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Goat Bridge under a starry sky

September 12, 2018 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Guess what? I turns out that I just happened to pick an apartment that next to the one really good running trail around here that doesn't go up a mountain. It's on a mountain of course, seeing as my host family's house is partway up one, but the trail just kinda wraps around the side of it with a gorgeous view of the valley down below. Or at least it would be gorgeous, I'm sure, in daytime. I kinda forgot that sunset ain't what it used to be, given that we're only a week away from the fall equinox. Seeing as it was already after sunset when I started, and I was in the shadow of a mountain, this might have been the BEST time to go exploring, but I'm Matt and that's what I do: when I see an enticing trail I just can't help myself. What starts as a sketchy shoulder of a highway soon becomes a sidewalk which terminates abruptly at a trailhead. The trail goes steeply uphill almost like a staircase and then splits in 3 directions. I chose the middle path, which I later found out (from Open Street Map) goes like 25 miles to the next town and stays relatively flat the whole way, hugging the cliff edge and mountainside. The terrain is mostly forested and the air slightly warmer and moister than along the highway. After progressing several miles into the woods, while humming the prologue from Into the Woods to myself, I admitted that it really had gotten to dark and I'd have to turn around. That's when I discovered THE GOAT BRIDGE. Or, rediscovered it, more accurately. I'd met an American girl at Rosh Hashanah services two days earlier who led me on a walk there, but I'd been busy talking and so didn't realize where exactly she had taken me. Thus, it was with great delight that upon reaching the bottom of the mountain down a side trail I found myself at the foot of a beautiful Balkan-style stone bridge, with a pointy center. I walked to the middle of it to the the spot where all the nearby lights were blocked by trees, laid down, and stared up at the night sky. It's no wilderness area, but I could make out most of the family constellations. including a whiff of the Milky Way. After 10 minutes of star-gazing, I ran back on the other side of the river along the bike trail my new friend and I had discovered two days earlier. All in all, a thoroughly satisfying adventure! Can't wait to explore some more when it's light out! Oh, and I managed to learn a bunch of new Bosnian vocab words from flashcards during the run.