Discovery ...

Discovery of new routes is one of my favorite thing about running.  Sightseeing the route but also "feeling", "reacting" to the route, its pavement, its twists ... When I run a new route it's almost like making love to my girlfriend.   The route is unknown yet I anticipate the run as I have usually looked up the map to estimate elevation and mileage.  I plan a pace and start running along the pavement, turning with each twist like the running the back of my hand on her hip ... I follow the trail wherever it leads like following her spine along with a finger ... It talks to me and I stimulate its energy ... adjust my pace to the rhythm of the run ... And in return, the trail smiles back at me with its scenery ... 

Well this evening was no different as I headed down the Langus Riverfront trail.  There isn't much special about it.  I saw the trail head a few days ago and I figured it would be a nice change of scenery from my usual urban runs.  I looked up the area on Google maps earlier to see whether the trail head I saw would lead anywhere interesting to run.  The trail goes under the I5 overpass along the Snohomish river then starts snarling thru mashes:

I noticed a couple of small trail bridges across the marshes so I think there might be another route hidden there but no there isn't access to these bridges from the trail.  However, two miles later, I reached THIS bridge ...

I crossed the wooden span into an unknown ...  not sure what was on the other side ... I just knew there is an island of some sort in the area ... How exiting !  A sign on the other side of the bridge as the route splits northbound and southbound around what I think is Spencer Island ...

I headed northbound ... the southbound  looks like that's the loop that goes around the back area back to the Langus Riverfront Park and would be too long to run in the amount of time I had.

The northbound trail was short but  very scenic ...  Here are a couple more pictures:

This last picture is actually the end of the trail at 2.72 miles from the park !

Well the total run for 5.38 miles so a nice midrange run for the middle of the week.  I will be back here for sure and will check out the southbound fork :D

Happy Trails everyone !