running 39:24 [4] 7.56 km (5:13 / km)
shoes: GoLite SunDragon
Mystery Blazes loop. Somewhat pressed for time, so I was motivated and went out pretty fast. It was probably around 80 degrees and pretty humid, and I had already spent a couple of hours mowing the lawn. By the time I got to the Friendly Trail I was feeling kind of tired, and it was tough continuing to push through to the end, but it was an effort good enough for a PR by 10 seconds.
Just before the point where I get onto the main trail, a very big sugar maple has broken and lost a major limb that amounts to almost half of the tree. The leaves on it are all brown and dry at this point, but there are enough of them to indicate that it had been pretty healthy. In the process of falling, it took down another maple (which went rootstock). Both of them go directly across the trail, though it's easy to get past them on foot (if you aren't worried about the broken one falling on your head as you pass under it). Also, further down that trail (beyond the Lane branch), a white pine has failed the way they typically do, breaking off partway up and dropping the upper section, which remains vertical. In this case the upper piece is sitting right in the trail.
Later on, a cool AOWN moment: I had just turned onto Rte. 225 when a weasel crossed the road in front of my car. I slowed down, and he wandered around in the road, pausing almost long enough for me to get my camera out and take a picture of him. It may be the first time I've seen a weasel in the wild, unless one of the times that I thought I saw an otter was actually a weasel.