While The Kiddo's Away...

... the parents will play! 😂😍😎

We kicked off the week with a fun run adventure up Rumford Whitecap & Black Mountains on 4th of July. It was really the perfect day - blue skies, a nice breeze, warm and sunny but not too hot. Lovely! And Rumford Whitecap was a real treat with sweeping views in all directions along the rocky ledges. Definitely a great summit, and one we'll have to come back to. Lots of sheep laurel and blueberries too.

As you can tell from the photos, Ryan was pretty much out front all day. I was definitely feeling the miles from the past few days, and was just not moving with a lot of speed. I didn't feel badly but just a bit tired and brought up the rear the vast majority of the time.

We ascended the peak via the Orange/Red Trail and then dropped off the back of Whitecap on what appeared to be an official unoffical trail that brought us down to the Black/White Trail. Once we got off Whitecap, the trail out to Black definitely had much more of an unused feel, and with good reason. Honestly, Whitecap was the best part of the day and the remainder was more of a wooded run/hike with the summit of Black offering up some views but none as dramatic as along the ledges on Whitecap. A bit of a grind up to the top of the ski area, following moose prints along the way and marveling at all the bunchberry and blue bead lily greenery. I'm guessing it is truly glorious a bit earlier in spring when things are in bloom! Once at the top of the ski area, we took a dirt/gravel road up to the tower atop Black before retracing our steps back down. 

Instead of heading back up to Whitecap summit, we continued on the Black/White trail as it traversed the side of the mountain through the woods. Some neat rocks and a few patches of sweet smelling ferns, but otherwise, nothing much of excitement seen enroute, as is evidenced by our photos taken in the final 7 miles of the run 😂 But all in all, a really fun day and great to get out on an adventure in the woods with Ryan! (10.77 miles)

That concluded 49 miles and a little less than 10 hours of training in the first four days of July, so I was definitely most happy to take a rest day on Tuesday, and could barely keep my eyes open until 8:00 pm on Monday night! 😉😆😴

After a full zero day on Tuesday, we got out for a late afternoon walk around the school block on Wednesday. Another beautiful day with a nice breeze. Saw a pair of Killdeer and three little chicks flitting around at the edge of the grasses, calling and chatting back and forth to each other. Neat. (1.7 miles walked)

On Thursday, I got up and out for a run down to the river and back before heading into the office for the day. Lovely morning to be out and cool enough that the deer flies were not out, which was a nice added bonus! Legs felt a bit clunky but otherwise fine. Of course, there were the requisite stops to take in the view and eat some trailside blueberries 😊 (6.0 miles)

Friday, I got some early morning errands done around town and stopped at the farmer's market before meeting up with Val out at Lawrence Road for a run at 10:00. Another bright and beautiful day, although definitely warming up and the deer flies were back out. Darn those buggers! Some lovely wildflowers and milkweed at Coyote Corner and a few blueberries too, plus some shinleaf in bloom out at the edge of the powerlines, which were way too overgrown to want to try to tackle. We had a nice mellow meander, catching up as we ran along, going out and back on the Connector, the Royal River trails and then Tryon. Always fun to share some miles with Val! 😊(6.25 miles)

Then after some more errands in the afternoon, Ryan and I headed into town for a date night at Enoteca Athena. What fun!🍸🍸🍷 Dinner was delish, but the best part was the pistachio olive oil cake for dessert. Dreamy, and definitely photo worthy 😋😉

Didn't rush out on Saturday morning as we really had nothing planned for the day and finally headed out around 8:30 for a run on the powerlines. Beautiful, bright and breezy morning with a lot of summertime beauty seen enroute, including wood lilies blooming, a monarch on the milkweed and blueberries to eat 😍 (9.0 miles)

Got a few things done around the house but it was too nice out to just sit and relax on the couch for the rest of the afternoon, so I convinced Ryan we should at least get out for a short meander 😉 We headed down to Harpswell to walk on the Wilson and Widgeon Cove trails. Always lovely to get out to ocean views. (1.4 miles walked)

Sunday was the Scuffle, the first race in the TMR dirt series, and we were volunteering at the finish line, so I got up and out a little after 6:00 am to get in a few miles before we headed over for the race. Ran the cart paths and enjoyed the cool morning, with one deer, one osprey and one great blue heron seen. (6.0 miles)

Then it was off to the park. Always fun to catch up with friends and cheer on the runners! And Jamie, Kate and the dogs had a campsite for Saturday and Sunday night, so after helping to clean up after the awards, we headed over there to hang out and have lunch. It was a beautiful day to sit in our camp chairs, chatting with friends and a great way to wrap up the weekend!

Camp implemented a new email system this year where there is the option for the kiddos to write a handwritten response and have it uploaded to the camp app, and we got our first camp note from Sam this week! 😍😎😊 So happy to hear she is having fun!