Ultimate Opportunist

Local folks raised a fair amount of hoopla and falderal to celebrate the opening of the first section of a new bike trail in a public park. Shannan and I took the opportunity to check it out, although neither of us had any intention of biking. Newspaper articles made it sound like 6 miles of trail awaited us. Upon arrival I lamented that only a 1.3 mile loop had been cleared and opened for traffic.

Shannan chose to walk along the riverside paved trail and I explored the mountain bike path. My immediate thoughts and concerns centered on the narrow trails hugging steep cliffs. I’m not a bike rider, but it seemed to me that one bike would maximize the space. Two could never share the trail in either direction. I then wondered should I, as a runner, be on the trail at all?

Etiquette aside, I wondered should I be running there with the hilly and rugged terrain. It was tough! I made things worse (as I tend to do) and took an illicit opportunity to wander off to portions of the trail under construction. It was sort of neat to see the level of difficulty of marking a route and carving out a trail in tree-filled, root-bound and uneven wooded areas.

Luckily I didn’t encounter any bikers during the outing. I did, however, slip and slide a fair amount. My arms, legs and clothes got fairly muddy. I sweated heavily. Messy and tired, I decided I liked the trail and looked forward to its expansion and running there again. I turned back and rendezvoused with Shannan. Once in the car, I realized I wasn’t the only opportunist on the new bike trail. I picked up the ultimate opportunist, a tick. That always creeps me out.

Share the road, just not with ticks.


Tom