Hit the Dusty Trail

Kind of a weird running day.  Had big plans to go out to the island and run 30 miles.  Part of my running on the island involves doing my trail patrol thing and keeping an eye on and making contact with the publis.  So I made contact with a group of about 20 hikers.  Whenever there's a group of hikers, dogs are involved and usually off leash.  If you're on the island with your dog, it must be on a leash, not only for the dog's safety, but the safety of other people out hiking or biking (just in the past week while running I've been charged by two dogs that were off leash and not friendly at all), the safety of the animals on the island and the safety of the environment as well.  So naturally there were dogs off leash.  I made sure the people knew what the rules were, they put the dogs on leash and i went on my way, but not before calling on the radio a couple of other trail patrol and the park ranger on duty.  As usually happens, once we're out of sight, the dogs come off leash again, so we kept track of them just in case.  The front gate had informed us that the group had been reminded to keep their dogs on leash and this group was somewhat rude to the person at the gate.  So I go out on one out-and-back trail.  As I'm coming back I look down the mountainside and see not only two dogs off leash, but two people well off the designated trail.  Once again, the park rule is to stay on the designated trails not only for the person's safety, but the protection of the environment out there.  If people were allowed to go off trail anywhere on the island at any time, we would have no idea if someone got hurt on the far west side of the island, for example.  So I call the ranger on duty and let her know I'm headed down the mountainside to intercept these people.  Eventually the ranger and I both catch up and they are informed again of the rules and the reasons for them.  By now I'm sweaty and chilled and the momentum for running an additional 23 miles is gone.  I figure I'll just jump on the t-mill once I get home and do a few more miles.  So that's what I did, 7 on the trails, 7 on the mill. 

So those of you who run with your dogs, wonder.  Remember that your dog may be friendly to you and would never bite anyone, the person you encounter doesn't know your dog and your dog doesn't know them and are very capable of biting that person.  If they're a friendly dog and come bounding up to a stranger that's running, that person could end up tripping over your dog and hurting themselves and/or the dog.  If you're running you're prey and the dog is a predator.  So keep them on a leash.  BTW, I have 4 dogs and a host of other animals as well, so I don't hate dogs.  When they're off leash, you do not have control of them.  Ok, off my soapbox now.