More Kaysville BoSho for me to round out the week. Beautiful day, lots of people on the trail. Ran from the Vita Course (200N) trailhead, over to Fernwood and up the Great Western. This time I ran up (no hiking) to the point where Craig and I had run it last (5 mile mark)- the furthest I'd been up that trail- and then allowed myself to hike the steep stuff for the next mile, with running mixed in when I could. A little slow going on that last section, but it was super fun to blast down. Felt much stronger today on the uphills than I have the rest of the week - though maybe that's because I was by myself and wasn't getting left in the dust! :) Glad I was able to get a run in while there was still some sunshine. Got slowed down a few times by hikers and such, its always amusing to see people panic when you come up behind them and announce that you're coming through. It doesn't seem to matter what you say - "On your left" "Excuse me" "Coming through" "Pardon me" "EVERYBODY MOOOOVE" - you still get one person in the group that can't decide which side to move to and so they end up doing a potty dance in the middle of the trail. Come on people, its America, drive on the right side. (I nearly got pushed off the Angels landing trail in Zion when a dude with a huge pack WENT left, when I said "on your left" - I literally had to grab his pack to make my way around him! :)
On another similar note, near the end of my run my shoe came untied and so I stopped to tie it. Just as I stopped I heard a horse galloping up the trail, so I moved off to the side of this very wide section of trail so that I could tie my shoe and they could pass. So I'm tying my shoe and the guy and his wife are just sitting there like 10-20 feet down the trail just watching me...then he's like "If you squatter down like that they'll pick you up as a predator..." like he thought I was trying to hide from his horse or something. Anyway, here's my complaint, and as an avid horseman and someone that has trained and worked with horses my whole life, I feel like I can say this with some experience to back it up. Here's my problem - If you are worried that a human being crouched 5 feet off the side of the trail tying their shoe (after your horse watched me walk over there) is going to be a problem for your horse, you 1 - probably shouldn't be riding your horse on a trail that is so heavily trafficked, and 2 - If you do choose to take it on those trails, you really should be using it as a training opportunity to show your horse that it shouldn't be scared of everything on the trail, not sitting there waiting for every person you pass to stand in just the right statuesque position so you can ride passed. I want my horse to be able to have someone go flying by and not have it even bat an eye. It is NOT the responsibility of other runners/bikers/hikers/whomever to tiptoe around your horse because you think that mike spook it. Prepare your horse for the conditions you'll be riding in. I once had a horse that I was going to be riding on trails that I knew there would be mountain bikes on, and I was not confident that he had been around them at all, so guess what I did - I spent several days leading up to it riding him up and down the road with my wife riding a bike next to us, behind us, beside us, around us, etc... While I will always be courteous to anyone else on the trail, especially horses, I've heard of other runners having similar experiences with riders and it really just bugs me when they expect everyone else to watch out for them. Anyway, long rant over - it was a little thing but it bothered me! :) 12 miles - 1:58:52 - 9:54 pace - 2555 vert
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