Jones White's Creek Trail

Jones White's Creek Trail is my favorite local trail that I run on a regular basis. Biggest reason? It's about a quarter mile from my front doorstep. It does have some great hills (well, it's all uphill), and beautiful lookout points. Not to mention that I get to run next to a babbling little stream for most of it, crossing back and forth over it several times on the ~5.5 mile section I like to run. I brought my camera along with me to get a few shots of the trail; I started around 6:30 this day (yes, these are about a month old now).

I usually start jogging up the street after walking for a couple minutes to the trailhead, which is also my boys' favorite spot to throw leaves, sticks, rock, each other, and various other "goodies" they find along the trail.

After about a mile, I cross over Thomas Creek Parkway, and the trail starts on the other side of the bridge with a little sign, half of which I missed. It just says White's Creek Trail.

And the most important photo I wanted to share with you is my favorite rock. There are several that I use as mile markers, but this one I am particularly fond of because it was a MAJOR mile marker when I first started running on this trail. If I could make it to this rock, then I felt like I earned my breakfast that day. Of course now I run past it twice as far, but I'm never above wishing it a good morning and hoping it is visited by lots of other people and their pets that day. It is a nice big rock, and very friendly. :) And although it doesn't quite meet all of the qualifications in "Everybody Needs A Rock" by Byrd Baylor, I still like to think of it as my special friend.

I also run past the fire station,

and here is the view of Mt. Rose at my turn-around point. If I don't get a stitch in my side from running downhill, this is the best part of the morning.

I have other pictures that I took as mile markers for myself, but they just don't look as interesting in a photo as they do running past them, so I left them out.

Here is a link to the profile of the route I run on a good day- it shows the elevation, and mileage. Anyway, I just wanted to share a little part of what starts off a good day for me~ and invite anyone who wants to join me for a little tour of this narrow, twisty, rocky great-smelling path.