Friday, August 18, 2017

Peace

I don't understand and feel heavy-hearted about the recent hatred and violence in our country, along with the president's lack of condemnation of this nastiness, but I do know that nature soothes my soul and running and hiking out the woods and the mountain clears my head, and this week, I am incredibly grateful to be able to do these things that bring me joy, when I know many others do not have a way to find their own peace.

It was good to be back in the woods on Monday morning. Ran up and over Mt. A. and out into the Cathance for a nice 6 mile loop. Stopped on the way up the road to pick a handful of super sweet, super large blackberries and enjoyed the misty morning light rising over the Heath and along the river.


Tuesday morning, I met up with my friend Lauren at 5:30 am over at the Bowdoin field house for a run out through the Commons and Coleman Farm. Lauren's boy, Ethan, was one of the kids in Sam's daycare at Building Blocks and they've been in the same class for several years. Lauren is also an awesome massage therapist and I've gotten a few very much needed massages from her in the past few months. When I found out she had taken up trail running and was now living in Brunswick, I told her I'd show one of my favorite trail systems - always fun to show a friend the trails you love!

It was a very foggy morning and the first half mile were run in murky early morning light. We had fun chatting away as we ran along and Lauren, despite her fears, did a great job keeping up a good pace and is a natural! She loves the ocean so I knew she would like the stretch out along the tidal marsh and through the pine trees at Coleman Farms. Always so lovely out there.


Of course, soon after we had just been discussing technical trails and how this run wasn't all that technical, what do I do but trip and fall and smash my knee 😂😂 Honestly, it is so typical! Ha. I will admit that it hurt a bit and it did create a lovely river of blood down my leg, but what to do but shake it off and keep on running?! 


Ha ha. We will see if Lauren ever runs with me again ;) In the end, despite the blood, it was a good 7.5 miles for the morning! 

Thursday I hit the roads for a good 8 mile run up over Mt. A and around the Highland Green loop twice. It was a nice, cool morning and the low pinkish orange orb of the sun was rising in the pastel sky at the back of the neighborhood, which is always a treat to see. I didn't set out to run any sort of pace or even really look at my watch so was happy to see I was able to at least pull off a few low 8s without too much effort. I will admit that my knee hurt a bit from Tuesday's fall but otherwise, I felt decent.


My plan for Friday was a mountain adventure run. My initial thought was to head over to the Baldface area, but rain was in the forecast for around 11:00 am and I didn't relish the thought of being up on those ledges in the rain, so I decided to pick something closer to home. I've been wanting to get up on some of the Georges Highland Path trails for a while now, so I decided today would be a good morning for it and chose the Ragged/Bald section to explore. 

I was up and out of the house just as the sky was turning light around 5:40 and the drive only took me a little over an hour with a stop for gas. Nice to be on the roads with no traffic :) I parked in the nice lot off of Rt. 17, got suited up and headed out onto the trails a minute before 7:00 am. 


The trail meandered through some nice woods with some rocky, rooty but still runnable, albeit slowly, terrain and then climbed up to some ledges with nice views down to Mirror Lake.


The sky was overcast, but honestly, the light shining through the clouds made it all the more beautiful.



The trail ascends to near the radio (?) tower atop the Camden Snow Bowl on Ragged Mountain, and I took a wrong turn on one of the paths that went over to the tower before figuring out that the Georges Highland Path actually hugged the backside of the summit, offering some sweeping views out into the distance as it wound along ledges and through patches of blueberries. I of course stopped to pick a few handfuls :) The contrast of the blue berries, the greenish-white lichen and the changing blueberry plant leaves was beautiful.


The trail ducked back into the woods and I came across a trail sign for the Hosmer Brook Trail which leads down to the base of the Snow Bowl. I will come back to explore those trails another day, for sure, but for today, I continued on. Soon after, I hit the junction with the Thorndike Brook Trail, another access point, and then Buzzard's Ledge, with some nice views out toward Camden.






The late summer/early autumn berries and plants were putting on a lovely show, with some nice patches of mountain cranberry mixed in with and around the blueberries, bunchberries and the blue bead lily beads out on display.




The trail descended steeply to Barnestown Road and crossed it with little fanfare to wander through the woods a ways before hooking up with the trail proper up Bald Mountain. This was a short, steep but rewarding jaunt, with lovely ledges and great views. 



My watch read 5.75 miles when I turned around and I could tell, from looking out into the distance, that the rains were headed our way. I was surprised to come across about a half a dozen people climbing Bald and then another 8 people between Barnestown Road and Rt. 17 on my way back, all hiking up toward Ragged in different spots. It is good to see the trail getting some use, but I had expected things to be more quiet on a day forecasted to be rainy!

I stopped a few times here and there on the return trip to soak in the views, pick a few more blueberries, add some water to my bladder from the softbottle I was carrying in one of my front pockets and to take a few more photos, but mostly I ran as much as I could and hiked as fast as I could when I couldn't run :)



I ended up with 11.4 miles for the morning in a little over 3 hours moving time. I felt a bit more tired than I would have liked, and I suspect I've picked up a bit of Sam's cold as I was feeling quite sniffly out there, but overall, I felt solid on the climbs and my typical cautious self on the descents ;) This was not a fast 'run' but I am happy to have gotten in some good climbing while out exploring new-to-me trails, taking in some gorgeous views on some rugged but truly lovely trails and clearing my head and finding some peace. And I beat the rain by about 10 minutes, so that is all good too :)

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