Trail Run from '06

Just ran across this on my hard drive. From 2 years ago, but I figured I might as well post...


March 19, 2006
Little Bennett Regional Park, Clarksburg, MD
4 to 4.5 miles; trails; somewhat hilly

I have run chronically for many years without keeping a journal, but now as I have begun to run steadily for a prolonged period, it occurs to me that perhaps keeping a log of some of my runs might someday prove worthwhile to me, or perhaps even to someone else. The way I see it, I’ve been keeping a journal of my stargazing observations for some time and, if writing about sleepless nights of sitting quietly and staring at smudges of dark grey superimposed over a black background can be done interestingly enough for me to keep doing it, then perhaps recording my running adventures (ok, “adventures” overstates it, but you catch my drift) might also prove worthwhile at some point.

So I begin with a Sunday morning trail run at Little Bennett Regional Park. Accompanying me on this run was my avid running companion, Red, our golden retriever / yellow lab mix. Little Bennett has many accesses to the local roadways; our destination was about a 15 minute drive, down Clarksburg Road to a small gravel parking lot located at a couple of trail heads right alongside the road. Although Red loves to go running and loves to go for rides, he’s a bit of a car-retard. Upon opening the car door he’ll partially enter the car by sticking his head and front paws in the car while he continues standing on his hind legs outside the car. As athletic as he is at less than 2 years old, this is not a position from which he can jump and thus he ends up stuck and gumming up the works. I coax him back out and try to give him a running start to encourage him to actually leave the ground, but again he ends up half in, half out. If I ever want to get in the car, I’ve actually got pick up all 75 lbs of retriever and toss his ass on the seat. But then, of course, he doesn’t go right over to the passenger’s seat because, Oh-my-God! there’s a parking brake handle in the way! After some spirited shoving, whereby my forceful action is equally and oppositely counteracted by Red’s claw’s fabric-shredding grip upon the upholstered driver’s side seat, his body’s center of gravity is finally leveraged over the parking brake and he’s forced to actually move his paws to the passenger seat.

Thus begins this trip and now I realize this journal may end up being more about my dog than my running. Oh well. The drive over to Little Bennett is otherwise uneventful, though Red never really seemed to get quite comfortable in the small bucket seat. (There’s plenty of room in the back of my Suburu, but he wouldn’t jump in there either!)

We arrive at Little Bennett and I tie my car key to my shoe and have a look at the large sign showing the Little Bennett trail system map. Plenty of options here! I decide to head uphill on Kingsley Trail, mainly because it was really the only trail that I was familiar with. Our run would take us to the end of Kingsley Trail, then left onto Purdum Trail for about eight tenths of a mile. From Purdum Trail we’d take the 2nd left onto Browning Run Trail. This would lead back across Clarksburg Road and eventually to the gravel service road which runs perpendicularly from Clarksburg Road on the opposite side from our parking lot. Roughly 4 miles or so. After a bit more stretching, Red and I were off!

The sky was blue and the temp was a chilly 32 F, but there was little wind and I wore plenty of fleece so I was never cold. Kingsley Trail is wide and not nearly as uphill as I had originally thought, but I soon discovered that part of what I thought was still Kingsley Trail was actually already Purdum Trail. Kingsley Trail ends at the Froggy Hollow Schoolhouse; what I had thought was the continuation of Kingsley was actually the beginning of Purdum Trail. This is where the steeper uphill begins. Red ran happily alongside or a half-stride ahead of me.

Purdum quickly departs from the main trail and becomes a true hiker’s trail in the woods. The grade was steep and the trail wound back and forth for a bit like a strand of freshly boiled spaghetti. The path came quite close, at one point, to the original wide service trail that I was no longer certain which I should be on. We stuck to the smaller trail, however, and that turned out to be the right decision. Although early in the run, between the steepness and my path uncertainty, I actually switched to walking for a minute.

Soon we topped the rise and were running again on Purdum Trail which had turned leftward and became much broader again (Most of the trails in this part of the park are suitable for horses or bikes.) The trail also leveled off and Red and I settled into a nice rhythm. We passed through a fairly isolate campground and said hello to one of the early risers. Once past this campground we were back in the woods and here the Browning Run Trail became quite enjoyable as we began a series of gradual descents. Our pace quickened while we actually exerted less effort, and the activity transformed from a typical run to more of a Pole Position-like game involving more steering and breaking than actual running. Stumps and larger rocks serve not as obstacles, but rather as convenient decelerators. The path eventually leveled off again and soon crossed over Clarksburg Road.

The trail continued on for about another mile along Browning Run. In some places the footing was a little tricky due to horse-trodden sun-hardened dirt that felt like you were running over billiard balls. Keeping to the side we soon passed this area and resumed at a good pace. The trail was only mildly hilly, with really the only memorable uphill section occurring just before the trail passed across the gravel service road that headed back to the parking lot. We turned left onto this road for the final ¾ of a mile of our run on very level, even surface. All the while Red quietly and happily kept pace on my left.

We arrived back at the car after about 45 minutes of a wonderful early spring run!