70 Min Run (base)

BAY CITY, Mich. -- Really an awesome run. Stayed at some bland Marriott/Fairfield thing across from a WalMart in Bay City somewhere. Just ran out past the mall and tried to get out in the country a bit.

Started doing my least favorite running of all -- along side a state highway. Worst. Found a residential street and ran across to another N/S road. Ran along side that road for a bit and stumbled into a pedestrian crossing sign. In the middle of nowhere. Turns out, it was a rails-to-trails path. This seemed lucky enough to ignore that it was along some abandoned agriculture plots. Not scenic. But dedicated path! Great.



This path bumbles along for a while and runs into a weird spot by a river, so it takes a bizarre turn and ends up along a highway again. Decided to go with it a bit as it went past this sweet bar with a neon sign (photo above) and some country eating joints with the bacon and hash browns scents wafting like crazy through the lot. Then it crossed a river (photo below) which was cool.



At that point, we went from "good run" to "awesome run" as the path continues into the woods (top photo/video). Absolutely beautiful. Ran it a bit, saw some bikers and another runner. Got past that point a bit and stopped at a road next to an ice cream joint. What started as a short run turned into nearly 8 miles. I was actually running short on time, so I turned back. Had I continued even another mile, I would have been running along Saginaw Bay. What a sweet trail. If you follow it the whole way it loops around Bay City and out to the Bay...something like 17 miles. I will -- for sure -- do the entire course at some point.

Better yet, they plan on connecting the trail to the Saginaw Rail Trail and making a crazy like 30 miles course that I will also do at some point. So, so great.