James' climb-o-rama loop

James D. is back and ramping up for the Hardrock so we took off from his house on his version of the climb-o-rama loop with Morey, Sasha and Rodney. The dogs were dragging us on the road until we got to the trail when we were able to let them off leash so we could slow down a bit. The route is an uphill powerline trail for a few hundred yards, into the woods for some tight single track, onto the gasline which everyone (except sparkplug) remembers from their visit to Blackstrap Hell, into the Blackstrap Hill preserve up, up, and up to Blackstrap road. At this point, Sasha caught a scent and took off to someone's house and we never saw her again. I hope she didn't take someone's chicken. James and I called for about 10 minutes then James took off with Morey and Rodney to the Skillins tree farm side of hell while I called for Sasha a bit more. At this point we were at the exact furthest point from our houses on this run. I decided the best option was to run down Blackstrap Rd. to my house to get my car and drive back up and just sit by the road and wait (Sasha is attracted to our cars). I was also hoping Sasha would not pick up my scent and follow on the road. James and I arrived to the junction of Blackstrap and Hardy Rd. about the same time (he by trail). As Rodney and I pulled over to my house, I told James that a very likely scenario would be Sasha would backtrack to my car in front of James's house. Sure enough, when James turned onto his road, he turned around and there was Sasha following him. Phewww. Good thing because I needed to sleep well last night because I'm in transit to Fort Collins Co today. I am now sitting in an airport in NY (not sure if its JFK, Laguardia, or Newark) having just finished a not very good pancake, french toast, sausage and faux syrup breakfast. Oh well, James and I agreed it's nice to get back out on the trails running, even though it was 25 degrees.