Oscar Scherer Park Trail Run by addickens at Garmin Connect - Details

Oscar Scherer Park Trail Run by addickens at Garmin Connect - Details

Today was National Public Lands Day which resulted in a free admission promotion by Oscar Scherer State Park down the road in Osprey, FL so I took advantage of the opportunity for a run on some of their trails. I know that many might think that if they are public lands, admission should be free every day, but this is Florida where every chance to remove a dollar from a northern visitor is fully exploited. Hence, admission fees to use public lands.

The Scrub Jay 10K last February at this park was run entirely on the west side of the Legacy Trail. I knew from cycling by that there is also a Yellow trail on the east side of the Legacy so that is where I headed. I started at the Yellow trail head on the west side of the Legacy and ran a short distance to the Legacy, then north on the Legacy for a short distance and then an east turn on the Yellow trail. Not long after turning east off the Legacy I took a south turn and before long really had no clue about what direction I was going.

The terrain was very similar to the beach run I did with Speedster Chuck a few weeks ago. Very tough running. At about 35 minutes I came to a junction with Yellow trail markers pointing in 3 directions. At this point the sun was still high in the eastern sky, I knew I didn't want to go east but chose north instead of west. There were sections of this trail that were more of a packed black dirt with trees large enough to provide some shade. These were the easy sections to run that allowed me to rest a bit.

Somewhere around 40 minutes in I came across a section that had been packed black dirt. It appeared that someone had come to mow it and realized they didn't have the mower attached to the tractor, only the tiller or cultivator or whatever. So they tilled the dam thing and turned this section that should have been easy to run into a nightmare.

I did have another watch problem this week. I apparently started and stopped my watch a couple times after getting home which messed up the GPS map on the Garmin page. This drew a red line on the map, as a crow flies, from the end of my run to my home. To see the area where this run took place, you will need to zoom in to the squiggly section at the south end of the map. Check out the aerial view.

I was using this run as a warm up for the Wildhorse 10K on November 6th and made a couple notes to remember. First off, I didn't have my shoes tight enough the 1st time, also, I need to remember the sun screen and bug spray. I do know that I am fighting off a cold at this time so I hope that if I am healthy when I run the Wildhorse I should have an easier time. The Wildhorse is also located a little farther north and more inland so I am hoping that the terrain is not as much soft sand.