jog through the wild

I've been trying to get a walk in - 20 minutes a day around my lunch break.  I really don't have time for it - but I am taking the time for it.  I want to get stronger.  So I don't think I could manage an hour walk, and somedays, I can barely do 10 minutes.  And lately I've been making up time by running.  Literally chasing time.
And I hate running.

It's taken me a few weeks to find the right sort of path for me - but I think I finally found one.  A sort of trail run, down by the lake and back up.  It's more dry than it is beautiful - but it's better than pavement.

I've been slightly concerned about the wildlife I may come across.  There is a suspiciously large animal friend trap set up on the trail with abnormally large bones trying to entice the animal inside the spring loaded cage.

So far the cage has been empty.

Last week I came across a bloated (and dead) hedgehog.  I avoided that path for a while.  It's crossed my mind about wild dogs, but I haven't seen any really in this area.  I know there are lizards, and I was hoping there weren't snakes.  I've kept my eyes open, and tried to avoid in rustling sounds in the weeds.

One path has some particularly heavy overgrowth, and I hesitated going through it the first time because I couldn't see the ground.  But I went anyhow, and I've used it for a few days.  Today I was finishing up my circle and I got to this overgrowth part and there was a snake.
I almost stepped on it and jumped back as soon as realized.

I thought it was dead because it didn't move, even as I had pounded up in my approach.  But suddenly it did and I screamed and jumped back.  I couldn't bring myself to go through the path or climb up this hill with all its underbrush - I had to backtrack the whole distance I came, and I had to hurry to get back to school.

I'm not so sure about trail running any longer.
Ew.