Trail Running the Deer Pond Loop

 From the trailhead I enjoyed the mellow terrain under my feet; it makes for a bit of a nice warm-up to the day. I wasted no time passing by the trail to Route 30 on the right and jumped full-bore into the rolling hills terrain that was in front of me. The one thing about trail running is, you don't get much time to take pictures - which is too bad. Also I typically don't want a huge bulky camera weighing me down. So every now and then I will snap a quick shot with my camera if something catches my eye. I say this becase I had already seen some cool stuff I wish I could capture, and I was pretty sure I would see more. The spring and especially a wet spring, makes for some great wildflowers and fungi to photograph.  

Anyway, once I was at the brook crossing I was movingrapidly downhill as I hit a precise slippery rock that had been priming itself forme in the constant rain we have been having - it was all over but the grunting. I wiped off a bit of the mud and myremaining pride and started to immediately climb up the next hill. I passed confidently over the next half dozenor so rolling hills before the long descent to Deer Pond at which point theblack flies caught up with me and let me know the fact right quick. I contemplatedgoing to Lead Pond and back to round out a bit of a longer run, but decided tojust let it go for this trip. The trail to Lead Pond gets very little use and Ididn't think it would be as enjoyable with its grown in terrain and possiblemuddy conditions.

I passed along Deer Pond and decided to go a bitoff-trail to check out what I call Little Deer Pond, which is nothing more thana small unnamed dot pond located just up on a hillside. The run along the shore of Deer Pond is filled with rollinghills, some of which are a little more aggressive than others - I had forgottenabout these since I was last there. They are actually quite fun and fast. Onemajor climb did get me though, it was much more aggressive than all others, andeven while short my calves felt the pressure.

I reached Old Wawbeek Road after another decent down.I celebrated this intersection with a peanut butter GU gel. I can't say thatthe flavor was all that perfect for rigorous outdoor rejuvenation; I think Iwill stick to fruit flavors and leave the peanut butter for my toast. Thisportion of the run felt more like a cool down period as I ran along this oldroad grade. Picking up the pace, quite a bit, I felt strong, but as you canimagine running a road, even an old, closed one is not too terribly exciting.As with this day, it wasn't super exciting, but it did feel nice to have a bitof solid ground under my feet. Old Wawbeek Road returned me to the trailhead innice fashion. Now a bit of a side trip to Donnelly's for some soft serve. Want more information on Trail Running in the Adirondacks, pick up a copy of Adirondack Trail Runner at a local bookstore or gear shop.