Although JJ and me had talked about a Circ de Pisgah for Monday we had not set a time. I woke early as the predawn light came thru the bedroom window. The downside was that my usual veiw of the North side of Pisgah was obscured in fog. The upside was that I went back to bed. I woke an hour later and the downside was that I couldn't get Jim on the phone but the upside was that I could wonder down and get the paper and drink a cup of bone shaking coffee. After and hour or so I called Nancy's cell to find out where her spousel unit was and the downside was that he had already taken off to run Baldy. The upside was that I could now go do my my own version of a mudfest without pissing anyone off. I got out of the car and the downside was that I realized that I had no watch. The upside was that I wouldn't be depressed about how long it was going to take me to run around the mt. I decided to go counter clockwise to get the steep trail 4 out of the way early. I did the usual rediculous dance at the start jumping over and going around the large puddles knowing full well that soon I would be in slop. East side trail 4 didn't dissapoint. The downside was that yesterdays rain combined with the springs that flow this time of year gave me no choice but to run in ankle deep water right off the bat. The upside was that I could stop doing the dance of trying to avoid it. Mr Clean Gene's muddy stretch didn't dissapoint. The over grown backberries along both sides forced me to run thru ankle deep mud that did its best to suck my shoes off. Gene would have been proud. The downside was that I had so much mud on my feet you would have been hard pressed to tell that I had shoes on. The upside was that it prepared me for what was ahead. Harold's Last Laugh was so slippery that I almost had to get down on all fours to make it to the top. Although I have run this route in some bad conditions before I was not prepared for how bad the trail was where it drops into the open just above the junction with the Ghost trail. If I had been running this loop in the other direction I would have turned back but I was too covered in mud now to stop. As I ran trail 7 and 17 to the front side parking lot I started to see the hordes that populate that side. Understandably this was the only place I saw anyone the whole run. Colby's Mud Hole on trail 5 was nothing compared to what I'd been thru earlier. I stopped and washed my shoes off as best I could in Jim's Fall Creek and shuffled in the last of trail 3 to the car. In the parking lot I saw my favorite new bumper sticker. "Must be present to win" How true.