~10.4 mi @ ~16.4 min/mi

"We've never gone THAT direction!" says someone — and the inevitable follows. Roadkill hijacks the post-MMT recovery run that Slow-Twitch and Jay-Bird had planned and turns the trio northward into overgrown-and-undeveloped zones of Cabin John Regional Park. White butterflies kiss hips when the narrow dirt path slices a meadow. Fern gardens and mossy rocks border shaded stream valleys. Ripples vibrate across mirror-ponds; mallard ducks paddle. We meet three mountain bikers on the noisy Highway Loop Trail, then have the Kidney Bean Loop Trail all to ourselves. Graffiti decorates walls where a creek emerges from under I-270.

"It's the long-sought super-elusive Crazy Lost Dutchman Northwest Passage!" Roadkill chortles. He dashes through a shallow water crossing. Jay-Bird navigates it dry-footed via stepping-stones and smiles like Mona Lisa — but declines the suggestion to re-enact it for the camera. "All right, we're almost outta here. From here on, it gets normal." Roadkill quotes the film "Big Trouble in Little China" as we emerge into suburbia. We wrinkle our noses at prices of mini-mansions with For Sale signs. "It can't be as ugly inside as it is outside!" - "I'd consider living in any house on this street, except for THAT one!" - "Take off $15k for the Headless Cow mailbox!"

"OK, if you insist you can show me your Thing" Roadkill accepts Jay-Bird's offer to reveal the metatarsal pad that protects his foot from blisters. A few miles later, "Could our sense of time be sped up?" We analyze competing hypotheses for what appears to be the Slowest Ambulance in the World as it creeps along the road. Back in terra cognita Slow-Twitch leads the way home, with a mini-detour to Seven-11 for cold recovery drinks. Perhaps living with minimal air conditioning will prepare us for summer ultramarathons?

(see also long-ago 2005-10-30 - Cabin John Trail (North), 2007-05-05 - Lost and Found on the CJT, and 2017-12-17 - CJSVT with Gayatri)

(trackfile) - ^z - 2019-06-14