Day 18, great day with lots of people

We were able to finish in 11 hours still so that was encouraging. All day long we had great views of the kettles, eskers and countryside from the hill tops. John Zinzow was able to provide a running commentary on the local history and foliage as he, Christine Crawford and I ran together from Duffin road to Hwy N. I will be getting some kettle area history from him when I am done as I was unable to absorb all the stories he was telling us.

We did have a great view from the top of Signal Hill (Bald Bluff) off of Young road though. Except for the tree leaves coming in we might have been able to see Lapham Peak. John also was relentless in pulling the invasive garlic mustard out near the trail.

Christine was a fine host as she had special foods for all of us to enjoy and made me a turkey sandwich. There was also a visit from Tom Bunk who ran with me from whitewater lake to hwy 12. His calf bothered him a bit so that was the end of the day’s running for him.

Sharon Dziengel, who is a through hiker herself, met up with us at hwy 12 and we talked about the trail and troubles doing it straight through. A local runner (Kevin) showed up to run the last 10-12 miles as did some friends from Madison (Peter Wadsack and Robert Meyer). Along the trail we also met Kevin Setnes, Lorraine Bunk, and Frank Slamar. It was a joy running the trails I know so well and to enjoy it with friends. Thanks for all the support today. The ice cream bar at ZZ was very tasty, thanks Tom and Lorraine.

My niece (Clare) and nephew (Ben) showed up with my sister at the end of the day and each gave me a May Day basket. I will enjoy the treats over the next few days.

Tom Held from the Journal Sentinal will be running with me for a while on Wednesday. He will have a new article up on the website Thursday as well as in the paper. Mike Sears was will us all day taking video for the JS website too, so check it out.

The IAP&T Foundation is having a trail building weekend around May 12th to put a new section of trail down by Whitewater Lake. Come out to help if you can.

The Scuppernong trails were a very hilly way to end the day, but they did pretty much fly by with so many people running with me. We should end near Pike Lake tomorrow.