Grand Valley Trail End-to-End Report - Day 14 -November 19, 2017- Cayuga to Dunnville - To the lake and we're done!!!

Day 14 -November 19, 2017- Cayuga to the LAKE - 25.8k  to complete the Grand Valley Trail.  It felt so good to dip my hand into Lake Erie after finishing the last section of the 280k Grand Valley Trail.  It was fun running the entire length of the Grand River.  I feel grateful to share this experience with Greg. On this particular leg, we started hours after I had raced the local Jingle Bell 5k, so I was unsure of how my body was going to handle a long run after a hard effort.  I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't feel any different than I usually do on a long run day.  Thanks to my coach Derrick Spafford, for getting my fitness to a level where I could pull this off comfortably.  We started at the south side of Cayuga and parked near a couple of sandhill cranes who were squawking and doing  this weird wing-flapping thing. Those are cool birds - always nice to see.  This section was mostly gravel country roads with some very muddy and rutty ATV trails.  We encountered 5 farm dogs and got chased by one that was stopped by a very flimsy-looking fence - we were glad that was enough to stop the giant dog.  As the run went on, we completely ran out of daylight.  The sun set as we approached the lake and we got a few very dark finishing photos.

Thank you Greg for sharing this amazing experience with me.  Thanks to CLIF bar for keeping us fuelled and happy during every leg of this 280km journey.  Thanks to the Grand Valley Trail volunteers and property owners for making it possible for us to enjoy the trails.