Weekday Running

Nasty, cold and rainy on Wednesday morning - feels like 39! Brrr. 😬 Saw that and just went back to sleep instead. Ha! So it was out for a round of afternoon hill repeats in exchange. Thankfully I had worked 10 1/2 hours on Tuesday so leaving a bit early for my run just evened things out for the week 😉 Didn't feel the best when I started out, but just told myself to suck it up and go 😂 and it went better than expected. Glad to have gotten it done. (7.1 miles)

Thursday, I ran the cart paths, a loop down to the river and back, plus a bit of powerlines and a final mile+ on Canam for an early morning double-digit run. Felt a bit tired, but that's OK. Lots of flower blooming, towhee singing along the powerlines, one deer seen and one beaver spotted carrying some greens through the waters of the Heath. Fun sighting! (10.0 miles)

Trailing arbutus

Bunchberry

Rhodora blanketing the Heath

Wild cala lilies are coming up!

💗

Busy beaver 😃

Up and out early again on Friday morning, but this time for a road trip up north. Very foggy and misty during the drive, with the fog hanging really low. Started at the Georges Highland Trail trailhead near Mirror Lake and climbed up Ragged through the damp, greening woods. Everything was covered with a thin sheen of wetness from either overnight rain or the fog or both, making the roots and rock ledges incredibly slick. A bit too slippery for my comfort! 😬

Jack in the pulpit!

Misty

So many blueberry bells

No views to be had along the backside of Ragged and very slow going inching my way across the wet rock slabs. I had intended a longer run but really just was not up for navigating slippery rocks all day long, so I decided to cut my losses and make a shorter loop that would still give me some good elevation and just take my time and try to enjoy it. I took the unmarked turn-off onto the Red Diamond Trail and made my way down through the woods and rock ledges to the bike switchbacks along the ski slopes. 

Red Diamond ledge view

Beautiful patch of columbine in a clearing along the Red Diamond Trail

Managed to find a fairly direct route across the ski area to hook up with the Hosmer Brook trail. Much less meandering than when Ryan and I ran a similar loop last July! Lots of wildflowers in the hardwood forest as I ascended back to the ridge.

Purple trillium

Wild Indian Cucumber

Star flower

Bluebead lily

Back on the ridge, I cut back over at the Red Diamond trail and took the cut-off that ended back at the Ragged tower to avoid the slippery rocks on the backside. Skies were clearing as I headed down.

Back at the car at 8.5 miles, I dumped off the extra food, clothing and water filter that I had been carrying and then crossed the (busy!) road to head up to Spruce. Haven't done this section of the trail before and enjoyed the open woods and the short climb up to the ledges below the Spruce summit. I took what I had assumed was the trail down through a little meadow area replete with blueberry bushes and blooming Bunchberries for a fun descent to a trail crossing, which is where I realized I had gone wrong. I knew there wasn't much in terms of trail on this side of the road, so I took a left, knowing that would take me back towards Spruce, and soon enough the trail opened up at the Spruce ledges, with a lovely view down to Mirror Lake and the ocean beyond. Then I followed the trail back up over the ledges below the summit and back down to the car. A nice little add-on, short on effort with some good views!

Spruce view

All in all, despite the run not being quite what I had been hoping, it was a fun jaunt in the woods with some lovely flowers, some good hiking practice and good elevation. And I was done before 10:00 am 😂😃 (10.0 miles)

Got home in time to get the grocery shopping and errands done and get the house clean before picking Sam up. Ryan took off for Chesterfield mid-afternoon so Sam and I went out for Japanese and gelato to kick off the weekend. Yum!