Wells Estuary and Fryeburg Single Track

I had a busy working weekend but had a great run in the Wells Estuary Reserve on Saturday afternoon. The trails are narrow with a variety of footing from rooty dirt to boardwalk to mowed grassy fields. I also put some miles in on the sand of the beach as well. There is an abundance of birds in that area. I wished I had someone with me who knew their birds, as I couldn't identify some of them. The Reserve is as flat as a pancake, without a hill anywhere. It was a lot different from the dense hilly woods I usually run in and I enjoyed the change.

A run wasn't in the cards for me on Sunday. So when I got home from work I was grumpy and had a headache. Kevin prescribed an evening walk to cure the "work hangover" and it worked wonders.

Today I drove over to Fryeburg to mountain bike some single track that Kevin had heard about and ridden this past weekend for the first time. He made me up a crude map and gave me a general idea where to find the trail head. Mountain bikers must belong to some secret society or something. These "home made" trails are difficult to locate and sometimes hard to follow and figure out. You'd probably never even know these sorts of trails existed if someone didn't clue you in. I've developed a habit of watching the side of the road when I drive, looking for tell tale bike tire tracks leaving the road or a glimpse of single track through the trees. I still don't have the eye for it, though.

Thanks to Kevin's directions, I didn't have much trouble finding the trail head. I enjoyed the trails immensely! They were very narrow and winding and fun. There was a lot of climb and descent to keep it interesting. Early on I strayed from the map Kevin had drawn for me and found myself on a trail that was a little too technical for my abilities. I managed to make it to the top of a rocky rooty steep quarter mile climb, and found myself back on Kevin's map. Either he hadn't seen that trail or knowing it was something that would be hard for me to ride, he had just left it off the map. The rest of the riding was well within my comfort zone and I rode all the other trails a couple of times. Then I rode out on the fire roads and ATV trails for a while before returning to the great single track. I finished up with some BIG climbing on snowmobile trails and returned to the car by following the old railroad tracks and then the paved road. This ride was a lot of fun and some good hard work!

Tomorrow will be my next long run. Yikes, I hope it goes better than last week!