What's Next?: Enjoying

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Enjoying

With this week being a down week, this week's running has been pretty mellow, filled with lots of stopping to take photos, and much marveling at the greening forests, the blooming wildflowers, the chattering birds, and of course, those fox kits 😍

I didn't get up quite as early as I had hoped on Thursday morning, so I kept my run short and sweet, running the cart paths minus holes one and two. Shadbush, bluets and wood anemone in bloom, and even better, the run brought another fox kit sighting, this time three of them! So adorable and so curious. I wouldn't mind seeing them all the time! 💗🐺 (5.1 miles)

Morning lounging

Hey, whatcha doin? Sooo cute!

I had told Val I'd head up north on Friday to pick up soup from Keri for Riverlands, figuring it would give me an excuse to get up that way for a run. I headed out early and parked at the Georges Highland Path parking lot on Rt. 17. It was cool and windy so I suited up with my arm sleeves and gloves and headed out right around 7:00 am. Although I wasn't planning on a lot of mileage and wasn't planning on pushing the pace, I knew a few hours with some good vert and some powerhiking would be a good thing pre-Laurel. The trail is fairly rugged but a lot of it is runnable, and there are some amazing vistas along the way. The forest floor was greening up with violets, wood sorrel, wild oats, solomon seal and blue bead lilies blooming and unfurling.

Violets in the sun

Mirror Lake vista

Early morning sunshine

Wild oats

Morning view

Trail along the back side of Ragged

Couldn't figure out what these flowers were, all closed up in the cold morning air

Hosmer Brook junction

I wanted to check out the new Snow Bowl trails, so headed down the Hosmer Brook when I got to that junction, about 3.3 miles in. The trail still seemed quite new and didn't appear to have gotten a lot of traffic, but was fairly easy to follow through the harwood forest. I took the short little extra loop that ran by Hosmer brook and then continued on down to the Snow Bowl base.

I got myself a bit turned around down at the base as I was expecting the Red Diamond Trail to have the abundant marking and signage like the Hosmer Brook had. I wandered around a bit here and there and then just decided to cut over and hope for the best at the top of the double chair ;) It worked and I found the trail much better marked from there on out and up. This seemed a typical biker trail down in the ski resort, winding this way and that on tight switchbacks, and I was happy to get a bit higher up into the glades and onto the ledges again as that was more to my liking. There were some lovely vistas out to the ocean along the way.

Red Diamond Trail vista

The trail popped back out at an unmarked spot along the backside of Ragged and I retraced my steps back down to the car.

Blueberry flowers

Mountain cranberry blooming

Trail vista

Lovely morning light

On the way back down I realized the closed flowers from a few hours earlier had opened in the warm sunlight and I could then easily tell that they were wood sorrel 🌸 So pretty!

I ended up with 9.5 miles in a little under 2 1/2 hours of moving time. Perfect for a good morning jaunt up through the hills!

Stopped to pick up the soup and catch up with Keri briefly before she had to get back to work then headed to drop said soup off at Val's and the home to get some cleaning and errands done before it was time to pick Sam and Anne up at Amber's for movie night! Ryan and I took advantage of the fact that we were kid-free for a few hours and had a yummy dinner at Big E's followed up by a yummy flight at Moderation Brewery, the new brewery downtown. It was a fun little space with good people behind the bar and some pretty good beer too. 🍻A fun night had by all!

Moderation in all thing, including moderation ;)

This morning I got up and headed over to Bowdoin to run out through the Commons and Coleman Farm. It occurred to me as I ran along that I've been running these trails for 25 years (!!), and that truly if there was a visceral expression of why I run, that a run like this morning's would be it. With the sun shining down, and the woods coming alive around me. With the daffodils, periwinkle wild oats, trout lilies, trillium, goldthread, wood anemone, purple and white violets, and bluebead lilies blooming. With the bobolink chattering in the fields and thrush flitting through the woodland branches. With my legs feeling a slight fatigue from yesterday's mountain run but also feeling strong like I could continue on forever. Running through fields and woods and along the ocean, on these trails I love, with a smile on my face, I couldn't help but feel an intense joy. There is nothing extraordinary about today's run, about these trails, and yet, there is. It sounds corny, I know, but it's true. Felt light and happy out there today 💕 (10.0 miles)