I got up as early as I could manage and finished getting my stuff ready for the day. I had big plans: a long run, a bit of biking, and lots of geocaching. I was running later than I hoped, but it was OK. I finished setting my bike up, which involved going to the hardware store to pick up some screws to attach my luggage rack to the back. I threw the bike on the back of the truck, along with a cooler full of water. I loaded the cab up with a few changes of clothes, and I headed out to Salem Lake to start my day. I chose to go there because next week, I'll be running in the Salem Lake 10K and I wanted to get a good idea of what the course would look like. My original plan was to run around the entire perimeter of the lake, but I got off to a late enough start that I decided to modify my plan. So, instead, I just ran out along the trail for a half hour, then turned around and ran back to the truck. It got me a 4.5 mile run, and a good idea of what the course looked like. I think my run this Saturday will be a good one, and I should be able to finish before they close the course (I need to finish in an hour and a half). I'm guessing around an hour and twenty minutes for my time.
Once back at the truck, I changed out of my running clothes into biking clothes (plus shorts more than the spandex). After just a little bit,
drjekyll arrived, and we got set to bike around the lake, looking for the handful of geocaches that we hadn't found when we were last in the park in December. It was a good ride, although the first hill was a killer. By riding all along the lake, I also learned that the first hill is really the only hill of significance I'll have to contend with on my run Saturday. That's good to know. We found the caches that were findable (several of them are currently disabled). One of them, St. Pat's Cache, gave us particular trouble, but we finally found it. Another good one was Birds of a Feather -- it had that kind of logic problem I enjoy doing. I didn't get it solved, though. But drjekyll had solved it, so we were in good shape.The biking was really cool. For the most part, the trail was easy to navigate -- wide, hard-packed dirt. But we took a couple of side trails that was real mountain biking. We even discovered a hidden skate park in the middle of the woods. It was pretty freaky.
By the time we finished all that, we were hot, sweaty, and hungry. So we headed over to a Mexican restaurant for supper, where we were joined by
beefhyde. It was really yummy.After supper, we headed over to Walkertown for the Flash Mob Event. We got there early, so we looked for (and found) a couple of other caches. The event was a blast. Afterwards, I hung around a bit, catching up with friends. Lots of fun. It kinda defeats the purpose of a flash mob, but I wish there was more time for hanging out.
Finally, I headed back home. Hot and tired. I slept well.
