One day, in Mount Vernon, while Cas was out of town, I decided to take a run down the famed Mount Vernon river trail. We’d walked along portion of the trail in town, but never ventured beyond that. So, with Ira Glass in my ears, off I went.
I ran from home to town and then hopped on the trail at the very beginning. I instantly noticed how few people were using the trail to take a walk, run, or bike. I didn notice lots of people sitting and smoking or just sitting. And a few families at the park. But, it didn’t have a vibrant feeling to it at all. Granted, I may have the Charles River trail in Boston as my comparison point, but still.
As I got out of town, the trail got fairly narrow and went into a wooded area. As soon as my visibility as to what was ahead was limited, my guard went up and my alerts were on. I even took Ira out of one ear to better pay attention to my surroundings. I like to think that I have good instincts. I don’t always listen to them. Even though my alerts were up, I kept going. It was broad daylight and it was a very public trail, afterall. Plus, I never like to avoid things because I am scared. That is not how I want to live my life.
Sure enough, though, I turned the corner and, low and behold, a naked man.
I about-faced and picked my running speed up. Way up.
So. Do I recommend the trail. No. It was also my second choice trail. You may remember that we use the AllTrails app all the time to find and plan hikes. I was planning on going to a famous (for Mount Vernon) hike that day at Little Mountain where you can apparently see for days into the valley. I checked out AllTrails to see where to park, what route to take and so on. Well, a sizable portion of the reviews mentioned “criminal activity”, car break-ins in the parking lot, and so on. So, I was already pissed that I was revising my plans based on assholes who ruin everything. And then came upon a naked man on my run.