Well, now that I am officially not training for anything (thanks to my shoulder injury) I have gotten back to the basics, joyous tromping through the woods for the sake of having fun. Today Scout and I explored a little unmaintained Jeep road off of Merrill Hill Road that I've been eyeing for a while. It turned out to be a nice trail up to Cedar Mountain in North Parsonsfield. I lived in North Parsonsfield and ran the roads and trails around there for about 20 years, but for some reason, I never noticed this road until this past Summer during a run over Merrill Hill.
The climbing was steady and the footing solid. It really was fun running! I was just sorry that it ended after only 2 miles. The good thing was that instead of ending in a log yard, back lawn, or beaver bog (like many of my exploratory runs do) it ended at the ledgy top of Cedar Mountain, elevation 1223 feet. The top provided beautiful views to the Southeast. Scout and I turned around and ran back the same way. This is when I discovered that Scout is a downhill running fiend! He was sprinting and jumping and chasing his tail and crashing into trees and bushes all the way down the hill, all the while letting out his little growls and grumbles that he makes when he is happy. I only have the one functioning arm right now, so I had to be cautious and slow, but he never left me for long. He wears a cow bell in the woods and he never got so far ahead that I couldn't hear him.
When we got back to the car we crossed the road and ran up Merrill Hill and down again. All in all, a great hill work day. After checking the Google map, I think I should be able to find a way to connect this trail to one of the little jeep roads that come up the other side of Cedar Mountain from Middle Rd. I'll save that for another day.
That other road you saw off of Middle Road was Corson Road and does connect with the other trail from Merrill Hill. Once Corson went all the way through to North Road.
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