13.08.14

morning run:
Gracie
Eve
Godzilla
Gowron
Rufus
Jack
Xmul
Lex
Hazel
(9)

No-man's land: ~9k. We left with Xmul and Rufus on leashes; I let Rufus off at the land bridge and although he was a little wound up he settled down by the time we turned into the monte proper. It rained yesterday but not enough to wake the bugs up yet; there were more puddles and slick spots in the monte but the charcos were still fairly dry. I saw a stray running south towards the main southern intersection via the serpentine as we were heading north from the southernmost crossing. Nobody else saw him and he was far enough away that I got everyone near me easily; I put Rufus back on the hook for a spell and made a little noise as we progressed and the stray heard us and doubled back. We saw no people or other animals from there all the way to the wooden shack at the end of the blue bag trail, where Angel's dog barked at us a bit. By that point I had managed to get Jack on the other leash; Xmul had snapped it early on but I had tied it back together and it was good enough for light duty. Sadly Jack decided to do his best boat-anchor impersonation on the leash so the last 2km were a bit of a struggle but he needs to be on the leash more to get better about it so we just fought through it. I had Rufus on the other end with Xmul before we got to the shrimpery, which turned out to be a good thing: the same stray that we saw out to the south was darting up the road towards the soldiers from the shrimpery just as we got there. Godzilla, Eve and PupG gave chase, which really pissed me off; PupG came back quickly and the other two circled around and ended up at the shrimpery just ahead of the rest of us but the stray was now excited and barked at us from the soldiers for the rest of the way home. I managed to keep everyone together down the last trail and there were no other surprises. It was overcast and a bit cool, partly because we left early enough so at least the heat wasn't a factor. No-man's land was treacherous after the rain: it was a hard slog through with the ground so wet and slippery but it was also beautiful and serene.
GRADE: A