the Way of the Turtle

11 Mile Run at Thacher Park
Wednesday, May 12, 2009

What can I say, I really enjoy running at Thacher Park. Part of it is the fact that it's a very different environment than most of the places I run closer to Albany. Part of it is all the memories that get stirred up from the dozen or so races I've run up there. And part of it is that it's just a really cool place to be.

I parked up on Beaver Dam Road so I wouldn't have to be worried about getting locked in at one of the official parking lots. Started out with a loop down along the Hop Field trails and over to the Paint Mine area... along the way two things became very apparent: my legs were definitely tired from Monday's long run, and we need more rain, because I've never seen Thacher this dry in May.

From there I ran along the escarpment, with the late day sun shining down... that was really nice, despite all the grumbling from my legs. Followed the road up to the water treatment plant and then took the Long Path to the base of the big hill going up to the OSI property trails. Since I didn't feel like running up a hill just to turn around and run back down (and I didn't have enough time or energy to run the loop) I headed back through the fields and along the Long Path behind the Haile's Cave picnic area.

Another loop along the escarpment brought me back to the Paint Mine area, where I headed up the hill for the final stretch of my run. My legs were tired enough that I walked a lot. Stopped at the ledge overlooking the beaver pond... initially there was nothing in sight, but then a mother duck and her passle of ducklings headed away across the water, and when I looked back down after watching them disappear into the swamp grass - a beaver was swimming in the water. I spent quite a while watching him circle around, dive to the bottom to bring up plants to eat, and push a sunken branch around. Beavers are simply fascinating... there's something about the way they move through the water that's really cool. This one was a bit unusual in that he didn't slap his tail against the water when he submerged. I finally stopped watching him when (1) it started getting too dark for me to get halfway decent pictures, and (2) the mosquitoes figured out where I was and started having a feast.

Fortunately, there's only a bit of hill left after that, and then the rest was fairly level running. Made it back to the car and didn't want to stop quite yet, so I crossed the road and ran a little bit of the way up the hill toward the ski slope... essentially until the spot where it really started heading uphill and my legs let me know what a bad idea that would be. I really miss the path up to Roemer's High Point - it's really a shame the landowner withdrew permission for the Long Path to go through his property, I loved doing the run/hike up to the high point and then running back down either the way I'd gone up or down the other side and taking the road back to the car. That's a route I will definitely miss!

JMH