Garrett was down to run, so I ran a quick mile (7:38) while he got ready. We drove up dry to the wilderness trailhead and started up. He had me lead, and we saw plenty of animals. At one point, we were chasing a bunch of turkeys down the trail. Right after, a cotton tail rabbit was running in front if us. I didn't see it, almost stepping on it. We had a ton of fun on the trail jumping over rocks and logs. It got really overgrown half a mile up, and being in front, I was covered in spider webs. The cliffs up there are super pretty. If Garrett had his climbing gear, he'd be up them. We took a couple walking breaks because Garrett hadn't ran in a while. The trail is uphill, but we didn't get far enough to flat-top steep. We got 1.5 up, and relaxed for a minute. Some bigger animal was up the trail, but neither of us saw it. He had me lead going back down. We sped way up, but I stumbled more. I almost stepped on a water snake which made me jump. As we were going down, there was something moving in the grass. In the corner of my eye, I saw a fat diamond back. I yelled, "Big snake! Big snake! Big snake!" We heard a rattle, and Garrett yelled, "Go, go, go!" Haha, it was an adrenaline rush. Garrett saw more of the snake, and I guess it had a huge rattle. We continued booking it for a while. It was a way fun adventure, and I'm glad Garrett's a bro whose down to run trails. Our average pace was over 10 minute miles, but running took plenty of effort.
When it had started to get dark, I did 3 quick miles with Ruby. They felt really good. Somehow, they stayed at 7:30 pace, but the mile splits were 7:29, 7:43, and 7:16. Had a fun evening after.
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