Catskills final day

 Day 3

Our plan for Sunday was to climb the final peak in the fire tower challenge, Hunter Mountain a 4,000 footer in the northeastern part of the Catskills.  Pouring rain and temps in the upper 40s had us rethinking that plan.  We decided it would be prudent to just head back towards home and get in a couple of safe runs on various rail trails.

We were out the door at 5:30 a.m. with our first stop in North Chatham NY for the Albany Hudson Electric rail trail.  It was raining but not terrible once we got going.  The trail was a mix of paved and packed dirt surfaces and we both broke out the headlamps as sunrise was still an hour away.  Sore quads made for a shuffling run.

We drove a couple of more hours through some pouring rain and arrived in Westfield as the rain eased.  Our next run would be on the Columbia Greenway rail trail.  I’ve run and biked on this previously but Eric had never been.  It was only a couple of miles off of the highway and there was plenty of parking at the Stop & Shop.  Although I was a bit stiff from sitting in the car, I felt better than the earlier run.  We did another 4 mile run on this paved path, and then we were off to Ludlow.

After dropping Eric at his car we parted ways and I headed for the final run of the day.  I figured I’d go to the four town point in Acton, Concord, Maynard, and Sudbury and hopefully find the Assabet River rail trail.  The approach to the four town marker had me crossing the trail in downtown Maynard.  I got in a nice four mile run with about half being paved and half being dirt.  It was only misty and a comfortable 60 degrees which made for a pleasant stretch of the legs.

My final destination for the day was the aforementioned four town point.  It was only a few minutes drive from the rail trail.  I had maps and an address but it never looks like it does in person.  There was plenty of parking at the senior assistance home which was directly across from the marker.  A 2 minute walk had me there and back.  It was not very scenic with a huge electric substation in the background and the marker was defaced with a lot of graffiti.