Happy Days to Pine Hollow and back

Met the group today at 8am to run part of the Fool's 50k route, the goal was to run the purple, orange and then yellow rout. We met at the Happy Days Parking lot and yes it is named after "The Happy Days are Here Again" song.

 We set of around 8.05am, there was quite a bit of a turnout, due to snow on Friday, we weren't sure how bad the trails are going to be.

The Ledges is one of my favorite part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the rock cliffs are amazing and there are just so many unique things to see

One of the most spectacular view is at the Ledges Overlook, this is the joy of trail running.

I ran by myself at the beginning since I was taking pictures and didn't want to slow any one down, also it takes my body at least a mile to warm up on the trail and most initial starting pace is always too much for me.
I eventually caught up with Wild Bills group around mile 5 but the race director had been nice enough running back and forth making sure I didn't get lost. Unlike the buckeye trail, there is no tree marking on this side of the trail and with most of then being a loop, you can end up going loopy all day.

Just like any trail, this run had it's share of uphill and downhill

Another great feature of this run was the Kendall Hills (Sound of Music Hills), there is always that challenge  of can you get all the way up without stopping. Yes I did

Heading back to Happy Days, this is the other side of the Ledges

Even though I ran on tired legs, I actually felt very good, my starting nutrition seems to be working out good but still working on making sure I pay attention to nutrition while on the run. I need to work on strengthening my ankle and feet so more trail runs. We ended up no doing the cross country trail since Bill the leader wasn't feeling great and we were all concern about getting lost.