Boise, ID

Hawthorne Elementary School + neighborhood streets

Run Time: 64:09 + 2-minute kick

This was a checkbox run. I was tired, it was hot, I was in the city, I didn’t feel like running, there wasn’t a good place to run, but I ran. I checked the box. I moved the calendar item to the next day. There was little to see in this neighborhood near the airport, but running in Boise/Nampa/Caldwell reminds me of the time I lived here for a few years back in the 1980s. They still flood-irrigate their lawns here. The sagebrush still grows around the city.

I started out on a sidewalk on a road running along the freeway, but it was intermittent, and there was traffic, so I turned into a neighborhood. There was a bike route of some sort, so I followed the signs, and I ended up at a railroad crossing. I found a snowmobile/quad trail running along the tracks that took me off the road for a bit. It did not extend all the way to the road I was intending to reach, so I went back into the neighborhood and eventually found my way to an elementary school with a cinder track running around the school field.

Oddly, I ran on a similar track within a few miles of this school at a different school sometime in 2023. It made me think of fourth-graders being sent out to run around the track in the rain by a PE teacher. Running on a track is boring. Running on an elementary school cinder track is boring and low-budget. It’s analog. On this afternoon in this neighborhood, this track seemed to be a dog-walking track, though the dogs present were all well-behaved and did not even bark at the lone runner.

I had driven from Washington to Boise along the Salmon River and the Payette River National Scenic Byway, which is a beautiful drive. I had spent the night in Clarkston, WA, which is right across the river from Lewiston, ID. Lewiston is generally well-known and a regional hub, but I had never even heard of Clarkston. Clark was always getting second billing.

The day before, north of Moscow, Idaho, a bull moose ran across US-95 right in front me. I had to hit the brakes hard to avoid impacting his lower legs. He hurdled over the guard rail with ease. Really rather graceful, though he was missing one antler, which makes one question what caused that. Only the third moose I have ever seen, so it was noteworthy.

I also had run two days before in Kennewick, WA, but decided not to include a blog post, because it was exactly the same track and the same run I had in Kennewick in the late spring. I attended the wedding of my niece’s son in Yakima, which is one reason why I had a two-week sales trip, so I could be in Yakima, WA, on a weekend in September. It was a fun time. I drank a fair amount of white wine and reconnected with some old friends.

So a lot going on in Colorado-Wyoming-South Dakota-Montana-Idaho-Washington-Utah this late summer/early fall. 4000+ miles on the rental car. One night at the sis-in-law’s and 10 different hotel rooms. Panda Express 3 times and Jimmy John’s twice. A wedding, a moose, a dead elk, and no abandoned cats at rest areas. Beautiful scenery and comfortable weather. 6 runs.