While Sam is Away, Mama Will Play :)

We sent Sam off to NC yesterday morning for a two-week stay with my parents and her cousin, Morgan. She is so excited and I am incredibly grateful to my parents for giving her this chance at such a fun experience this summer! Thanks, Mom and Dad! I am going to miss her smiley face but I know she is going to have a great time!

My dad flew up to Portland in the morning, and then they flew south together around noon. Of course, they got delayed in Charlotte and ended up getting in to Wilmington 3+ hours later than expected, which meant I went to bed before they even got to my parent's house! I am such a good mom 😂😂 Apparently she and Morgan were up until midnight giggling away and oh so happy to be together!

So happy to see each other at the airport last night!

Since Sam was away, I got grocery shopping and all my other household chores completed yesterday afternoon so that I could take off for a totally guilt-free adventure today! The weather was looking decent, so I decided to head up to Camden and get in a good, hilly long run in the hills. 

I left the house early, and with no traffic, I made really good time getting up to the Maiden Cliff trailhead, starting out a little after 7:00 am. I had planned my route to hit all the main Camden summits, with the exception of Derry and Frohock (which may not even officially be in the park anyway?), and to incorporate running down the Sky Blue Trail to the Multi-Use Trail. I was also hoping for around 20 miles. 

It was a beautiful morning, but very humid, and so in my typical fashion, I was soaking wet fairly early on and stayed that way for the rest of the day ;) But no matter, I had a great time! I felt strong and hiked when it got too steep or rooty/rocky for running and ran when I could. I did take time to stop at a lot of summits/vistas and had a few other random stops along the way to pee and readjust my pack, etc. I also took the time to run down into the campground at around 12.5 miles to get some water before the final miles, which took me over Battie and then back up to Ocean Lookout and Megunticook and back. Overall time out was 5:22 but moving time, according to Strava, was 4:28, all of which I am totally cool with. It was a great run and I really enjoyed myself! Happiness is most definitely a Friday morning wander up in the Camden hills :)

And now I'll let the photos do the talking...

Maiden Cliff

Maiden Cliff vista

Climbing up into the sun

Zeke's Lookout vista

Zeke's

Sky Blue 

One of three toads for the day

Sky Blue singletrack goodness

Great trail

Overview coming up Bald via the Frohock trail

Selfie with a view

Bald Mountain vista

Bald

Blueberries all along the trail up to Cameron summit

Trail up to Cameron

Mount Battie vista

Ocean Lookout selfie

Ocean Lookout

Sheep Laurel on the trail out to Megunticook

Megunticook

After Megunticook, I ran along the Ridge Trail, which was quite lovely, then headed back down to the parking lot via the shortest route as I had run out of water. I ended up with 18.7 miles for the day and was more than happy with that! A good run/hike adventure, for sure!

Pointy ;)

The route

And well, because, happiness is also a big ice cream cone after a long run ;)