The Other Brad

I was really looking forward to a nice run today at the "other" Brad, ie. Bradley Palmer State Park, and hoped to get in my long run for the week while I was there. Well, not so much. I just didn't have it today, and it wasn't worth it to me to force it. So, instead, I got in a cold and damp 8 miles and called it a day. Despite the dreary, cool weather (I realize it is probably seasonable but it felt particularly chilly after our recent summer-like weather last week!) and the fact that I just had no energy, it was nice as always to have a chance to run at Bradley Palmer. It was raining when I started, but stopped about halfway through, and while the skies didn't clear, at least I had a chance to warm up a bit! The trails were in good shape, and the woods were wonderfully green. The skunk cabbage was rising in the swamps, and the green shoots of the marsh grasses were about a foot high. I heard a number of robins, phoebes and chickadees, saw and heard a pair of cardinals calling, heard but could not find the two woodpeckers pecking away up in the trees, and scared up four mallards in one of the ponds near the parking lot. A red-winged blackbird also made an appearance, and I stopped to listen to and find a Hermit Thrush in the rhododendron near the start of GAC loop - what a pretty song!