TOUGH GIRL!

So today we decided to tackled HARD GUY #33 .  We had heard a lot of terrible things about this trail and even it's name sounds daunting.  Kris's husband Dan, an avid biker, mentioned that he had NEVER seen a runner on hard guy!  Well, he has never seen Michele and I then.  We are obviously not your typical runners!

We parked at the first Corral's trail head off Bogus Basin Road.  This is a portion we have run before.  We cruised along until we came to the trail head for #33.  Here we go!

This trail wasn't the HARDEST we have ever run nor the steepest.  It did have a lot of climbing and we did do a lot of walking.  The toughest part of the trail was the uneven surface.  It did make it hard to get a good footing ad some parts were very sandy! 





 

As we ran we passed a trail on our right that was unmarked.  Michele said she thought that it was the "Dry Creek" trail that we had heard about.  It is not part of the Ridge to Rivers Trail system so is not on our map.  As we continued to run we could see the trail below us windy around.

It may be hard to see in these pictures but it is down there!  I almost tripped a few times because I was looking down into the ravine instead of where I was going.  "I want to run down there!" I said.  Michele agreed.  We started hatching a plan right then and there.






Since Hard Guy kept CLIMBING and CLIMBING we decided we had the general idea of what this trail was like....a climb.  Although as a side note, Five Mile Gulch makes Hard Guy look lie a beginner trail!  We decided we would turn around ad head back to that trail we saw!  We ended up running about 2/3 of Hard Guy, enough to say we had done it, and don't need to do it again!

SO, we happily turned around at mile 4.6 ish and headed back to that unmarked trail.  Unfortunately, running Hard Guy down hill wasn't as pleasurable as running down hill usually is.  It was a bit too jarring because of the steepness and uneven terrain.  At just over 6 miles we reached the unmarked trail.  Down we go!

This was the greatest trail EVER!  Every once in a while we find a trail that we love so much we want to run it again!  This is one of those trails!  Fabulous surface, easy up and down hills, interesting ,single track, beautiful scenery.  Can't wait to see what this one looks like in the spring!  We eve got to cross a creek!

Well, I crossed the creek fine. Michele had a little trouble.



Beautiful Scenery

Cool Rock Formations


This "Dry Creek" Trail ended at Bogus Basin Road.  Michele had read about it in one of her mountain biking books.  "It should be just a short run up the road to where we parked."  Well, that was not exactly true.  Here we were running on a part of the road that we had never ran before, having no idea how long we had to run to get to Michele's car and at this point we had no idea where the car even was!

It turned out to be about 2 miles.

SO we tackled Hard Guy and in the process found a new favorite trail.  That gives us the self-proclaimed titled of TOUGH GIRL!

And what of Dan the biking "expert"?  Well, when he found out about our adventures he set out that day to try out Dry Creek and loved it!  We are such a good influence on him!