"If its the Beaches..."

I was a really lucky kid. For all of our readers that know my parents, I think you would agree. They rock!!! And not only because they are supportive, fun and have a great collection of vinyl.

My folks have always been the type to love adventure...and I am thankful every day that they didn't stop exploring new places even after I was born.

Park Housing at Gulf Islands National Seashore

Every year of my youth we went on 2 summer vacations. One at our families lake property in Northern Wisconsin and one at Gulf Islands National Seashore on the FL panhandle.

Now, I didn't get to be much of a runner until I was an adult...and as per usual...family vacations seemed to end sometime early on in college....which has left me to dream profusely (on certain types of summer days) about traipsing around my old summer haunts.

I still daydream all too often of running down my favorite stretch of beach or down an old dirt road next to Little Star Lake in the Wisconsin Northwoods. So, when my supervisor told me that I would be attending a training at Gulf Islands, I thought I would fall off my chair.

The beach makes me Happy!!!

I began planning runs that I would do if I had the chance within our very busy training schedule...and looked forward to it for nearly a month. To make it short and sweet, it was awesome!

Gulf Islands and the area around Pensacola Beach are awesome. The sand is white and beautiful...in park the beaches are pristine and the maritime forest is amazing. Running on the beach is flat...albeit windy and a real calf workout...I also love it because it is a constant treasure hunt for the next cool bird/shell/dolphins, etc.

Da' Bomb Jelly on the beach

And the sunset...

... still takes my breath away.

~~~ Caitlin~~~

The Old Settlers Trail Traverse

There's something really inviting about the Old Settlers Trail when you look at the map of the Smokies. The trail is all relatively low elevation and doesn't cross any major mountains, leading you to believe that the trail will be smooth singletrack with minimal elevation gain. The OST traverse is also about 16 miles, a good distance for a long trail run or ambitious day hike.

The OST is no place to get lulled into complacency though, it'll lay the smack down whenever it gets a chance. This past weekend I managed to complete the traverse relatively unscathed, but in the past I've had my share of bee stings, false summits, and have seen friends get some pretty severe exhaustion and hypothermia while attempting to complete the traverse.

Bee Sting to the eyelid---- OST, September 2008

Most often I've done this traverse alone, as finding other folks who run for hours for fun is kind of difficult, but for this go around I had some good company in four other local runners who also happen to be training for the Lookout Mountain 50 Miler.

In this Photo:
Brian Williams, William Brown, Derrick Bowerman, and Paul Gossett

Going point to point on the Old Settlers Trail took us almost to the minute my forecast-ed "about three hours." If you were quick, fast, and in a hurry you could probably lop a fair amount of time from that, but there is a lot to see on this trail that you might miss otherwise. Its best to take the time to stop and look around.