the Way of the Turtle

6.5 Mile Run on the Appalachian Trail, South Egremont to Sheffield
Saturday, October 22, 2011

Ended up leaving the house a couple of hours later than I'd planned, in part because this week has left me fairly tired and in part because the "partly sunny" day we were supposed to have turned out to be grey, grey, grey. Since I hadn't run at all during the week I decided to abandon my plans to go for a walk at Quabbin Park in central MA and settle for just getting in some easy running on the AT in South Egremont.

This has been a somewhat muted autumn in terms of colors - between the uneven weather and the occasionally heavy wind and rain we haven't really had a peak, just different points where different trees have been showing color. While it would have been nicer with steady sunshine (and to be fair, there were a few times when the sun briefly put in an appearance while I was running) there was still enough color along the trail that make it clear that autumn is here... all the leaves covering the trail helped, too.

I have to say that while I enjoyed the flooded trail back in September for the challenge it posed, it was really nice to run on mostly dry trails today - certainly much easier going! There were quite a few cars parked both at the Jug End Road trailhead that I started at and in the parking lot in South Egremont, but I only saw two hikers while I was there, and both of them looked like thruhikers - backpacks, sleeping bags, etc.

Along the way I heard and saw lots of birds, including a downy woodpecker and a really close view of a pileated woodpecker (sadly, he flew away before I could take a picture.) Plenty of smaller birds too, including a few chickadees which had me wishing I'd brought along some of the sunflower seeds from my car.

I had thought to run all the way to Route 7 and back, but the grey chilly day kicked my motivation in the backside and I ended up running to the top of the field just past the Shays' Rebellion monument and then headed back to the car. I had hoped to maybe do a short walk somewhere before heading east on the MA Pike, but once again the grey chilly day and the late hour sapped my motivation and I decided to get to my motel instead.

Despite all of that - mission accomplished! In the last month I've managed to run at all the places (Beartown, Mount Washington, Jug End, and the South Egremont AT) that I used to run so often back when I lived and worked in the Hillsdale/Great Barrington area. And getting to all of those places has been even more special because I did it in the fall - the time of year when I first started trail running back in 1997 and probably my favorite time of year to be out running trails (OK, a slight favorite - I love being outdoors in all seasons, for different reasons.)

On to eastern MA and southern NH and the Ghost Train trail race tomorrow morning... and hopefully sunnier weather and some stops at parks on the way home.

JMH