As a kid, my brother and I used to run through the forest around our family cabin. We would rise early and romp through the woods as the suns new rays filtered through the dense evergreens on the fringe of the Olympic National Rainforest. We would race along; climbing over logs, balancing on fallen trees, following the stream that runs along our property down the mountain. It was an introduction to the joys of trail running (not that we actually used trails). Then when I was in high school playing soccer we used to go on what we called “jungle runs.” We would run ten miles through the woods and if you weren’t bleeding or covered in mud by the time you came back you would have to keep running until you were. It had been awhile since I had gone on a true trail run until the other day when my feet just led me away from my usual road routes and onto the trails. It brought me right back to those old memories where you have to almost have rubber ankles and your balance and agility are constantly being tested by tree roots, rocks, puddles the size of ponds that force you to skip across fallen limbs then jump over a tree that has come down across your path and any number of other natural obstacles along the way. I have been hiking plenty, but there is something about running hard through the forest or (as was the case last Saturday in Utah) up a dry desert ridge, that you just can’t feel any other way. There’s something almost primal about it like getting in touch with our hunter gatherer ancestors as you give yourself over to nature, understanding that you are moving as a part of it not just through it because it is the trail that makes you pay attention and if you try to just run you will miss something and probably even get hurt. Maybe that’s what it’s really about, the heightened awareness and the connection. It’s a microcosm of how I wish every moment could be, where we keep moving, but at the same time we are in tune with what’s around us, adjusting to it and being a part of it, while still somehow remaining in control of the part that is ours. Then again maybe it’s just refreshing because it gives us something different than the monotony of road running. Either way it’s good to hit the trails.