Weekly Log 1-7 to 1-13

Monday, 1-7 - 4.5 Miles (Trail) - Hoffman Evergreen Preserve, Stonington.  Thank you, Yaktrax!!!  Another Avalonia Land Conservancy gem, located 1.2 miles north of Rte. 184 on Rte. 201.  Great trails, still snowy and a bit icy in spots, but I didn't slip once thanks to the "Yaks".

Well-marked trails, nice hilly sections, and a few stream crossings, but what I really liked about this spot was the fact that it's situated entirely in pine forest, so the trails are pretty smooth single track with a nice layer of pine needles:

I still have some more exploring to do there, there are about 7 miles of trail, and I got turned around a couple of times and missed some of it, but a really nice spot!

Tuesday, 1-8 - 3 Miles (Trail)  Copp Property Trails, Groton. - 246 acres with mostly flat trails throughout, and extremely dog friendly.  One really nice hill up to "Eagle Claw Ledge" and some really cool technical single track along the ridgeline.  Not well marked or maintained at all, but it gets enough foot traffic that the trails are well worn, even in winter.  About 1.5 miles in I had to negotiate a couple of streams and planted my right foot in about 6 inches of water, that was a shock to the system...got really muddy quickly and at nearly three miles, found myself back by the parking lot.  Quick hit and run.  GPS got screwy at the end too.  The highlight of this run?  On my way home in North Stonington, I came across about 8 cows that had gotten loose and were just wandering up the road, so I herded them back to their farm with my truck:

Roads tomorrow after karate...with dry shoes!  Suck it, winter!!!

Wednesday, 1-9 - 0 - Karate class in the morning and then 101 things to do after that...

Thursday, 1-10 - 3 Miles (Trail) - Unmarked trails in Burlingame with Jim H., Tia and Sally.  I'm turning more friends on to the trails in their own backyards, and how much fun it is to get off the road and into the woods, especially when the weather is this good.  Really cool single track trails off King's Factory road, on the northern end of Burlingame.  Kept the run to 3 miles, they had a blast (as did I), and already want to schedule another run in a couple of weeks!  Great time...

     Thursday Part Deux - 4.5 Miles (Road) - Hangman Hill out and back.  Had enough time to get out the door for another run before the kids got home, at a bit faster pace.  Felt really comfortable, too:

Have to drop the wife's car off in Pawcatuck in the morning for an oil change, maybe take a page out of Seth's book...

Friday, 1-11 - 6 Miles (Road) - The mean streets of Westerly.  Better than sitting in a waiting room, drinking bad coffee and watching even worse television:



Saturday, 1-12 - 8 Miles (Trail) - Li'l Rhody course with Jeff, Muddy, Eric, Mark and Shira.  Good temperature, and nice muddy trails to run on.  We ran a good, comfortable pace, and it was nice to get out there with our newest WTAC'ers.  Great time!  That also put me over the 50 mile mark for the Strava Challenge, and at 100 miles since Christmas Eve...I would never had thought I'd be capable of this many miles, even a year ago.  Crazy...




Sunday, 1-13 - 3 (Mostly Trail) - Pequot Trail (Access Denied, Parts 1 & 2...) - Went to run the Rose Hill section of the Pequot Trail today, as it's 10 minutes from the house and looked like a good run on paper.  Found the trail no problem, and it's a straight uphill shot to the top from the road.  Good stuff.  I even had a segment created by Strava for it???  Anyway, I get 1 kilometer in, and there's an enormous briar-wrapped tree down across the trail, and briar patches on either side.  No way around.  Fine, then!  I run back to the car, hop in and follow the blazes along the road until I get to the other part, going toward Foxwoods.  This time, I get about 1k-ish in, and the blazes abruptly disappear, and even backtracking I can't see any sudden change in direction or anything, so I go back up to the road, do a little bit on the road and decide to bag it for the day. No worries, there's sausage & peppers, beer and football waiting for me at home...