Brunswick Trail Wander

I've been feeling tired this week. Tired no doubt from last weekend's miles and also from sleeping incredibly poorly. Ack. So frustrating, this not sleeping! But anyway.... I wanted to get in my miles on Friday but wanted to keep them mellow so decided to do a big Brunswick loop after dropping Sam off at school. I was feeling a bit blah and Conditions were looking marginal, with rain, wind and general dreariness, but I told myself to suck it up and just go already :) Luckily for me, the rain stopped about a mile in, so once I got into the woods near Thorton Oaks, I stopped to reconfigure things, taking off my long sleeve shirt, etc, and then continued on my way. I ran on the BTLT trails around Crystal Spring Farm first, taking a few off-shoots that Shannon and I don't normally run, just to see where they ended up. On this overcast, rather dreary day, the woods offered up some fine colors nonetheless. Saw a ton of mushrooms - yellow, orange, red, even purple! And the green moss looked wonderfully vibrant.

I crossed the blueberry barrens to the high school road and then scooted into the woods on the other side into what was always known as the extended Commons back in our Bowdoin days. I took the first right, running out through a pretty, wide expanse of grass and lichen underneath pine trees to the edge of Rossmore before turning back around. 

Then out to the edge of the pond before taking another turn-off that I had yet to explore. This one brought me to the end of the trail system by another route. A bit of pavement and dirt road followed as I made my way out into Pennelville.

I wasn't sure what condition the Coleman Farm trails would be in, but my luck held, as they had been recently mowed. Out at the end of the peninsula, I scared up a flock of six egrets and stopped to watch them soar over the marsh grasses as they settled back down in another patch of water.

 The final stretch took me through the Commons and on the trails along the edge of the playing fields. In the end, with all my wanderings and explorations, my Garmin read 16.0, exactly what I was hoping for! Legs felt decent and despite my initial misgivings, it was a nice morning on the trails.