I wanted to connect last weekend's run from Tolland into Granville off "Sheets" Road and toward Beech Mill Road at it's intersection with "Lover's Lane".

It would be great to include a few new sections on Blandford Road as well, if possible.

Made great time running out the 4.5-miles (or so) from Schoolhouse Road to Beech Hill Road, averaging about 5.3 mph in serious water due to all the heavy rainfall of the past two-weeks.  Explored and luckily things are coming together well throughout the adventures.

Stumbled upon a nice cellar hole on the snowmobile trail / Blandford Road that connects to Farnum Road section.  Also noticed a couple of "balanced rocks" along this route, but I honestly couldn't tell if they were recently "placed" in their position by heavy equipment (which normally isn't a concern, but these are just off a road that seems like it does get some maintenance although in very rough condition.

Finished with 9.3-miles, with somewhat bothersome deer flies, but on a good note I beat the rain by only minutes.

Swamp north of Blandford Road

Brook with stonework

Foundation Cellar Hole

Well at Cellar Hole

1st Balanced Rock

2nd Balanced Rock

2nd Balanced Rock

5.2-miles around the Mather Loop. 

I missed the Suffield Summer 5km Series at Bruce Park Monday night, but figured to run a "solo" / unofficial attempt after work tonight.

The rain from the Hurricane remnants finally let up, but the sun came out something fierce by 5:30 p.m. when I started.

I moved through the first loop well, feeling like I was "pushing it" but not red-lining.  I think my timer read something like 12:30 at the end of loop-one, which had me wondering.

Second loop felt a bit worse than the first, and at times I felt like I was crawling, but when I finished my timer had me completing the 5k in 25:20.  Fastest time yet, and 1:40 better than last Monday's race in the heat-wave.

Solo run on this course isn't terrible.  The fact that I have some race-times to base off, and running it goes by fairly quickly are bonuses.  I may be back.

3-miles over my "at work" course. 

New video available supporting a book "New England's Roadside Ecology with Tom Wessels".

Music 2021...

Effort #16,  "Heart of Gold"...  This time, I took a shot at the Neil Young standard.

K2 and I drove out to McLean on a cool, humid morning with light rain.  I managed 4.5-miles, and K2 managed to find his way around with a bit of difficulty. 

Right back to yesterday's starting point, Schoolhouse Road in Tolland.  This time, I would explore the snowmobile trail going west.

Route was on the Tolland State Forest Map from Massachusetts DCR.  There was a spur off Belden Road that leads to the gasline right-of-way.  Due to the grown in nature of the grass, and my fear of ticks, I didn't pursue this during summer-time.

On the way back to the trail, I rambled down Belden Road a bit past the Otis Reservoir, and to the intersection with East Otis Road.  Here, the snowmobile corridor sticks to East Otis Road heading north, and dips into the woods bearing "south".

More to explore in this area, but today was another decent effort with 6.4-miles.

Brook along the way

Site of Fire-Tower - Lookout; but no-more, just concrete post

"The Narrows" at Otis Reservoir

 

Drove out Route 57 through Granville into Tolland.  Started the day on Schoolhouse Road, at a snowmobile trail crossing.

Took the snowmobile route out to Otis-Tolland / Amos Case Road and followed south, with hopes that this would lead me to Sheets Road in Granville (across from West Hartland Road, and the entry into Granville State Forest Campground Area).  

Somewhere along Case Road the mapping text turned "Case" into "Potter" Road.  It did turn into Sheets, just as I had hoped (I did not carry a map, and my gps does not have any "maps" loaded onto it.

I reached the end of Sheets at Route 57 in about 7.5-miles or so.  It seems as though the 57 section was about 2.5-miles, and then the Schoolhouse Road gravel section was an additional 4-miles give or take.

I finished with 13.9-miles on my legs.

Trail 6" to 12" covered with water

"High Points" along the trails I've visited during June, 2021...

• Sodom Mountain, Southwick-Granville, MA
• Seymour Mountain, Granville, MA
• Sweetman Mountain, Granville, MA
• Rocky Point, Granville, MA
• Bald Top, Appalachian Trail, Massashusetts
• Bald Mountain, Shenipsit State Forest, Somers, CT
• Pinnacle, Shenipsit State Forest, Somers, CT
• Balanced Rock Hill, Shenipsit State Forest, Somers, CT
• Holden Hill, Granville, MA
• East Hill, Mary Edwards Mountain Property, Granby, CT
• Warner Hill, Appalachian Trail, Massashusetts
• Tully Mountain, Appalachian Trail, Massashusetts

What Played in Ed's Head -- Music listened to for the time-period  June 1st through 30th, 2021:

On this day...

Tunxis Trail Marathon II - June 30th, 2006
Barkhamsted & New Hartford, Connecticut

Today I completed my 35th marathon, Tunxis II. 

This was the second time in 5-weeks that I marathoned along the Tunxis Trail...  this time, I used the southern portion down to Satan's Kingdom. 

My time was 6:06:30, and I had Tippi along for company.  It was her 9th completed marathon.

Tippi on top of  Indian Council Caves, along the Tunxis.

 

We have reached the 1/2 Way Point of 2021, Week 26 is finished.

I ended the 26th Week with 791.8-miles.  My Goal for this year is 1350.  Considering "equal" weeks of mileage, I estimated a Goal of 663-miles at this point in time.

This means I have been continuing on a slightly "better" pace of miles-per-week than intended.  Much of this can be attributed to the need to work 7-Days On, 7-Days Off from January through May (COVID Restrictions).  Regardless, I am currently roughly 129-Miles "ahead" of pace.

If I can continue to do my thing, and avoid injury or stoppage, I have an opportunity to hit my goal.

The 2021 Suffield Summer 5km Series at Bruce Park kicked off tonight.

I showed up, since much of the fitness battle is just that, "Showing Up".  The difficult part was the temperature was in the middle to high '90's at race time, with brutal humidity.

I had attended two of these sessions back in 2019 (no events during 2020's COVID Restriction Season).

I had managed times of 28:04 & 27:32 during 2019.

For tonight's run, I was hoping to:

• Run a steady pace
• Not drop due to the heat
• Be smart and not get hurt

I began, by later on reviewing the video of the start, not in last place but roughly about 9th from the rear.  Honestly, the heat had me worried.

I stuck to a steady pace, feeling just about uncomfortable but not to the point of wanting to quit.  When I got to the finish of the first loop (the route has changed slightly, it is now only two equal loops) I believe the timer shouted 13:19.  That seemed about right for how I was feeling.  The question was, how much could I hang on for Loop Two?

The answer was fairly well.  I finished exactly at 27:00 for a 8:41 pace per mile.  Nothing exciting, but considering how long it has been since I went at race-pace (two years) and the extreme heat and humidity, I was plenty satisfied.  Plus, I didn't pull anything.

Tunxis State Forest, with K2 and Wuzzam.

Plan was to run from Route 20 for an hour, and return in an hour fifteen.

We made it to Roberts Brook right at an hour, and 3.8-miles.

Total trip on schedule, and 7.6-miles on our legs for this humid morning.