Suburban Trail Running.

Audrey and I were going to go trail running the other day at Kobble Creek while the kids were going to a Scout activity.  I have a cold and Audrey has been away from the hills for a while.  So we were under no illusions of setting a cracking pace, instead just wanting to spend a couple of hours in the outdoors together.  It didn’t work for us – dropping kids off, driving home, driving out, leaving time to pick up the kids, etc. etc. it wasn’t going to happen – eighteen kilometres of unfamiliar trail was going to have to wait another day.

We went instead to a suburban nature reserve, Bunyaville, with Guinness and Cinnabar.

Bunyaville is a pocket of Eucalypt forest in Brisbane’s north-western outskirts, and it’s pretty hilly.  We jogged the flats and downs, and walked the uphills, in true trail-runner style.  There was plenty of standing water around for the dogs to cool off in and drink.  And we saw another Kelpie – a really beautiful young puppy bitch, red and tan.

The dogs love trail running.  Audrey used a Buddy System lead with Guinness on a flat collar.  Although it may have seemed a bit brave, given the black dog’s tendency to charge and stop alternately and at random, Guinness was very restrained and worked very nicely for Audrey on the steep descents.  His charging in fact was of great assistance getting back up the equally steep ascents.

The trails at Bunyaville are shared use – walking, mountain biking, running, and some horse riding.  We saw a few of all, being careful to keep to the left of the paths.  It’s pretty easy to keep everyone happy by obeying the rules and playing fair.

Do you have a little patch of bush / woods / forest near you?  Somehow, a few kilometres under a canopy of trees is much more invigorating than just hitting the same old suburban roads again.  Maybe you could convince a friend to come with you and your dog?