then I quickly realized that 1) this was also a flood plain and 2) these temperatures were saving me from wading through a treacherous creek masquerading as a paved bike path.

Check this out.  Bike path:

And 100 yards later, "bike path":

If the temperatures were 10 degrees warmer - like they're going to be tomorrow - this would've been mayhem.  Or, well, as close to mayhem as one can get trudging through, like, knee-deep slush in the woods.  A slower and calmer version of mayhem.

But today, I got to tip-toe carefully over the ice and my socks and shoes stayed dry.  And instead of messy, it was so pretty.  These chunks of ice are under the surface, covered by another layer of clear ice.

It looked like stones laid on a path on someone's back patio.

I just loved them.  But as much fun as I had, I won't be coming back here on my own anytime soon.  As I was making my way out of the park, I saw a creature run through the woods.  It was large and gray.  It was either a wild dog, a big coyote, or a four-letter word that starts with a W.  And regardless of what it actually was - and to be clear, I don't even know if it could've been one - it was too WOLFY for my liking.  Let's just say my Garmin registered a very fast mile time for that point in my route and call it a day, okay?