Date: 2003-04-19
To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 270.9
Weather: clear sky

Will Trail Run For CookiesWhen I was a kid, I walked a half mile to the school bus stop most every morning. One morning I left the house a few minutes late. Worried that I would miss the bus I decided to run. As a third grader I knew that if I ran I would get there sooner.While I was running, I imagined seeing the school bus just as I was on the last stretch. I imagined that Mrs. Cockril, the school bus driver, saw me just in time and waited for me.So I ran and ran. I finally came into the last stretch. No school bus was waiting. I kept running until I was at the bus stop. No school bus, and no kids waiting for the bus either. I had missed the bus despite running.Then, I saw some friends, walking to the bus stop. At first I thought that they had missed the bus too. Then my third grade mind realized that I was just early, very early.Any forth grader knows that if you leave a minute late, and run twice as fast as you normally walk, you only need to run a minute. But I was a third grader.--Yesterday my focus was to get to Hot Springs before the post office closed. There are various rumors that it closes at noon or 10:30am on Saturday. Missing the post office would mean that I would spend my zero day without the cookies Gail and Gaaserudes sent, and without my bounce box. So as I walked I thought about how far to walk and how early I could get up the next morning to rush to town.The terrain was easy, but after two of my longest days I was glad to stop after 18 miles. The problem was that 15 miles remained until Hot Springs. Feeling achy I resigned to getting my mail on Monday.After dinner, Silverback, Pakabear, and Smiley showed up and said they planned to night hike another 5 miles. I decided to join them.We all left, except for Pakabear, Silverback's hiking partner. Silverback announced that we would hike out easy so that Pakabear could catch up. 5 miles of that fastest hiking I've done this trip followed. I know I'm not an Olympic athlete, but I also know the difference between easy and all out. We weren't going easy.It soon was dark and we were night hiking. We hit five miles, but just kept on moving. I don't know what relationship Silverback and Pakabear have, but it involves one hiking as fast as he can so that the other has to hike by himself, an unknown distance, in the dark.More distance meant less distance the next day to Hot Springs, so I was fine with our adventure race. My legs felt surpisingly good until the last two miles, when I split from the group to take it easy. At 11:30pm we arrived at the last shelter before Hot Springs, 3 miles out.I'm normally anti-shelter, but I was all about getting to sleep. As luck would have it, the shelter was empty. Spooky but sweet. We soon found out that people were in tents and that one of those tents housed 4 Great Danes, two of them full grown. In daylight a great dane is just a big goofy dog. At midnight, in the middle of the woods, a pair of barking grate danes scare the bejesus out of you.So I followed my two longest days with a 30 mile day. Probably not the best thing for my legs, but I have a zero day coming. Pakabear never showed up at the shelter.This morning I woke up with plenty of time to hike the remaining three miles. Despite the last three days being my three longest days, I felt good. I thought about running a bit. My pack was light, the terrain was easy, and there were cookies waiting.Being cautious about overdoing it, I took a survey the critical systems. I asked my feet, ankles, knees, hamstrings and even my shoulder if it was ok to run. All systems were go for a trail run, and off I went. Things were good. As I ran I thought about that morning in the third grade when I was late for the bus. Having passed the fourth grade, I knew everything would be ok.I only have a few entries at Trail Journals. Enough to get listed at a well-known place. My full on-line journal is at:http://mywebpages.comcast.net/aharrah/