The Butterflies are Back in Town

There has been a migration of butterflies through my town this weekend. No, really. I was coming back from school yesterday, and it looked like there was bark flying through the air, except it wasn't smacking against the car. I quickly realized it was a swarm of butterflies and not bark at all. (I have extensive experience with swarms of butterflies cavorting from my mountain climbing.) They have been everywhere, especially in the fields. So when I headed back to the coast for my run today, I drove through even more of them. I'm not sure what type they are, they seem sort of brown and small. Butterflies flying by are beautiful, nonetheless.

I had a bit of a struggle finding a less dangerous entre to the bike path, however. I went to the state park beach that I know about (it has a parking lot, you see), but when I didn't see the path and took a gander at the map, I saw that the railroad tracks cut inland at that point. Grrr. So I headed up the freeway and saw where the path cuts from inland back to the freeway, but without any indication of what road exactly it was following. So, after wandering around the back roads of Marina (including the boarded up and blocked off former Fort Ord army base), I found my way back to the road I drove in on and saw where the path cut across. Finally.

I started running and took a short detour along a broken-down path back to the beach. I considered running along the beach, but the slope is too steep and the tide was too high. It was not comfortable running. Back to the bike path it was. Although, when I got to the path, I decided to follow the paved road beside it that cut through the state park. (I saw it yesterday, but wasn't sure how to get from the bike path to this other -- obviosuly closed to motorized traffic -- paved road that ran closer to the ocean.)



And I ran, and ran, and ran. It felt longer than the 6 miles I finally google mapped it to be, but it was still 6 miles of almost uninterupted running. There are some hills along the path, and I made it up and down them, both ways. I think I'll hit this path up a few more times before d-day (r-day? hm-day?). There was a wind, but it wasn't too strong.

I'm pretty sure I've figured out how to access the path in a much nicer area than the strip malls and fast-food joints. Next weekend we'll see if I'm right. And next weekend, I'm going for 8!