————————————–(Greg in orange, followed by brother Mike)
They gave me a 3 minute head start, but before long they were right behind me, some of them passing me, circling and passing again. I set my dog free to chase the girls, giving me the advantage of more arm movement and greater balance. Thus began another wilderness adventure: a 7 mile or so run through the area around Reynolds Creek in southwest Idaho off of Highway 78 and Wilson Creek Road. (This link is not the exact path we took, but shows the basic area and includes some of our route.)
The terrain was highly varied and I was interested to see how it would feel in my Moc3’s. We began on soft dirt roads which quickly became rutted and liberally peppered with sharp walnut sized rocks. Another section was a roller coaster of 45 degree mounds, rising for 10 feet then declining abruptly again. While going up and down these hills, the ground changed to deep sand. When I was ascending one of these, the heel of one of my shoes slipped off for the one and only time. In spite of that and a couple hundred flat feet of beach sand as well, I did not end up with any sand in my shoes!
Before too long, the trail became narrow and bordered a rather steep canyon looking down onto Reynolds Creek. The dogs (my brother’s dog was also along) seemed to need to go back and forth checking on people, plus ranging up and down the slope at unpredictable intervals. The stability afforded by the Moc3 running moccasins was very apparent to me as a dog would energetically pass me on the ledge.
When the path became very rocky and uneven, and, if possible, even more narrow and winding through 6 foot shrubs, I impressed my brother with my light footed, deer-like prancing. My toes barely caught on one rock as I leaped around and I heard a baritone gasp behind me, as if waiting for me to fall, but, again, the stability gained by the moccasins was such that I didn’t miss a step. In fact, I don’t think I would have noticed the toe touching the rock had it not been for the sound effects.
(Here I must add that I think all of my dancing on weekends lately has strengthened muscles that are very useful for trail running! I dance with my husband with great enthusiasm, having my own spontaneous joyful “choreography” and many sideways steps.)
Somehow, I ended up in front again, leading my brother I knew not whither. The path became a crooked, sometimes muddy, creek bed filled with river rock and surrounded by vegetation; and finally I had no idea where to go. My husband/guide was no where in sight so I loudly called out his name only to discover he was immediately running up behind us. He reminded us that this leg of the trail “didn’t go anywhere” so we turned around and headed back, taking a couple of moments for photo ops: (hubby and me)
(brother, daughter, and hubby)
My husband/coach estimates we were going at least as fast as 10 minute miles on average. And that despite the fact that they let me lead again for quite a while on the way out. I think the fun of the trail and pleasant company made it go by quickly. My legs did start to tighten up near the end, but since 5 miles was the farthest I had run in a month due to being ill, that wasn’t too surprising or disappointing.
Everyone 
passed me again in the final stretch, so I was the last one to the car. 
Even though the ground feel was very good in my Moc3’s, I ran the last 1/4 mile completely barefoot, then went dancing that evening. I was feeling a little tired the next day, but I would do it all again.
