Play Day in Field Springs Park

Early start to a productive day with a shorter-than-planned run in Field Springs State Park in Anatone, Washington. I had been hoping to do the loop around the perimeter of Field Strings which will take you through some nicely wooded areas with very small rolling hills, and then out to the edge of Puffer Butte, overlooking the Idaho side of the Snake River and Waha Mountain. The shorter-than-planned part happened when I reached a cattle gate and saw the "Closed -Hunting" sign leaning on the hinge side of the gate. Apparently it is turkey season - something I should probably know since I think this is the third year in a row I've managed to have a run curtailed. And, no, gate crashing is not recommended. The other folks are armed and, hopefully, careful. Hope isn't a plan; staying out of their way and letting them enjoy the area is A-Okay.

So I played on the trails available. Wildlife was a little scarce though some deer had obviously been through some time recently. Turkeys were nowhere to be seen and no signs of bears. This was the same trail that I was running with my daughter, Sara, and a friend when a bear came bouncing out of the woods and stopped staring at us in complete surprise. It was one of those quite mutual things and after the little guy took off, we kept worrying about mama bear.

After finishing, I broke out the laptop and got some writing in on the novel - I swear it will eventually get done! - and snacked on strawberries and cherries from the garden. The blueberries were store bought as I'm can't seen to get mine to produce worth a dang. Throw in a little chicken from the grill and it was a nice way to wrap up the run.

The best part is that I had the trails to myself (the open ones, of course.) Field Springs is only 30 minutes from the Lewiston and Clarkson but no one bothers to make the trip up except the cross country team a couple of times in the summer.

That's okay - I'm happy to hog it for myself.