I went for a long run at Moreau State Park again. When I was heading back from my run last week, I noticed the sign on Wilton Road pointing out the hiker’s parking lot. I had never set out from there, so I decided to check it out, despite having only a hunch as to where it tied together with the rest of the park.
As it turned out, I was right. I headed west(ish) when I got to the loop trail that runs around Lake Bonita, an then took the next trail headed in the right direction; I have no idea what color the trail is, other than it’s two colors. This was, by far, one of the more interesting trails I’ve been on. Shortly after I split off from the dam on Lake Bonita, I came across a barbed wire fence, with the trail running through a break in it. I knew that some of the land had previously belonged to the prison at Mount McGregor, but I hadn’t expected to find myself running through the old fences.
I made my way past some striking rock faces, often in the middle of nowhere, and one quaint waterfall. Eventually the trail turned a corner and I found myself on the trail I thought I was on; a few minutes later I was on the Western Ridge Trail. I made my way up to the same S9 junction I had used as my turn-around point, and headed toward Lake Ann.
The going was peaceful, more or less, but when I got to the marshy area near where Lake Ann starts, I found myself spooked a bit; this had happened the last time I had run through this stretch of trail, too. It wasn’t so much the marshy area this time, it was the open woods to my right, which climbed gently up to a small hill. I didn’t get any real indication of what freaks me out so much about that stretch.
A moment later, I saw smoke up ahead. There was a fire burning at the lean-to at Lake Ann. I walked around, looking to see if anyone was there, but there was no one to be found. I looked inside the lean-to; there was a pair of gloves on a makeshift bench, and a large piece of birch bark. That was it. As I was documenting my find, a man rode up on a mountain bike with fat tires. We talked for a while; his name was Jim. I told him I would do my best to put the fire out with the water in my reservoir (bladder was the only word that would come to me at that moment, so I kept saying “pack bladder” to distinguish it from my other one…).
I was able to put out the flames, and cool off some of the logs and coals, but the logs were too thick to really trust that they would stay out. I called the DEC line that was listed on their site for reporting fires, and told the lady on the other end what I had found, and where it was. Then I paced around a few more times, trying to find something I could use to carry water from Lake Ann to the fire pit, found nothing, and headed out.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. I found myself back on the loop trail around Lake Bonita, went left, so I wouldn’t re-run the part I had already run, and made my way back to the car. Jim was there when I got there, and we talked about cars for a few minutes before we said our goodbyes.
That’s about it. My nutrition was far more dialed this time, and it would have been a nearly perfect run had I not decided to dump the contents of my bladder on an unattended fire in the middle of nowhere. GoMacro is my new favorite running bar, though given how quickly I tend to cycle through these things, we’ll see how long it lasts.
I also felt much stronger than I did on last week’s long run; partially I think it was the fact that I remembered to bring extra food and extra salt. (Salted dates are delicious, and the salt brings out unexpected flavors in the dates.) I think my plan to boost my protein intake has paid off; we’ll see if it continues to work as time goes on.
Well, that’s it. Be excellent to each other, and gorram it, put out your ruttin’ campfires.
This is an excerpt of a blog that had previously appeared on my Ghost blog as “Weekly Review - 30 Apr 2017”.