The first Sunday of each month, the Boise Area Runner’s Trail Run is in a different location. Rather than meet at Camel’s Back Park like most Sundays, we pick a new trail to try. This weekend the plan was to run Dry Creek Trail, unfortunately, it’s been raining. No one wants to run on muddy trails (it erodes the trails), but we still wanted to try it, so I offered to run it Saturday evening and check the condition.

The rain, which had stopped hours ago, decided to restart just as I reached the trail head. Rather than dash out to check the trail and get back in the car, I waited a minute. As the rain lightened, a double rainbow appeared and I took it as a sign that I should head out. The trail was mostly sand which meant that it would drain/dry quickly and running on it wouldn’t cause significant harm to the trail. Running through the gully cut by the ironically named Dry Creek, the rainbow appear to end between me and the next hill. I paused to admire the scenery, but Jamie, my Irish Terrier running buddy, would have none of it, so we kept going.

At the third stream crossing, about 3 miles into the run, I decided the trail was good enough for the morning run, so I turned around and headed back. The return had just enough downhill to allow me to pick up more speed than I needed, but it was too fun to slow down.

Sunday morning was a bit colder but about 20 runners showed up. Most had never run Dry Creek before. No rainbow greeted us on this run, but the trail was still in good shape. When we got to the third creek crossing, several people decided to turn back, but a few of us pushed on for another mile or so. Around that point, the surroundings change from sagebrush and grasses to evergreens. It’s the sort of place you’d sit to write haikus in the sand and then wipe them away, if you were into that. I thought about it, but decided to keep running.

Around mile 4, two of us stopped to wait for the group again and realized everyone else had turned back. It’s such a great trail, I wanted to keep going, but decided to catch up with the group. Now, to decide what trail to hit next month… Any suggestions?