Trails and Ocean

Ryan came home this afternoon after being away since Tuesday. We're all very glad he's home! A big thank you to Mom and Dad for helping me with Sam while he was gone and keeping her occupied multiple times so I could go to work and more importantly, go run! :-)

This morning, Sam and I went over to the house around 9:00 am, where Sam happily settled in with Neenie and Pippi. I headed down the trail from the backyard shortly thereafter. I ran towards Bowdoin first, doing two field loops before going back past the house and towards the Commons. Skies were overcast and there was a bit of spitting rain, but as I ran along, the day brightened up. I ran the long way through the Commons and then out onto Merepoint, where I ran into Jeremy of Atayne at the corner of Pennelville. We stopped to chat for a few minutes, both of us turning off our Garmins to do so :-) Ha! I hadn't yet decided whether I would run back out to Simpson's Point or take the turn and run the Coleman Farm trails. It was windy once I got out on the road, which made my decision an easy one - take the trails :-)

I haven't been out on these trails very often, and I was surprised to find that the main trail was more of a wide open grassy old road than I remembered. I meandered along the road, which hugged the fields and then went down towards the ocean. At the end of the peninsula, I stopped at the edge of the woods, looking out into the tidal marsh area and the water beyond. Very pretty view, but grey today. Still lovely though. The second part of the loop was narrow singletrack that twisted and turned along the marsh edge and up through the woods. Then back along the old grassy road to Pennelville. It was a nice way to be able to run some additional trail miles out this way, and definitely a nice out-and-back. I added on a bit more road to get in more mileage, and then returned through the Commons the way I had come.

I wasn't truly pushing it on this run, but I purposefully wasn't dawdling either. I ended up with 12 miles in 1:48:48. Felt decent and was happy for a good run.

Flora and fauna notes: I saw some trout lily leaves popping up through the brown leaf matter on the forest floor along the singletrack out in the Coleman Farm trails, which was very exciting, but otherwise, the woods were still pretty brown. Found one patch of Glory of the Snows at the edge of the fields, and some Coltsfoot blooming along the edge of the dirt road I ran out in Pennelville. Saw the pair of Bluebirds again out in the open Pennelville fields, and a few phoebes too. Spotted some type of warbler out in the woods at Coleman Farms. Couldn't quite tell what it was - stopped and got a good glimpse of its rump and belly but couldn't see it's head. As far as I could tell the whole underside was yellow but the wings appeared grey/olive color. Maybe a Nashville or Yellow Warbler?