Hitting the Sifton Bog

   If you've been following at all, then you know I'm off on Mondays and lately when I've been off on Mondays I've used that time to hit the trails. Well, today was Monday so guess what...?
   Yep, I cancelled my chiro appointment (no fears, I'll re-schedule) and I hit the trails at the Sifton Bog, another one of

I always enjoy the unexplained
signs of man

London's environmentally significant areas (ESAs). After today, I only have two other ESAs in London to hit, Kilally Meadows and Westminster Ponds/Pond Mills.
   I've been to the bog a handful of times over the years, it's one of those areas that attracts school trips and the varied wildlife and plant species are always educational. There is a long boardwalk which takes you out to a large pond in the middle of the bog. At this point there is a thick layer of sphagnum moss surrounding the lake and most school kids visiting there have a memory of actually bouncing on the floating moss.
   In spite of its reputation, it's not really well-known as a

All sorts of little ponds
and boggy areas.

trail-running destination and I had really no idea what I was in for when I went. There are a variety of entrance points but parking seemed to be an issue at the first couple I picked so I ended up parking in the subdivision across the street and walking in from there, not too far really.
   As is my habit, I took a look at the trail map they provide online and it indicated that there were trails well south of the bog itself so that's where I headed.
   This past weekend, the temp was -4C and today it was 12C so a huge difference! It also made the trails very muddy in parts and the screwshoes were useless a lot of the time. The fact that where I was running took me through low-lying bog land didn't help things either.
   

Some paths take you
back to civilization

The worst part about new trails is that you're never quite sure where you're actually headed and what to do at junctions. Makes for a lot of "eenie meenie minee..." time, on top of a lot of backtracking. 
   I also wore too many layers. I could very easily have left the jacket at home and probably would have been fine in shorts, to boot. I rolled up the jacket and slid it through the CamelBak and just made do after that. 
   I am sick of mud. Spring and summer can't come fast enough (I know I'm not alone in this) and I'd almost rather run on snow and ice (none of which come home with you). I keep telling myself that mud means summer is coming but it's not really working.
   So I ran and I ran, taking every side trail I could find.

Found myself in the
main parking lot

Eventually I found myself on a trail in a direction that I didn't remember from the online map. It seemed to follow along the edge of new housing and it was relatively dry so I was happy to run it. Before I knew it, I had popped out onto the parking lot for the people who are just there to visit the pond in the middle of the bog. There was no indication on the map that this trail even existed. On top of that, the large map in the parking lot indicated it quite clearly, although being fairly old it didn't indicate the new housing I'd been running along.
   Seeing as how I was that close to the bog unexpectedly I decided to run on the boardwalk and go take a look at it. This is the first time I'd been to the bog in the "winter" and it was strangely beautiful in a different way than the summer. Eerier, in a way, but not threatening. It's a fairly short run through the forested part and then you pop out into the open pond area. The colours there at the moment are amazing, all sorts of purply red mixed with green and it was quite amazing.

...and out onto the pond

   

The boardwalk through
the forested area...

From there, I more or less backtracked til I got to the main road. From there I just took a walking tour til I made it back to my car. In terms of actual running, all I got in was 5K. Much of that was hill work and that is always beneficial. To have gotten in any real miles, I would have had to have done much backtracking and/or knew the trails like the back of my hand, which I didn't. This is all okay, though, because today I was just exploring and knocking another ESA off my list!