Mount Marquette & Her Trails

Tuesday dawned cold and windy.

Since I arrived on Saturday, the air had been filled with flurries and Tuesday morning was no exception. It was the wind, though, that made running so difficult. The "feels like" temperature (with the wind chill) hovered around 10 degrees. Running alongside the Great Lake would be asinine, so instead Emily and I ran towards Mount Marquette. The “mountain” is exactly one mile away from where Emily lives. We ran there together and then I proceeded to climb away. My pace slowed to 10:30 miles as I huffed and puffed over dirt roads covered in snow. After 3/4 of a mile the terrain got very steep and a white wall blocked my view of the top. My pace slowed even more. And all that time, the snow never abated. When I stopped to take in the view I could hardly see (see stock photo), so I ran down the other side of the mountain. When I got to the bottom there was nothing to do but run back up the mountain and then run back down the other side. I got in 7, but I was exhausted. I spent the remainder of the day catching my breath.

I took Wednesday off. I was pretty tired from Tuesday's tomfoolery, but, more importantly, the roads were very icy and I had no intention of running back to that damned mountain. I shuddered at the thought and instead took to snifters of cognac.

But on Thursday I ran back to the mountain. This time I took to the snowy trails that ran along the perimeter of the park. I came upon a man biking in giant snow tires and I asked him how far the trails went. He pulled down his snow mask and said "depends on how far ya wanna run, eh. The perimeter is 5 miles". I decided to commit and run the trail and I have to say it was brilliant. It was by far the best run I did while in the Upper Peninsula. I ran 100+ feet above the Carp River and the vistas were idyllic. It was great fun to run in the light powder, but again my pace was very slow. I got in 9, but it took all of 74 minutes. These are the runs we remember.