the Way of the Turtle

AN ANNIVERSARY OF SORTS...

9 Mile Run on the Appalachian Trail (South Egremont-Sheffield)

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

I didn't keep track the way I do now, but I believe it was sometime in the fall of 1997 that I first tried trail running, and one of the first places I went was the section of the Appalachian Trail between the trailheads on N Undermountain Rd and Guilder Hollow Rd. (The stretch between N Undermountain Rd and the trail heading up East Mountain on Boardman St was almost all along roads - the current off-road trail there is a big improvement.)

I was fortunate tonight that I was able to get down there early enough that I made it back to the car without needing to break out a headlamp - though it was getting pretty hard to see by the time I reached the car.

If I remember correctly, I bought my first pair of trail running shoes in November 1997 - and tried them out on the trails at Mount Washington State Forest. I haven't run there in quite some time (nor at Beartown State Forest, another regular haunt back when I lived and worked down that way.) Don't know if I'll be able to get to either this fall, but thinking about first running these trails 24 years ago while I was there tonight has me wanting to get back to both - it's just a matter of when.