Trails here are about mountain vistas. They are also about steep rocky climbs and today, the Vista trail is about mud. The first two miles are basically uphill (1300 ft) through cool, rocky, wooded terrain. We thought we were moving at pretty good pace until we heard footfalls behind us and “coming through”. Hmm. We trekked on. Another approaches from behind. Then another. We are overtaken by trail runners. They speed fearlessly across the loose stone and tree roots thrusting themselves uphill and later careening down. We came to learn later that over 100 runners were out there on a half marathon trail run. I will stick to walking thank you.

It is a splendid view from the top so we chill a bit then head on down. Yucky surprise, this half of the loop passes through a really boggy section (on a mountainside no less) and we slog our way through the mud. Lucky for us, we wore our boots. Lucky for them, the runners were routed around the worst of it.

We close out the day with a stop at the Eagles Mere scarecrow festival. Five local wineries were represented, the local music wasn’t bad, and I bought a bit of pepper cheese from a local producer. We stayed long enough to grab a sandwich from the local mercantile but soon make our way home.