Then the guy who jogs through that way with the big backpack also went through, and my normal instinct kicked in. I just like to avoid people. It's a strategy that serves me well. So I headed up the OG trail, looking forward to navigating the outer edge of the Western side.
Of course, my smug satisfaction was short-lived. Within a few minutes, I saw a big black dog up ahead, unleashed, running toward me. Dog owners like to treat the whole area as off leash, and I kinda get it. If I had to deal with a big dog, I'd be pretty worried about it tugging on the leash and making me lose my balance on a narrow trail. But of course you have to make sure the dog will heel if you plan to walk them off the leash, and while I was pretty sure the giant growling dog would stop a foot or two short of me, it's annoying. I just always try to find a wide spot, move toward the hillside, and hope for the best. The dog did indeed stop about four inches away from me, the owner apologized, and I kept going.
I made my way up to the top and headed North, and confirmed my mistake from before. There's a weird, overgrown exit on the North end up top, and last time I thought I was avoiding that exit, but it turns out I was avoiding an entire big loop. And I could tell when this bridge looked really unfamiliar that I've avoided it a lot.
Within a few minutes I realized I had indeed been there but it'd been a while, and I was on the right track. Then I made my way all the way around the outer edge like I wanted to, then back down to the car via the Rusty Car trail. But I realized when I got home that I Snapchatted the whole thing and didn't take any more photos.
However! You can export your whole Snapchat story as a video, so here's my whole morning in the gulch through the eyes of Snapchat. Unfortunately the format is vertical and doesn't look great once you make it into a PC video, but it's still neat.
4.38 miles in 2:17, 12,724 steps, 420ft gain
Today's walk was pretty perfect. Hope that comes through in the video.
