Saratoga Stryders

Today was the final race of the Saratoga Stryders’ 2018 Trail Series.  Each race is 5K, held on the same course at Camp Saratoga, now called the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park.  The race has a mass start, with 80-100 runners starting on top of a hill, converging almost immediately into double track.  Right after the start, runners pass through what was once a place for Scouts to gather and listen to stories near the fire.  We then run past one of my old troop’s traditional camping spots, on the right, and a barely visible trail on the left, leading to a bridge across the brook and then up to a concrete lean-to.  We used to play “Russian Spy” in these woods, a combination of “Hide and Seek” and “Tag”.  Today the understory has returned, and most of the traces of the Scout camp are gone.  Our old camping area looks like it has always been woods, and the bridge I just mentioned had almost completely rotted away the last time I checked.