I arrived at the main parking lot at 5AM. After strapping on my ponderously over-packed Camelbak Lobo (I had survival gear enough to survive 2 nights unassisted-freak?), I set off down a sloping driveway towards the first trail I saw. Moments after stepping off the asphalt and onto the gravel, I heard something off to the right.
Evidently, I startled a whitetail deer, a fairly descent-sized buck, because all I saw was a blur of gold and then a smack of antlers against branches as he beat feet out of there. Was that a fartlek? I still do not know.
I ran first along the carriage roads, which took me alongside the Ipswich River. The water was still waking up, heavy and green, wearing mist like a dad caught in the middle of shaving at the mirror. Everything was still but the air. Birds of all variety were calling out, warning each other about the clunky trail runner in their midst.
There were steep hills and complex root systems from the pines that towered around me, but it was fun and exciting more than it was taxing. I took a steep descent into a water-carved little gorge between two tall points, and normally, it might’ve seemed like work, but it was just too beautiful for that to matter.
Further I ran, not bothering to walk my minutes, but instead only walking to consult the map. I went up a very steep dried waterbed, and that forced another walking period, but that’s only because walking turned out to be more economical to ascent than running. I took huge strides, thankful for my powerful quads and hams. And the payoff was a more gradual slope that led me even further up and into the heart of the forest.
At the top, there was a beautiful field, and it was here that I scared deer number two. This one bounded off to the right as I exhaled sharply. So, imagine my surprise when I entered the field, sweaty and huffing a bit, to find two whitetail does eating. They were magnificent. One was a little younger, and she didn’t seem to care that I was there at all. The older one was the one I’d startled, but who’d decided somehow that I wasn’t enough of a threat to stop and have a few more bites of blueberry bush.
I stood still for a short while, accepting this as the few minutes of walking I’d skipped up to this point. They finally decided I was either scary enough or boring enough that they should be on their way, but for a while, with the sun just coming up over the trees, I shared a field with two deer.
The rest of the run was equally beautiful, but I won’t tie up your eyeballs. I did four miles, but only because I got a little turned around a few times. Saw my first live tick on my body today and didn’t actually crash the car. Even though he was high on my thigh and I saw him while driving home listening to NPR. Nope. Didn’t crash the car. Tick didn’t get a meal. He just wanted to say bonjour.
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