The Pits

It's a beautiful place to run and that's why I go there. The land is gently rolling or flat, except near the creeks which are few, so you can keep an even pace during a long run.

Champoeg Park is a natural starting and stopping point with lots of safe parking, restrooms and water. But the park is only good for a shorter run and so when high mileage is called for, a loop outside its boundaries is easy to do and enough roads exist that you can tailor a route to nearly any distance. And so it was a few week ago on a Sunday morning. Perfect cool weather, the open road and....

....I first saw them from the corner of my eye, dual blurs shooting past a low hedge and some shrubs and obviously coming in my direction. Dogs I could tell were medium size, these were in full attack mode, a sinister growl attached to each of them but only as a hapless product of their intent, not as warning for me.

Their instinct to attack whatever ran past their territory was met by my own impulse. In an instant they turned and crossed the road and were at me. With no options I met them face on and screamed "STOP!" It worked for a second. They both did halt but regrouped and charged me again. "STOP!" I repeated as I backed away and again the Pit Bulls halted just a foot away.


(This isn't the same fellow, but it is what I saw, except that there were two of them)

The owner of the 60's vintage green single level farm home appeared from the front door and called for the dogs by name. They made another menacing move toward me and then seemed to notice Randy who had so far escaped their wrath and had been slowly walking away. Now they ran up to him and he followed my lead either through example or following his own reflex by bending toward the duo and blasting them with another “STOP!”

The owner was now on the edge of the road and she oh--so--slowly brought the dogs under control and toward the house. We continued to walk, a bit rattled and muttering under our breath, until we felt safe to run once more.

You might think it an exaggeration or an embellishment if I told you that not ten minutes later we encountered a pair of German Shepherds with nearly identical circumstances. But we really did. Desensitized by the magnitude of a full out Pit Bull attack so fresh on our psyches, to be run down by these dudes was almost a let down. I felt like saying “you call yourselves bad asses; you should see your neighbors!”

Now you might really think I was yankin your chain if I said ten minutes after that we ran up on another pair of Pit Bulls-- these guys natural degree of being pissed exacerbated by the fact they were restrained from killing us immediately by a wire fence. But we really did. Again we slowed to a walk and continued along the far side of the two lane country road while avoiding eye contact but using plenty of side vision to help get a split second warning should the twin devils hop the wall. They followed us along, going berserk as they went and I hoped and prayed that the fence was not open at the edge of the yard which we were approaching now. It wasn’t open and we finished our long run without any more dog problems.

Champoeg is a beautiful area to run and I will go back there many more times. But I’m sure as heck not running along that road with all those gell-dern dogs!!