sweet treats of trail runs

There is a god.. and he led me to berries.. as I was feeling the effects of failing to carry nutrition on a trail run.. and oh how sweet the reward!

After last week's trail run at Stone Mountain where I didn't get lost or trip, I sent out a request to fellow local trail enthusiasts asking for suggestions on other trails to try. Obviously I know this trail too well if I no longer get lost or fall down.. Mr. Sexy and my buddy Javi both suggested Fort Yargo. So I decided to check it out today. Saturdays are now my official trail run days. It was a longer drive than to Stone Mountain, but turned out to be not far from where my kiddo takes horse riding lessons. In the parking lot, the guy that pulled in beside me struck up a conversation. He rides his mountain bike there often. I love how friendly trail folks are!

I looked at the map fairly closely. There was a 7 mile option and a 12 mile trail. I was interested in the 7-miler and the trail appeared to simply follow a path around the lake. But once on the trail, I was totally confused. When I did see trail markers I wasn't sure which way to go. I eventually decided to just follow the closest path along the lake. At one point, I encountered a wooden bridge that crossed the lake. It appeared to be marked by a blue trail marker and I knew I needed to be on the yellow trail. I thought it odd that it wasn't the yellow trail since it looked like a lovely path to take across the water. But, I kept moving forward along the lake. I eventually encounter a trail map and realize that I should have crossed the bridge afterall. So I backtracked, going against the flow of traffic. You're supposed to go clockwise on certain days and counterclockwise on others and was met by surprise from a few bikers barreling down the path.

There were other times that the path wasn't clearly marked and I had no clue where to go. I stuck with my instinct and followed the edge of the lake until that was no longer an option. I found myself running through a campground, then out in the middle of nowhere, and then in a nature garden. I was starving by this point since I was an idiot and didn't bring food with me. I had been hungry for at least a mile or two before. As I'm wandering around the nature garden and pulling up google earth on my iPhone, something catches my eye. FRESH BLACKBERRIES!!! Most were still red, but a handful were black and I greedily devoured every black berry that I could reach. Ah.. the sweet rewards of trail running!