11 Miles at Camden Hills State Park

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all our family and friends who are moms :-)

On this fine Mother's Day, Snowman and I decided to head up Rt. 1 to Camden Hills State Park for a run/hike. Mostly we were hoping and planning to run, but knew we'd probably spend some time hiking, given the terrain.

We parked at the back entrance to the park and headed up the Snowmobile Trail. This is basically a wide gravel road that snowmobiles use in the winter, and hikers, walkers, runners and mountain bikers use in the summer. It is a great road to run on, but it starts off a rather good grade, all uphill, for the first mile or so. A tough start to the run! Still, it was a beautiful day, and we were planning to take it pretty easy, so we just chugged along. At 3 miles, we hit the Slope Trail, which we took up to Megunticook Summit. The Slope Trail was where we did most of our hiking. It was steep!


This took us up to the ridge, where we headed to Ocean Outlook, a rock outcropping with long views over Camden and the ocean beyond.

From there we headed down to the Jack Williams Trail, one we have never used before, which traversed along the bottom of the ridge. This trail wound through the open woods, and we saw many wildflowers! As we hit the Ridge Trail again, and headed up to the junction with Zeke's Trail, I was starting to feel a bit tired. We'd been out for 1:30, with a ways to go. But after a Gu packet (ummm... chocolate...), we headed on, enjoying the grassy treadway. The last trail we hit before getting back to the Snowmobile Trail was the Sky Blue Trail, a neat single track trail that winds through the woods. Once back on the Snowmobile Trail, it was almost all downhill. We finished up in 2:13. A solid, if tough, 11 miles, and a great area to run in! Definitely a nice morning :-)

See photos of our run here.

After a bit of stretching and clothes changing, we headed into Camden for lunch. Although we had just run for over 2 hours, neither of us could quite finish off our yummy and very filling egg scrambles. Somehow the exertion of a long run leaves my stomach unable to take in much food, at least initially! I'm sure I'll eat a fair amount at dinner tonight :-)

Flora and fauna report: Snowman spotted a Black & White Warbler along the Jack Williams Trail, which is also where we saw most of the wildflowers. Wild oats, red wake robin trillium, purple and white violets, a few bluets and goldthreads, and one or two wood anemones.