Happy Spring, Trail Joggers, Mud Slappers, Winter Trail Peeps and other assorted Root-Kickin’, Rock-Lickin’ Miscreants! (That should cover almost everybody!)
Welcome to Muddy Shoes Saturday Trail Runs! BTW, this is the start of our 10th year doing this! Can ya believe it?! MUDDY SHOES IS TEN YEARS OLD!! What started as a small group of trailies with a jug of water and a bag of chips somewhere at a trailhead has blossomed into a vibrant and flourishing trail community here in MoCo! We’ll have some celebrations throughout the year including…drum roll, please…10 Year Anniversary Muddy Shoes T-shirts! Woot! Woot! Stay tuned! But I digress…back to this Saturday’s run!
OK, so, a brief re-hash: Every Saturday morning from now until December, we will have an organized and supported trail run. We’ll visit a different trail venue each week. Distances will vary but usually they will be 8-12-ish miles long with shorter and longer options. There will be water available on the course and an aid station set up back at the trailhead with liquid and solid refreshments (Ahhhh, those ice-cold mini-Cokes and Dill Pickle Potato Chips!). All abilities welcome! While the runs are free, $donations$ are readily and greedily accepted (No Bitcoin,please)! That’s how we keep this thing going.
Now, for this Saturday’s pre-eclipse jaunt in the forest we go back to a Muddy Shoes tradition to kick things off: The Annual Eagle-Spotting run at the Meadowside Nature Center. It’s a crowd favorite (go read the Yelp reviews…kidding. There aren’t any!) But, nonetheless, it’s a pretty darn good time. In a nutshell, we stay together as a group the first ~1.5 miles as we take a small tour of some local points of interest in the park including the Study Pond, the Pioneer Homestead, the Valient Covered Bridge, the Lost Cemetery and finishing up with a visit to see the Bald Eagles on their nest (if we’re lucky). Then folks can take off at their own pace and complete the rest of the run. Hang around afterwards for the post-run mingle – you never know what you might learn.
OK, Class, here are the details:
Location: Meadowside Nature Center
Address: 5100 Meadowside Ln, Rockville, MD 20855. Go all the way to the back parking lot.
Date: 06 April 2024
Time: 7:30 a.m.
Caltopo: https://caltopo.com/m/1CBPL
Distance: About 12.75 miles. You can turn around anytime to shorten it up. One creek crossing.
Pace: You pick. We have all paces, including walkers.
Vibe: C-H-I-L-L. This is not a race.
C U there cuz THESE TRAILS AIN’T GONNA RUN THEMSELVES!
Cheers,
Muddy Shoes