I finally stopped at the Swan Preserve in Canton, right near the Canton/Granby/Simsbury border.

I have been passing by this little area each time I have driven out to Burlington to explore the Tunxis, and I kept thinking "... one of these days, I'll see how close these trails get to McLean's West Ledge Trail".

The map at the Kiosk, as well as the online available information, showed Red, Yellow and Blue Trails, with a bit of a possible extended trail to the west.  This would be the one I hoped would get me close to West Ledge.

The trails are very nice,  the property has some decent elevation within it, and there is a brook rambling by that needed to be crossed (on a solid bridge).

Excellent news, as when I was nearing my most north & west portion of the "Yellow" trail, I saw signage for T Cowles Trail (blazed white).  This is a long single-track that brought me incredibly close to the cut over to McLean's West Ledge.  Success!

The remainder of the run was just plain solid, and enjoyable.  Cold as the dickens, I didn't mind.

Ended the day with 5.1-miles.

Another cold afternoon, although at least it was sunny.  18-degrees for the late day run, 4.5-miles in Bear Hole, with a first look at the waterfall (more a cascade, but still beautiful).

A bit more exploring on a very cold, nearing dark, afternoon.  Parked at the old Granby Library on East Street, and hoped to tie up the connections between Dismal and East Branch Salmon Brooks.

I think I have it pretty well wrapped up, from Holcombe Preserve, over Crag, to Dismal Brook.  Completed with a frozen face and a mere 3.8-miles on my legs.

Another trip to the Granby Land Trust' Dismal Brook Wildlife Area for a run in the snow.  It was interesting to see that the parking lot was already plowed when I drove in (we had about 3' of snow).  Excellent attention to the properties by this Land Trust.

Ran for 5.5-miles including some "off the grid" paths.  Excellent day, wonderful trails.

Took a short ride out to Simsbury to run along their highland ridge, hopefully making a connection to McLean.   

Had a decent time for the first half of the adventure, even made it McLean rather easily with good footing on the short half-mile bushwhack section.  The trouble started while on the further western trail (blue I believe).

Snow began to fall, and it ended not being much, maybe a solid inch covering everything.  The issue was this is a very, very rocky section, and there was ice on most of the rocks prior to the snow falling.  The snow covered all the ice, and after losing my traction a couple times I decided to gear back to a crawl.

It seemed to take forever getting out of the area, it was that slippery on the rocks.  By the second half of the run, the views were gone, snow was falling, and I was out an extra 45-minutes longer than I expected to be.  But, I have a connection I can work with, and I have another potential connection as well.  And, I ruled a third option out.

Finished pleased with the run and 7.7-miles on my legs.  Not bad for a Tuesday.

Music 2021...

Effort #04,  "Lies"...  third piece from an extended play titled Eve of Destruction.

Recorded in the basement studio, solo.  

Very cold again today, with more wind.  Drove to McLean to check the end of Westledge Trail, something I had noticed once upon a time and wanted to research to see if the path connected anywhere.

The end of Westledge did make a loop, and I think there may be an idea within this area for me to explore this winter.  We'll see.  On the way back I took the old forest road I hadn't been on in many years, and ended on the Ridge Road.  Another success!

Ended the day with 9.2-cold, slow miles.

Started the day in Seth & Lucy Holcombe Preserve, trying to connect toward the Old Granby Library.  Had wonderful success, with a variety of options.

Still felt good after that 5.3-miles, so I quickly (it was getting dark soon) drove over to the Dismal Brook Wildlife Area to see if I could make a connection to Holcombe Preserve from those trails.

Again, success, with only a quarter mile or so of bushwhack.  Got in another 3.2-miles to get a daily total of 8.5-miles on my legs.

The Metacomet parking was busy, so I drove a bit further into West Suffield and parked at the Bike Path Lot.  I figured I'd ramble up on the Quarry/Manitook Mountain to the Granby Notch, more or less.

Ended up with 4.6-miles split almost equally between trail and road.

One change to my running that I have had to implement, if I wished to meet the mileage goals I have set,  is to do more running on the road rather than strictly stick to the trail.

Over the past 28 years of running, up until last year I just didn't run on the road.  Most likely less than 20-miles total per year.  Many years, in the 90's and 00's, most likely not even a single day of running on the road.

Between longer and changed work hours, especially during daylight savings where I just have no actual daylight time to run in, and the loss of a real winter season for snowshoeing, I needed to make the change to some running on the road and sidewalks around town.

I purchased some very cushioned Hoka Running Shoes last January, and ran about a third of my miles on the road in 2020.  It ended up as follows:

• Road - 339.6
• Trail   - 961.2

This allowed me to get some running in on days when I normally wouldn't have been able to.  The careful approach and better road running shoes kept me from being injured.  In the end, I managed to complete my goal of 1275 total miles in 2020.  Moving some of my miles to the road allowed me to achieve this.

Black Lizard / Vintage Crime #1 for 2021...

"The Galton Case", by Ross MacDonald, first published in 1959.

Cover Image

Alternate Early Edition

Alternate Early Edition

Alternate Early Edition

Music 2021...

Effort #03,  "Lonely Bull"...  second recording from an extended play titled Eve of Destruction.

Recorded in the basement studio, solo.  

Celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day with 10.4-miles on assorted trails in Burlington.

 

Late Morning Run in Burlington along parts of the Tunxis Trail.  Finished with 9-miles.

Heavy rain most of the early part of the day;  upon clearing, I ran the Hill Street Loop of 7-miles.