Mudgy & Millie Trail - Coeur d'Alene, ID

The decision of where to stop for a run in Idaho was an easy one. We'd driven through Coeur d'Alene many times on the freeway. It has a spectacular view, so I just knew I'd want to stop off in the town for my run. I figured a run through a park along Lake Coeur d'Alene would be magnificent.

I think we rolled into Coeur d'Alene pretty early in the morning (around 8am, I believe), so it was still pretty cool outside. Plus, it was early enough that the town was pretty sleepy - not much traffic, vehicular or pedestrian.

Here is a video of me starting out...



I love how I say I'll just run until I get too bored.

Little did I know that I would run into the most enjoyable little trail - the Mudgy & Millie trail. I really, really wished I'd had my camera with me on this run!

This is a trail that I would definitely recommend unlike the park in MT!! The trail is based on the children's book, Mudgy & Millie.

Mudgy Moose & Millie Mouse play a game of hide-and-seek. Millie hides while Mudgy searches along the shores of Lake Coeur d' Alene. Children join in the fun as Mudgy wanders along the lake, across town and through the park in his quest to find Millie, who was hiding close by all along. 

~from website's home page

There are 5 different bronze statues of Mudgy & Millie along the trail depicting different scenes from the story. One of the stops on the trail is at the public library, where I'd started my run, so I ended up doing a bit of backtracking and didn't do the trail from start to finish - or even in the right order.

Not only is the trail good-natured fun, but it is also breath-taking. Part of the trail even takes you on out on the marina docks around the Coeur d'Alene Resort. If you are ever in the area, you should definitely check it out!

I personally haven't read the book, but I bet it's delightful. If you're interested in purchasing a copy, you can find it on Amazon.


I was so excited after this run, that I forced Jeff to come with me to the closest statue at the public library to snap a few pictures.

Have you ever read Mudgy & Millie?
What is the most fun trail you've ever seen?
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While I am an Amazon affiliate, I was in no way compensated for writing this post. I just really loved this fun little trail and can only imagine the book is equally delightful.

Running in Montana

With all the posting I've done the past two months, I have still fallen very far behind blogging about my goal to run in each state we drove through during our summer of Traveling with Liberty.

A couple days ago, I decided to go through the pictures and videos that we took. Now, I really don't know how I dropped the ball on this one, because the MT video was already edited and ready to posted. What happened? Who knows!

Sorry about the poor framing. Apparently, I'm not very skilled at self-filming.

Unfortunately, for the leg of the trip from MN to WA, Liberty was crammed full. We didn't have a lot of extra space, so we tried to get to our WA destination ASAP. This meant not having a lot of time for me to do any long runs. 



I found Riverfront Park on the map and figured it would work! Not being from MT, and not meaning any disrespect, I definitely would not recommend this park. It seemed a little white trashy. Not very clean.

And clearly not a runner's park.

From the map, it looks like it would be, but I got my fair share of weird looks. Plus, toward the end of the run, a couple teenage girls audibly made fun of me for running. Now, since it's three months past, I can't remember the exact details of their conversation. I definitely do remember trying to pick up my pace a bit to get by them quicker.

Still, I did see some beautiful scenery. And check out the elevation!

Although it was super flat, it was also super HOT outside. This 12-min run was much tougher than you might have guessed.

Have you ever run in Riverfront Park in Billings?
Share an experience you've had running in an unfamiliar park.
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Crossing the Time Zone

In my last post, I shared a video of my run in ND, but I didn't do any write-up about it. I think it deserves a little more than that, so here it is again.

When looking at the map to decide where to stop in North Dakota for my run, I found that the Central/Mountain Time Zone Line would cross our path. What a great story that would make!!

Well, I knew we'd need to get off the freeway in order for me to run, and the map seemed to indicate that it would be an easy little detour. Easy-peasy.

Except it had gotten very dark by the time we got there. The road was tiny at least it was paved and we drove and drove without seeing any sign about crossing time zones. I guess the locals just know.

Finally, we decided to just pull over. I strapped on my running shoes, headlamp, and reflective vest, leashed up my girl, and ...

10-minutes later called it a run.

Running Ragnar last summer really helped prepare me for this run. I ran this mile+ like it was nothing!

Ok, it was a little scary.

Much less so with Jeff driving Liberty right behind me.

Sallie and I ran right down the middle of the lane. It was chilly, but when I got back in the van, I was surprisingly very sweaty!! It was an exhilarating run.

Kind of a fun story, right? And a great memory for me.

Turns out, we stopped for the night before leaving ND. When we awoke in the morning, I discovered there was a very nice bike trail right at the parking lot. It would have been a perfect place for a morning run before hitting the road again.

However, we were anxious to get moving - as we knew we'd have a full day of driving ahead of us.
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