Day 1 - New England to Florida

 Making my annual pilgrimage to Florida.  I came up with some interesting (to me) stops along the way to break up the ride and get in some running.

Rappahannock Canal Path - Fredericksburg VA:  Nice path along the canal, but 43 degrees and pouring rain tested my ability to get out of the car and get running.  It also proved difficult to get feeling back in my hands post-run.

Emporia City VA - County high point: This was a quick stop for the walk up to the highest point in the county.  The rain which dogged me from NJ onward had now lessened to a spotty shower.

Roanoke Canal Path - Weldon NC: Nice path along, over, and through the canal including a cool aqueduct.  A little muddy from all of the rain but temps in the 50s and a "refreshing" breeze.

Wilson NC fire tower:  I parked at the high school and did a short run over to the tower and then back to the track and finished with 2 miles on the new track that was in the process of being built.

Santee Wildlife Preserve - Summerton SC: Final run of the day, got stopped for an hour on the highway for a major accident...so later run than expected.  Nice location, I'd run on the other side of the lake in Santee a few years ago.

"County" high points in CT

 Connecticut has never had true counties but rather designated regions.  I had completed visiting the 8 pseudo counties high points back in 2008.  Recently CT reorganized the regions (calling them "planning regions") and with the redrawing of lines there were now four (of nine) planning regions that I had not completed.

With some time off (burning up my vacation time) I decided to finish of the list.  The first two would be drive-ups and the last two would feature some running.

First up was Eden hill in Easton.  This was a simple drive-up with a short walk up the driveway of the equestrian center.  I arrived about 20 minutes before sunrise for a quick stealthy “ascent”.  Another hour of driving got me to my next drive-up on Todd Hill in Bethlehem.  The view was nice with fog in some of the lower valleys and the sun just peeking up over the horizon.  Then it was off for the first real ascent of the day.  I arrived at Hubbard Park in Meriden around 8am and was trotting off up the park road by 8:15.  It was nice to see a few people out there taking advantage of this beautiful park despite the chilly (25 degree) temps.  The bright sunshine helped a bit as did the steady 700’ of climbing over about 3.5 miles.  I took it easy in deference to my balky knee and spent about 5 minutes at the castle climbing it and taking in the stunning view.  After that I jumped on the Metacomet trail to ensure I hit the high point of the east summit and made my way over to the west summit (radio towers) before heading back down the road.  In all it was a picturesque 7.4 mile run.  The final high point of the day was a return to Burley Hill in Stafford.  This would involve some stealth as well as some of the area (most of it) is posted.  I parked at a Cemetery, which are always good locations to legally park, and did some scouting to ensure I could find a way through the woods to the destination.  A quick bushwack followed.  That brought me back to 100% for CT county high points!

Visit 1

Visit 2

Visit 3

Visit 4

First day of summer

 Got in my longest run of the year (by time) on the longest day of the year!  Dave Lapierre and Dan Verrington joined me for a fun early morning run from Dan's work to the lowest point in Andover then up the Bay Circuit trail to the summit of Holt Hill.  Holt Hill is the highest point in Andover and in the county and features a fire tower and appropriately of the first day of summer SOLSTICE stones!

Yes, I got under the gate and climbed the tower

RI county prominence

 Along with the finishing running in every city/town in RI I also finished the county prominence list.  I had visited the county high points previously but still needed a few locations to finish off the prominence list (the most prominent “peak” in each county).  I became only the 5^th person on Peakbagger to complete that list.  I’ve already completed Maine, Mass, and NH county prominence lists.  I’ve only got 3 left in VT and 7 in CT and I’ll have all of New England!  Something to shoot for once I get back to running.

 

An odd note on running in all the cities and towns, Richmond and Warren are the only towns that are in all of the states I’ve completed (MA, NH, VT, & RI).  Warren is the only town in common to ALL of the New England states.

Florida part 3

We also visited a county high point!  Looking down from the highest point in Oxceola county.

County high points

With the “two-fer” on top of Oregon’s Mount Hood, I’ve now visited 211 county high points.  That may sound like a lot but it is only 6.7% of the 3,142 county high points in the U.S.

 

Florida county high point

I visited the Hernando county high point with my parents earlier this week.  The 274' Chinsegut hill had a cool mansion on the top, an old cemetery, and a view.  Well worth the stop.