Friday, August 22, 2008
map of the northern section of the Greenway
I had originally thought to run at Black Creek Park or Mendon Ponds today, to get some hill work in, but the way my legs felt while I was taking care of some chores and errands this morning convinced me that my best bet was to stick to more level ground. In the end I headed over to the Genesee Valley Greenway... some summers I've done a lot of running and riding there, but over the past couple of years I haven't visited the trail all that much.
After the cool weather we've been having, today's heat was tough to deal with... add in the fact that I got off to a late start and didn't want to get home too much after when Ann got back from work and I kept the run relatively short. I first ran north to the railroad tracks, in part because I wanted to see the culvert we'd paddled under earlier in the summer. Along the way I saw several frogs and quite a few grasshoppers and listened to the kingfisher chattering away down by Black Creek.
One of the nice things about this time of year are the numbers of wildflowers in bloom - the old Dumplig Hill Lock was filled with spotted touch-me-nots, and the noise from the bees collecting pollen was incredible. There were even a few butterflies out, which is always good to see.
One of the major minuses to my summer vacation being almost over is that I won't have nearly as many opportunities to visit all the great spots that I run and ride at out in the Rochester area... but I hope can manage another visit to the Greenway sometime this fall, ideally on my mountain bike so I can cover a little more ground.
JMH
