I headed over to Bradbury on Friday morning after dropping Sam off at camp and stopping by the farmer's market to pick up some fresh fruits and veggies. It was a bright, sunny, warm morning with a nice breeze and I headed out onto the BBU west side course.
The run was rather uneventful except for one stretch. Out on the Connector between the powerlines and Lawrence Road, I heard an odd noise and when I looked left, there was a guy out in the middle of the pine trees, with a spray pack on his back. I stopped to say hello and to ask him WTF he was doing?! ;) I asked more nicely, of course, but that was what I was thinking! ;) He indicated he was spraying the invasive oriental bittersweet vines that are taking over this section of forest and attempting to kill off the trees. Huh. Interesting. I went along my merry way and up at the edge of the field, saw another man spraying and then down by the little bridge right before Snowman's aid station, there was a guy clearing out debris from the stream bed. I've never seen so much activity on the Connector before, but it is great that it is getting some attention!
A good 10 miles for the morning and then onto errands, laundry and cleaning for the rest of the day!
Beautiful black-eyed Susans out in the Lawrence Road field
It was lovely out as I headed out around 6:40 am on Saturday morning to run from home. So much nicer than the typical hot muggy days of summer as it was relatively cool and not humid. Yay! Always feels so much better running with good weather! I ran up and over Mt. A, along with holes 3, 4 and 5 before heading off along the Heath Trail. I took the short detour to the bench along the far side of the heath and was rewarded with some lovely high bush blueberries. Delish!
From there I followed the Cathance trails the long way out to Barnes Leap and along the river. There's not a lot of water flowing right now, so the accompanying melody is more of a trickle than the springtime roar, but still nice. Up in the field, there were some ripe raspberries that needed to be picked, and out along the Blueberry Loop, there were indeed blueberries! Needless to say a few stops were made :) I also scared up a group of 8 turkey poults and left the mother in a dither - poor thing - as they all scattered into the trees and she was on the ground clucking and practically spinning in circles.
Once I looped back through the Cathance, I took the back dirt road down to Tedford Road and back up the powerlines to Highland Green Road. I stopped at the corner to pick more blueberries and found a few blackberries too - yum! - and to ponder my sanity for a few minutes ;) But with 6 miles to go, I sighed and continued on, up and over Mt. A again to run around Highland Green Road and back. I finished up with a loop past the schools on Canam and came in with 16 miles on the dot, a mix of trails and roads on a beautiful morning.
The rest of the day was spent doing errands before Nate, Shannon, Finely, Charlotte and Annelise came over for dinner. We haven't caught up with them in ages, so it was really nice to have a chance to get together and catch up on all the happenings of the summer so far!
This morning, I met up with Emma down at her place in Falmouth at 6:00 am for a run on the Blackstrap trails. I haven't run out there since 2008, when Jeff put on the first Hell race. Wow! There is an amazing network of trails throughout Falmouth and I was really impressed. We ran a nice hilly out and back for 10 miles total, with some nice views out on the powerlines, good spongy singletrack, twisty turny trails along streams and out through the woods. It was another gorgeous morning - cool, crisp and sunny - and it was fun to catch up with Emma while we ran along. While we weren't running super fast, we were keeping a decent pace given the terrain and there were only a few quick stops to leash the dogs at the road crossing and to take in the view from the powerline overlook on the way out, so it was a solid run. A great way to end the running week, and I am happy to once again have hit just over 50 miles.
Shortly after I got home, we all headed down to Harpswell to spend the day with Anne, Thistle, Phil and Kristen. Simply gorgeous out there, and the girls had fun exploring the tidal pool at the end of the point and watching the green crabs and hermit crabs crawl around while Phil scared up a small lobster for us to take a look at. Then it was onto the pool for several hours both before and after lunch. A great day with good friends, and a good way to end a fun weekend!
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