Summertime!: Week #6

A sunny, warm, humid week complete with some good summer fun! 

Monday: Already 72 degrees at 5:25 am! Whew! Heavy, hot and humid. Ran the cart paths and enjoyed the pretty sky. Sunrise is definitely getting noticeably later... (6.0 miles)

Long day working at the kitchen table, but enjoyed seeing this little guy out back! He's not much bigger than the squirrels! 😍 First time he's come around, although we've seen both mom and dad groundhog regularly this spring and summer. 

Too hot for an afternoon walk, so just kept working instead 😁😁

Tuesday: Another warm day but Sam agreed to an afternoon walk provided we went to Dairy Queen 😉 Always good to get out to walk and talk with the kiddo! (2.0 miles walked)

Wednesday: Up and out early. Drove Ryan's car over to the dealership for oil change and inspection and started from there. Really lovely sky with some nice pastel colors on the horizon. Ran the powerlines out to the Gone Fishing trails. Stopped for a few handfuls of blueberries and raspberries and to watch a doe and her three fawn dance by. Still humid but much cooler, which was nice. (7.3 miles)

Saw both a baby downy woodpecker on the suet feeder and a baby fox out back today 😍 Such fun!

Sam and I headed out around 4:00 pm for a walk on the roads around the school loop while Ryan got in his run. Overcast and comfortable. (2.0 miles walked)

Thursday: Meh. Didn't run in the morning and just felt off all day. But Sam and I did get out for a lovely afternoon walk. We found the trifecta of berries out there! Blueberries, raspberries, and the first blackberries of the season. Yum! (2.0 miles walked)

Friday: Up early and out on the roads run around town. Cooler and overcast but muggy. Improved my CR on the Brookside/Homeplace segment and improved my time on the Highlands bike path segment, but gonna have to shave a fair amount of time to get that one 😉 Hey, I'll call the segment chasing silly but it is also acting as a bit of speedwork in a time of no structured training, so you know 😂 (7.0 miles)

Then it was off to the Reid State Park with Sam, where we met up with Anne and family. We decided to try Half Mile beach this time around, which was quite lovely, and definitely quieter than the main beach. Low tide was at 8:40 am and we arrived around 9:30, so we had a nice wide stretch of beach to enjoy. The water was still pretty darn cold, but the kids had fun! We walked twice to the other end of the beach to check out the river where the water from the lagoon and tidal flats drained and played around down there, as well as walked over the rocks to the other end of the main beach to see if it would be good for boogie boarding. Waves were too small, but it confirmed our choice of the smaller beach - the main beach was packed! By the time we left around 1:00, things were pretty busy though, regardless of beach. All told, a great morning with friends out in the sun and on the sand 😎😎

Saturday: The darn cat woke me up early but it was good to get out before it got too hot out there anyway. The early start didn't do anything for the humidity though! Whew! Soggy indeed 💦💦 So sweaty! Ran the cart paths out to hole 7, and included a loop around the Heath, before ducking into the woods and running the trails out to Head of Tides. The more open trails are getting rather overgrown, so a bit itch-inducing, but at least the deer flies seemed to be sleeping! Many mushrooms out in the woods, and some nice views en-route. 

Circled back via the road and then looped out onto the powerlines off Rt. 24 to the Lover's Lane loop plus a short section of mountain bike singletrack on the Gone Fishing system. Stopped a fair number of times for berry picking. So many berries! Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and even black raspberries out at Head of Tides. Can't beat that!! So good 😋 

Wore my new TMR shirt and it was quite comfy. Finished, as one would except, soaked and literally dripping in sweat. Felt a bit cooked by the time I finished, probably in part due not only to the weather but also the 4 hours in the sun at the beach on Friday. Ah, summer... (15.0 miles)

Black rasbperries out at Head of Tide

So many raspberries!

Blackberries are beginning to ripen. Going to be a good season for them! They are everywhere!

After lunch, we rallied to get up to Thorne Head for a short hike. It was warm, but it wasn't stifling and there was a bit of a breeze along the river at least. Always a good place for a walk. And we all tried out our new Goodr sunglasses 😎😍 - fun! (1.5 miles walked)

Lots of bullfrogs croaking

Kennebec view

Sunday: Tried to sleep in a bit and was partially successful. Got out around 7:45 and ran roads around town. Kind of a lazy cop-out for the morning but it was nice to just run along and not think much about it, and avoid the bugs too. Warm and muggy, but not bad in the shade and there was a bit of a breeze. (10.0 miles)

Another hot summer day on tap, so we're planning on laying low, playing some games, talking with the grandparents and doing a bit of prep for next week's camping trip!