Ticks!

Often when I visit my parents, I head out to Elk City Reservoir to run on the flatrock trails. Why? Each September, my hometown hosts the Flatrock 50k (http://www.flatrock50.com/), a 31 mile trail run. These aren't what I would consider normal trails. These are brutal trails. Very technical, lots of steep climbs, difficult terrain. An absolute blast!

Today I took Pavlov for a 4 mile trail run - her first ever trail run. It was a little warm, so I had a hand-held water bottle with me. And my dog is not well behaved, so I had her on the leash. We headed towards the trail, through maybe a 1/10 mile clearing from the car before hitting the trail head. The first "obstacle" on the trail is a water crossing. It's too steep/deep to cross on foot, so they have a 2x12 run across the creek. Oddly, the dog followed me across the narrow crossing. Confused, but successful nonetheless.

Over the bridge I realized how muddy the trails would be today. If you have read my most recent entries, you will know how rainy it has been. Those storms have hit Independence as hard as they have hit Wichita. I quickly realized how difficult it would be to manage these trails in these conditions with a dog on her leash and a bottle in the other hand.

But we made it the first mile or so without too many problems. Clearly she was having fun. She new the trails, despite being incredibly overgrown (barely could see the trail at times and had to follow the blue markings on the trees). I don't know if it was by sight or smell, but she knew the way. She lead closely. When we would reach steep ups or downs, she knew to slow to allow each of us to negotiate the hill. But as much fun as she was having, she was working very hard. And it was humid. This might be too much for her.

So at 2 miles in, we turned and headed back. I had already given her several drinks from the water bottle, and I knew I needed to reserve all my water for her (which I did). She would stop to drink several times those last two miles.

But we made it. And made it with many tick bites! Yes, ticks. I had immediately gone to my parents and hopped in the shower to wash off the mud. I then realized that the mud wouldn't come off with just soap and water. I quickly realized that it wasn't mud, but no less than 15-20 ticks on my legs. I headed outside and removed each of them (I would find a few more over the next hour, and removed those too).

Luckily, Jennifer was a Wal-Mart with my mom. I called her and had her pick up flea shampoo for the dog. We gave her a good bath, which washed off most of the ticks. The ones that wouldn't come off (mainly off her face where we couldn't wash), we removed with tweezers.

We lived. But itched for a while.