Lake Selmac Exercise in Spontaneity

I'll be the first person to admit that I like to have a plan when I go somewhere.  Whether it is my daily errands, a vacation, or a training run, I have an inner need to know what I'm going to do next.  Matt, thankfully, is the same way and complements this personality trait that not all others find as endearing.  When Friday morning's trail run arrived without any route plan whatsoever, we decided to do what the wild free spirited people do: wing it. 

Gasping for breath as we climbed into the blazing sun, we wondered dizzily if this was the third ridge we were climbing or if it was the same one for the third time.  Or was it the second one?  The air was light and breezy, one of those runs where the temperature is so perfect that one doesn't even notice it, but wow, what was that blindingly bright orb up in the sky??  Although I was running hard, it felt great to be enjoying our summertime version of speedwork.

Each trail junction seemed to have five different choices.  At the first few intersections, we carefully pulled out the crude Josephine County Park map we printed from the internet and made a decision based off the squiggly lines. 

After several intersections within the same mile, we decided to skip the map and just pick one.  Thankfully, between the two of us, we have pretty good spatial memory and can always remember which one it was that would lead us out.  We laughed as we dodged low trees on trails that ended up not being trails after all.  When the trail eventually ended with enormous downed trees or a forest of Poison Oak, we simply turned around.

By mile 4, our trail choices led us back to the yurt where we had spent the night.  We continued on along the paved Lakeshore Road and eventually found the trail, I mean if you can really call it that.  It was more like a big open slope with several ATV jumps built in.  The view from the top was pretty.

Eventually, we found some single track trail and climbed again.  Matt encouraged me to keep going up another steep hill and we compromised, agreeing that it would be the last climb of the day, no matter what our distance would be.  Then the most wonderful trail appeared. 

Meandering down through a grove of tall Sitka spruce, suddenly I felt confident and strong.  I picked up the pace and we descended into the valley.  When we reached the final trail junction of our day, we took the right fork.  The route grew narrower and less defined and eventually stopped after several downed trees at a gate and private property sign.  We turned back and continued along a small creek.  It eventually fed into Lake Selmac and our trail traced the shoreline.  It reminded me of one of my favorite trails in Michigan, packed dirt with layers of orange needles padding the surface.

We ended the day on the road leading back to the yurt with 8 miles and about 1,400 ft of climbing.  I guess running without a route isn't so bad after all.  And now I know where the good trails are for when we find ourselves here again. 

Before heading out, we joined up with Danny for lunch.  I'm pretty sure he needs to come camping with us all the time.  Thursday night we had steak, salad, and potatoes for dinner.  This lunch had homemade beet wraps and chicken wings.  Made our contribution of Jiffy Pop look pretty weak.  We topped it all off with Dairy Queen when we reached town.