As I prepare for the Baker Trail UltraChallenge next Saturday, I have been running a lot of trails recently. It seems to be, that I always have one or two unexpected surprises, when I do these runs.

The unexpected surprise might be a beautiful view that I didn’t expect to see. It could be that what I thought would be a small stream, is in fact a large creek, and I have to get my feet wet in order to continue my run. Sometimes, I come across abandoned buildings, and I wonder what purpose they had in a previous life.

Today, my surprises came in the form of wildlife.  The first surprise was waiting for me in the middle of the trail, less than five minutes after I started running.  A beautiful Eastern Rat Snake (a black one), was sunning itself in the middle of the trail.  Luckily, I saw it before I got too close, so I was able to get a nice photograph, without disturbing it. I hope you like the photo…

I also saw several cute bunnies and a female deer, with her two young ones.  Unfortunately, these were too skittish, and they ran away, before I could get a photograph of them.  There were also dozens of squirrels and a few chipmunks.  Finally, I also saw a single groundhog, but he ran away too.

I love coming across wildlife while running. I am not sure I would want an encounter with something like a bear however. They are pretty rare to see around Pittsburgh, so maybe I would be pleased to see one after all; at least from a distance!!

What surprises have you had while running trails?