Saturday Hike & Trail Run

 Driving down to Old Man's Cave, I wondered if it would even be open with all the snow but I needn't have worried.  The place was packed, likely due to the promotion of the hike/trail run event on the blog (even though I did not recognize anyone outside our group).  In addition to our host, Pastor Mark, also there were Eve, Steve O, Cindy B and Randy.  I had heard mixed reports about the amount of snowfall the area had received, from 6-14" but was relieved to find maybe 8" around the parking lot and quite a bit less in the gorge.  What was in abundant supply were ice formations.  Maybe the most I had ever seen in the many years I have visited.

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After carefully navigating several treacherous spots on our way down, we were rewarded with snow packed trails everywhere that made my decision to wear trail running shoes, a good one. We made the obligatory stops at the usual prominent spots early in the trip as shown here

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My lingered at many of these spots taking images.  And then......

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Pastor Mark decided he would slide down the face of this boulder.  It looked dicey to me and a great way to break an ankle.  A crowd of 10-12 gathered and while I wanted a good action shot for the blog, I was also very concerned for Mark's safety so I maintained neutrality by yelling, "Everyone will think you're a coward if you don't go".

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Here, Mark decided to go and then at the last minute, appeared to think better of it and regrabbed, but then let go and plummeted to the ground.  Mark survived and I missed taking the image because I wanted to watch it live.

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We also got to watch Cindy B tackle a downhill just like she does when cross country skiing, on her rear-end.

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Another cool ice formation.  We made it to Cedar Falls and then trudged on to Ash Cave. At that point, I left the group and ran back to Old Man's Cave for 9 miles of great fun.  For heaven's sake, please turn on the warm weather machine so we can start cycling.  Normal day time high has reached 40 degrees but we are stuck in day time highs in the upper 20's.  Note every 10 days we are gaining 20+ minutes of daylight.  This hell-winter will soon be over.  Lastly, we have a fan from Indonesia. Lisa Huang has checked the blog and enjoys reading about you crazy Ohioians. 

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