Monday, September 3, 2007
Mt Washington State Forest site
Mt Washington State Forest trail map
photo slideshow
At one point I seriously considered heading down to New Haven today to run the New Haven 20k Road Race through some of my old grad school stomping grounds... in the end, I decided that was simply too much driving after making the trip back and forth to the Adirondacks between Friday night and Sunday night. Since it was a beautiful day, it was a relatively easy decision to head over to Massachusetts and visit another of the places where I used to run and ski quite often - the Mt Washington State Forest, along the border between New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
The Mt Washington State Forest holds something of a special place in my heart because it was the first place where I did a challenging trail run. My initial forays into running trails were on a fairly gentle stretch of the Appalachian Trail from Jug End Rd to South Egremont Rd, using my road shoes... but in the late fall 1997 I bought my first pair of Saucony trail running shoes and after trying them out on the AT I made a trip to Mt Washington to run the more rugged trails there. And went back many, many times after that. Running trails on crisp autumn days with colored leaves all around on the ground still takes me back to that first time running the trails at Mt Washington.
Of course, the last time I ran the Mt Washington trails I ended up hurdling a timber rattlesnake, missed one of my turns, and ran out of fluids both due to the exceptionally warm day and the extra distance I ended up running/hiking. So not all the memories are idyllic...!
Interestingly enough, when I went to the trailhead kiosk to see if there were any maps (I'd forgotten to bring one, not that I expected to need it) there was a new sign warning visitors about timber rattlesnakes in the area. I guess I wasn't the only one to have an encounter of the slithery kind. I have to admit, I was slightly hoping to see one, since this time I had a camera with me that could get a decent picture!
The first stretch is across a field and through a small section of woods... a pretty easy warm-up, and I passed two groups heading back to the parking area (no great surprise, since the parking lot had more cars than I'd ever seen there.) One stretch was much rockier than I remembered... that would become a common refrain throughout my run. After crossing the bridge, the trail heads through the woods and becomes considerably wider. Again, it was much rockier than I recalled, and the two areas which had always been wet (one muddy part, one stream crossing) were bone dry (the second common refrain.) At the first major intersection I headed downhill along the Alander trail to the stream and took pictures of the rocks... there was water flowing, but not much.
From there it the trail went up a series of fairly steep, rocky uphills for a while, travelling along the edge of the ravine cut by the brook. Tough running, between the slope and the constant loose rocks underfoot. Once it levels off, though, it's great to run... the path goes through beds of huge ferns and under both deciduous and evergreen trees, with the brook meandering alongside (well... the brook meanders alongside when there's water in it... today it was pretty dry.) There are three stream crossings (again, dry as a proverbial bone) before the Ashley Hill trail veers to the left and begins climbing again. Another challenging section, mainly because this portion of the trail doubles as a streambed in wet weather. It's also interesting to watch the vegetation change as the trail gains elevation, gradually switching to scrub forest and thick mountain laurel.
At the end of the trail, I headed left to visit the Tri-State marker, marking the point where New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut all meet. I thought I reached it (though I was a bit confused as to why "CONN" was scratched into the surface rather than engraved as I remembered it) but I actually only made it to a NY-MA border marker - I needed to go a bit further to visit the tri-state point. Finding that out was a bit of a disappointment, since I think it's cool to be able to say that I ran in three states! From there I headed back and continued west to the South Taconic Trail, which travels along the western ridge line.
click for a larger image
A major plus to this part is that it's mostly open and provides some great views to the east out into the Copake valley, as well as views of the peak of Mt Brace to the south. Today was a gorgeous day to be up on top the the mountain, and I couldn't help thinking of a moment during the Running on the Sun documentary (which covers the 1999 Badwater 135 mile race through Death Valley to the Mt Whitney portals) where one of the runners looked out over the sun rising in the desert and commented that the beauty of nature around him must have something to do with why he does races like Badwater. Every once in a while I'm lucky enough to be running someplace where I think the same thing - "this is why I do this!" - and today up on top of the mountain was one of those days.
After wandering around for a bit taking tons of pictures, I headed north along the South Taconic trail, mostly walking both because the trail was very rocky and because I didn't want to miss the side trail like I did two years ago! Reaching it, I was once again amazed that I ever missed it, since it's very well marked!
The connecting trail back to the Ashley Hill trail runs mostly downhill and is fairly clear, so I was able to run a lot of it. Hit my only real patch of mud along here, but even that was nothing much - and this was one of the wettest stretches the other times I ran it. The stream crossing was simple, and I found myself remembering standing in the stream splashing water on arms, legs, and neck two years ago, just to cool down (it was hotter than I planned for, and I didn't bring enough water to last the whole time... especially after I missed the turn!) Good thing that wasn't an issue today!
Most of the running on the way back is fairly easy... level or gradual downhill at first, then the steeper downhill later on (which is tricky just because it's so rocky.) I made pretty good time, motivated in part by the fact that it was getting late in the day and I hadn't brought a headlamp. Made it back to the parking area as the sun was going down, and waved to the ranger as I was changing into dry clothes, then wandered around briefly checking out the trail map on the side of the maintenance building and the information at the trailhead kiosk, before hitting the road for the drive back to Albany.
Overall, in many ways this was a more enjoyable trip down memory lane than my runs at October Mountain and Beartown... the trails here have not been demolished by ATVs, and while many sections seemed rockier than I remember, that could easily be either dim memory or the result of a few years of nature doing its thing since I was running here regularly (or more likely, a mix of the two!) Probably the most disturbing thing about today's run was how dry everything was... I've been seeing this alll over the place, and it leaves me concerned for the future... hopefully we'll get good snowfall this winter to replenish the water table! Still, despite that concern, it was great to be running the Mt Washington trails again... I just hope it doesn't take me another 2 years to return!
JMH
JMH
