Monday: 5 walk
Hopkinton, RI. Walk of the perimeter trails of Grills Wildlife Sanctuary and Tomaquag Trail out to the Polly Coon bridge, as part of an upcoming Providence Journal article. With John K, Providence Journal author of "Walking Rhode Island", with whom I worked with on producing trail maps for an upcoming book of his. Always enjoyable to catch up.
Following up on John's question as to how the bridges (Wine Bottle Brook bridge and Tomaquag Brook bridge) were constructed, I was lent some really neat photos on their construction ten years ago:
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| Wine Bottle Brook (first brook you cross on the main dirt road): reconstruction was needed in order to get heavy vehicles out to Tomaquag Brok --- Photos courtesy Hopkinton Land Trust |
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| Tomaquag Bridge brook: final phase of construction, intentionally constructed during a dry spell in November 2013 |
Tuesday: 12
Groton, CT.
Two 5K runs of the new Groton City Brew Run, both with a measuring wheel to try to figure out start/finish. This is my first year as Race Director, and with the approval of the race committee, I'm changing the race course to have water views for the final mile.
Followed that up with a 6-mile run at Bluff Point on single-track.
Wednesday: 9
AM: Charlestown, RI. Sammy C's and North Camp with Brady, and a post-run dip in Watchaug Pond.
PM: Westerly, RI. Fun Runs week #2. More haze from the Canadian wildfires. 19:17
Thursday: 5 walk
Charlestown, RI. Led a group of nine on WLT Thursday Hike series at Carter Preserve.
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| When leading this June hike, I was asked if I could find a preserve that had mountain laurel in bloom. Jackpot! |
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| White mountain laurel blooms are much more common here than the pink ones that I was also happy to see. |
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| Pointing out decimation of oak trees from the gypsy moth infestation of 2017. White pines and pitch pines are slowly emerging in their place. |
Friday: 7
West Greenwich, RI. Run with Brady on perimeter trails at Tillinghast and Wickaboxet Preserves. Most trails were fine, but some, especially along the southern part of the preserves, were just horribly overgrown. The main blue trail at Wickaboxet was so overgrown that I couldn't see my feet or the trail while I was running in places, and twisted my ankle because I couldn't see a rock on the trail. It's too bad this isn't better maintained, but this will be my last visit here until a fall frost because of it.
Drove up to NH for a fun weekend in the Whites.
Saturday: 12
Green's Grant, NH. Black Fly in my Eye 10-Mile Trail Race. See separate race report.
Sunday: 17
Waterville Valley, NH. 3 peaks (Tecumseh, Osceola, Osceola East) and 5,600' of elevation gain. With Matthew. I held up better on this than I imagined, and mostly got really worn down by steep technical descents off Osceola.
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| Technical trail en route to Tecumseh summit. |
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| Partially obscured views from Tecumseh summit |
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| Our next three destinations on the run |
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| Awesome views from Osceola |
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| The descent is very technical |
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| Fortunately the last few miles, after Greeley Ponds, is flat and easy |
Weekly mileage: 57 run, 10 walk
Weekly synopsis: Another good week, and another trail race and mountain run building up to my 50K.
Weekly highlight: Black Fly in my Eye trail race. That was a lot of fun!
Weekly lowlight: Overgrown trails at Tillinghast and Wickaboxet.
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