Cross Fells run

This morning I went back to the Cross Fells trail, along with Sue C and Sue M. It was Sue M's first trail run, and she was nervous. The trail is listed in my hiking book as an 8.6 miles out and back, but a few trail runners told me it is longer than that. Skyline is also listed as 6.2, but my GPS says 7.2-7.5. The Sues picked me up a little after 7am this morning. I really would have liked to start earlier, because both of them mentioned that they need to return home by 9:30, so I knew we'd cut it close... We found the start of the trail, in Medford, at the intersection of Playstead and Winthrop. Today I was determined to do the entire trail. It did not happen - more on that later.



We started out on a flat and dry trail, which quickly became very wet. After about 1 mile, we started climbing a couple of rolling hills, nothing major. Next, around mile 2, we met the Skyline trail, and had a couple of rocky hills. We crossed a couple of roads, and this time we managed to stay on course (last week Mary and I did no see the marks on the other side of the road and got off the trail). The trail became really beautiful after the second crossing. The full moon that welcomed us at the begining of the run, was replaced by a bright sun, so bright that it made me lose the blue marks and get off the trail a couple of times. Around mile 3 we were in a groove, laughing and talking, when 2 dogs started running toward us, while the owners, a man and a woman, were completely oblivious and did not try to call them or stop them in any way. We walked for a bit, and when we got close enough, one dog jumped on Sue M, who said very politely: "Are the dogs OK?", to which one of the oweners saied, "yes, they love you" and smiled.. Now, I do like dogs. What I don't like is owners who lack respect of other people and do not even think that perhaps not everyone likes to have dogs jump on them when running...My friend Bailee got bitten by one such dog in the summer. I was very close to saying something, so very close... Anyhow, we made it past the dogs, and ran for about 1 more mile, when Sue C realized she was going to be late if we don't get back. We had run for 50 minutes. OMG, 4 miles in 50 minutes, and we are not talking about 4 Skyline miles... I was a bit disappointed, but what can you do? We got back, picked up the pace a bit, but Sue M was having some trouble so we slowed back down. We made it back to the car for a total of 8 miles in 1:45.

I really like the Cross Fells trail, and I would like to go back and try to do the entire thing. Perhaps bring a camera and take pictures. I think this is the type of trail that I could run in the winter, as, aside from 1 mile or so, there are no rocky patches. It's the type of trail where you can get into a rhythm, you can keep up a stride, and get lost into running, something that I love about road running but I seldomly find with trail running.