Miscellaneous ramblings:
- New red trail at Stonington! I was asked by town rec officials to meet up and walk the trail recently and consider incorporating into our now annual Stonington XC run that we co-host. Trail is looking good and should serve well to eliminate 2-way traffic.
- Speaking of new red trails, I just happened to come upon the brand new flagged and rough cut trail in Ninigret. It is about 1.2 miles and does reduce blacktop. Like I said, it's pretty rough right now, but all trails start out that way.
- I noticed painted arrows on the Ninigret bike path and field, suggesting a race course. Sure enough, when I finished up my run I saw a yard-sale type sign promoting the Deerfoot 5K. The previous weekend. I try to support local races where possible, but had no idea of this one. Searched results and found they had 31 finishers. Total conjecture on my part, but I imagine the low numbers to be influenced by less than optimal marketing and the return to ubiquity of 5K road races.
- Next up in obscure local races is Charlestown Land Trust's "Try It, You'll Love it" 10K trail race on June 4. I'm trying to limit my races and save time for actual training, but who knows, I may finally run this race. There's pizza at the end!
- Vermont's rest areas are very clean and convenient. Relative to Vermont's, Massachusetts' are pretty disgusting.
Monday: 0
Intentional rest day.
Tuesday: 3 walk
Westerly, RI. I led a crew of three to more remote parts of Grills Preserve. We removed copious beer cans, bottles, and nips from the cliffs of Big Hill. We then proceeded to liberate the racetrack from a myriad of oil cans, a frying pan, exhaust manifold, tire, and even an ice skate!
Lugging that crap out of there was heavy, and I was pretty tired when we were done.
Wednesday: 12
AM: Charlestown, RI. 6-mile run with Brady at Ninigret Park. Unusual to run at Ninigret Park without encountering any humans, but that was the case today. Highlight was finding and running the new red trail. Exciting!
PM: Westerly, RI. 6 miles at Woody Hill with Brady. Easy run on the "classic" trails.
Thursday: 9
Westerly, RI. Group of four. From Barlow. Ran 2 miles solo on Barlow trails, then group run into Woody. Quite a few mountain bikers out there. Nothing against them, and they were all friendly, but I prefer to avoid Woody evenings and weekends in order to have a bigger chance of fewer humans.
Friday: 11
West Greenwich, RI. Logged into work computer, and seeing my only scheduled meeting of the morning got moved to Monday, it's time to hit the trails! Took Brady up to Wickaboxet for the first visit in quite a while. We ran for nine miles before encountering another human!
A woman leader of the small hiking group coming towards us suddenly yelled out "Jogger!" to the rest of the group behind her. That was odd, as I looked around and didn't see any joggers at all. As Brady passed her, she said "Cute puppy! What a good girl!". That was odd, as I looked around, and didn't see any female puppies at all. The hike leader seemed nice enough, but maybe off her rocker?
Only one other human encounter after that: a woman hiker also with a black lab. Had a great run out there, and love how much of the Wickaboxet and Tillinghast trails have a soft of pine needles. Stopped at several streams, where Brady promptly laid down in them and put his head under the water to cool off.
Saturday: 10
Charlestown, RI. Had planned out a long run of 18 miles, but awoke to rain, wind, and temps in the upper 40s and I just wasn't into it. The long run was going to be the first 10 or so solo, and then lead the WTAC Group Run of the month from The Bakery in Charlestown. Instead, pressed snooze again, and got going with just enough for a 2-mile warmup before leading the group. Apparently the rain had turned off others as well, as it was just Matt S and Dave G that showed up. It all turned out fine, we had some good conversation, and finished up scones, coffee, and conversation.
Sunday: 7
Stowe, VT. Cady Hill Forest, part of the Stowe Land Trust. Really fun trail run literally right out the back door of the hotel we were spending the night in. Slept fitfully and awoke about 6:50am to someone licking my face telling me to get up. No, it wasn't Jana.
Temps were in the upper 30s at start, so I wore a pair of thin gloves and felt fine.
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| Fun dirt rails through pine forests |
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| Map kiosks at key intersections |
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| I like snakes. This way sounds good. It turns out the "Snake" trail was a long and twisty trail snaking its way up a hill. |
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| One of two "green chair" vantage points |
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| I'm normally leery of continuing past "Private Property" signs, but this one was clearly welcoming |
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| Bear! (9 o'clock) Terrible photo, as it's about 8x zoom and running away by the time I get my phone ready. Was really interesting, intense actually, watching the initial stare-down between Brady and the bear. I told Brady firmly "Stay!" and he did, but as he raised his hackles and tail high, telling the bear Brady was on high alert, the bear reacted and first high-tailed it up the nearest tree, but then scampered down and sprinted away. |
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| Lookout point #2 (presumably at Stowe ski area) |
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| One of the final trails we took, called "Bridgey". The meaning of the trail name became clear as we came across these long wavy bridge sections. --- [Look closely] Only problem for Brady was that the slat openings were too wide for his feet. I felt bad and scared when one of his legs dropped between two slats while he was running on the wooden bridge. Good way to break a leg. From then on, we ran outside of the bridge, and we were all down with "Bridgey". |
Weekly mileage: 50 run, 3 walk
Weekly synopsis: Didn't hit my mileage goal this week, but not too far off. Otherwise, the runs I went on were pretty fun. Nice variety of runs.
Weekly highlight: Running related, Cady Hill Forest trail run in Stowe Land Trust. Seeing the bear was a bonus (well, once I realized it would end well). Always fun to run new trails.
From a personal satisfaction standpoint, completing the project to replace our 24-year old bathroom exhaust fans. The project scope grew as I had to add electrical junction boxes in the attic, replace wiring and ducts, and resolve that the new fans left a gap in the ceiling, but all worthwhile in the end. The old fans were rusty and noisy and did a mediocre job. The new fans are so quiet, bright, and efficient.
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| The gap is small, but visible and annoying. How am I going to fix that? |
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| It turns out this is a somewhat common issue, as fans and other devices are getting smaller over the years, leaving a ceiling gap when replacing their older counterparts. --- A company in NY has a solution: you provide inside and outside diameters online, and four days later your custom-cut pliable "goof ring" appears in the mail. |
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| Voila! The goof ring looks like it's part of the device now, and there's no gap. To think I was going to try to plaster patch the ceiling or put caulk into the gap. |
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| Looks great, works great. Bright LED light replaces light bulbs as well. |
Weekly lowlight: Not getting a long run in.
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