What's Next?: Back Roads

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Back Roads

Met up with Amy this morning for a wander on the back roads of Pownal and Durham after dropping Sam off at school. We took the snowmobile trail out of the park down to Poland Range Road. It started as dirt and turned to pavement across the street from Rt. 9. The day was warming up, but there was a nice breeze and the air smelled wonderfully sweet along the way, a mix of ferns and roadside roses, honeysuckle and field grass. Gotta love it.

At the fork in the road we turned toward New Gloucester onto a lovely rolling dirt road. We passed several ponds filled with lily pads and a gorgeous field set against the blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. There were many White Admiral and Eastern Swallowtail butterflies flitting about, which was very cool, but sadly there were also the first hordes of deer flies for the season as well.

We really had no idea where we were, so when we topped out on one of the many hills right around 8 miles in, we turned around and headed back to Lawrence Road, following that back to the park via Elmwood. The last portion was the worst of the run - hot pavement and no shoulder - ah well - but the rest was a fun wander. The pace was mellow with a few of the steepest hills walked, and we chatted the whole way. We got back to the park entrance with Garmins reading just over 15 miles. I had another 5 miles to do, so we split off to go our own separate ways, Amy getting in a tad bit more for a round 16, and me off onto the Knight Wood Trail to the snowmobile trail up and back to get to 20. Felt solid for the final 5, likely because the pace hadn't been pushed early, which was really nice. Ran out of water with 2.5 miles to go, so it was a bit of a thirsty final few miles, but other than that, all was good! A fine way to spend a Thursday morning and always good to skip out on work and run with a friend! ;) Thanks, Amy!