On Halloween night, we went out to our trail. We are trying to get all the runs in on our trail before the snow starts flying. Which normally, has already happened. We have had a long fall here in Montana and Brent and I have been loving every bit of it. The colors on our trail have been changing everyday as the colder weather has been setting in. The run started off cooler than the week before but we managed as we had put on a few extra layers of clothing. It is that time of year for layering up. It is always hard to decide on how many layers to put on. You never know if it will start cooling down drastically by the end of the run or if it will stay the same and you will end up toasty warm at the end. With no snow flying around, the evening turned out to be a beautiful one with one of the most beautiful sunsets. A great evening for all the little trick or treaters and those of us trying to get in our last good runs of the season.
It turned out to be a bit colder than we had anticipated, but we were smart enough to wear our gloves and hats. This was enough to keep us warm till we got back to the car. As we ran down the trail, we passed by others that were getting in the last of their good weather runs or walks and avoiding the trick or treaters. We also noticed weird blobs of gunk on the trail. It looked like an animal had enjoyed a few too many berries that did not sit so good. There are always rumors of bears around this part of town, but it is a popular trail system. It looked like this bear did exist, but was having a bit of a rough time. I do not blame the bear for liking the trail as it is a great place to get away.
We continued down our path and made it to the top of the hill. There we saw even more people enjoying the beautiful evening. We could see the sun setting behind the mountains from up there. It would have made for some amazing shots, but of course, we were on a run and not on a photography excursion. This was a little upsetting to Brent as most of the really gorgeous evenings we spend on runs. He soon got over the fact and we both enjoyed the beautiful fall evening in Bozeman. We made our way off of the hill as the light was starting to disappear behind the mountains soon to be no more. We made our way through this flat straight section of the trail to the road where we need to cross. Brent quickly turned on his headlamp so that the cars would be able to see us standing there waiting to cross. They saw us and we were able to make our way across.
As we neared the last section of the trail, we were met by a lady that warned us of a bear she had just seen on that section of trail we were about to make our way onto about 15 minutes prior. We chose to continue down the street instead of gearing off onto the trail. We were a little disappointed as the trail is our favorite place. We would much rather be safe than to go out on the trail. The street was nice because it was lit up. As were wound our way down the street, we passes by trick or treaters eagerly going from house to house. We laughed at how we should have carried a bag of candy with us to hand out to the little ones and joke around about going to a door dressed as a running couple. We had to dodge a few of the little kids. We made our way down the unfamiliar path until we came to the start of the trail near our car. We made it to the car without running into any bears!
Last night, we headed back to our trail as it was another beautiful evening. We knew there was a chance of the bear still being around, but we ran into several others still trying to get in that last nice run. We keep on having this mind set that it the last nice run, but the weather keeps surprising us to give us more of these evenings. We made our way through our trail winding around every corner. We did not have a problem starting the evening on the trail as it is still fairly light out by the time we make it. Unfortunately with the coming time change, it will now be black out by this time next week. It was near the end of our run as we could still see the trail, but it was just dark enough out that you want to have that headlamp on. At this point it is a little weird running where you know a bear could be around any corner. We were still seeing people running from the direction we were going so we continued on our way. We are always up in the mountains with bears around us, but being down in the valley with a bear seems to be a whole knew story. We made our way out of the forested section. We made our way to the car safe and sounds.We have ran this trail many times with the possibility of a bear being close. We love our trail and we wont let a bear scare us away. That is why we have the option of running down that unfamiliar street which might become familiar one day. With the light dimming, we will soon find ourselves away from the trail back to the streets. I cannot wait for next spring when we will make our way back to our favorite running spot.