Why I like running in this town...

...Deer!

I was running in the middle of the afternoon on a *beautiful* day on a biking/running trail chock full of people on foot or on wheels, and all of a sudden a young buck (ahem, a *deer* folks) just stepped out of the wooded area on one side of the trail, took a look at me as I headed towards him, and then nonchalantly stepped into the wooded area on the other side. And this wasn't in the middle of nowhere -- the deer and I both were just about half a mile away from campus in the older suburbs of town. But the trail is a rails-to-trail conversion, which makes it one long greenbelt that's already been there for some time, plus it makes a tangent to a very large urban park with lots of forest preserve areas in it where even the walking trails don't go. So I guess the deer have been around awhile, are very protected (no hunting in the suburbs, thank you very much -- despite Ted Nugent's efforts in North Barrington, IL) and are also used to people.

This isn't the first time I've seen a deer while running here, but he's the first buck I've seen. I've seen all sorts of other cool animals, too. The last city I lived in also had a lot of wildlife, especially for a city, but most of my running was completely urban.

I *heart* the running trails and parks in this town.