Greetings runners. We hope all of you are doing well and enjoying winter, especially the recent snow! Friends of Indian Lake has been We've been working with Dane County Park to line up projects for this spring. Our focus this year will be on trail maintenance, signage improvement, and prairie restoration. And, we are already working on next year's race. However, mostly, we've been enjoying winter at Indian Lake and other great parks around the county. Remember, you can still run trails in winter (as long as you stay out of the ski tracks)!! This morning we went snow running at Pheasant Branch Conservancy in Middleton. Bilgin Macar ran his first trail run ever at Indian Lake this past October. Last weekend, he went on his first snow trail run. This weekend he went on his first snow trail run after a blizzard. For those of you who run at Pheasant Branch, you know that there is an oak savannah on top of the big hill in the western section of the park. The loop up through savannah is a great hill workout, especially in the snow, and especially when there are 4-5 foot drifts. We named the big hill Mt. Bilgin after he ran up it through the snow last weekend. The roughy 5 mile circuit from Middleton Hills through Pheasant Branch up Mt. Bilgin and back took a little over 70 minutes. Not bad given the 4-5 drifts in the savannah. Good stuff. We'll see you at Indian Lake soon and can't wait for the Indian Lake Trail Run on October 15, 2011.
 |
| Bilgin breaking trail at the foot of Mt. Bilgin |
 |
| Northwest view from the Savannah |
 |
| Bilgin's first step into a snow drift |
 |
| Still in the snow drift |
 |
| Lake Mendota and downtown from the "peak" of Mt. Bilgin |
 |
| Bilgin doing his best Rocky imitation on top of Mt. Bilgin |
 |
| Descending Mt. Bilgin |
