Head of Tides

After a whole lot of dreary, raw weather this week, today the sun was finally shining and it felt like spring. After dropping Sam off at school, I headed out for my run. Although I know I'm not fully recovered from Grayson Highlands, I've been feeling decent and I'm also thinking about ramping things up for the TARC Fall Classic 50 miler, which I finally signed up for after thinking about it since January ;) So, with all that in mind, and wanting to take advantage of the nice morning, I headed out into the Cathance to run out to Head of Tides. The trails are in pretty good shape right now and the river is running fairly high, so it's a lovely run along out on the singletrack, listening to the rapids.

I scared up a turkey out in the field and he took flight into the trees; also startled what was likely the same turtle as last week in the same quarry pond and watched him wriggle down off the rock he was sunning on into the water. As for the flora, there are some trailing arbutus flowering, and out at the park at Head of Tides the blue spring beauties and the violets are blooming in amongst the greening grass. In the woods, the leaves of the false lily of the valley are starting to unfurl and I noticed some star flower leaves too, but overall the forest floor is still pretty brown. This has been a slow spring in terms of growth, it seems.

Had intended for this to be a fairly mellow run, but I'd say it ended up being a moderate effort. My legs felt pretty good, although I was definitely flagging a bit in the final few miles. Ended up with a solid 11 miles in a little under two hours. A good way to kick off the weekend, for sure!

Trailing arbutus

White and purple violets

Roaring river. Green moss.