Happy Days to Kendall Hills

Today was a great day for a run! The temperature was around 40 and there was actually a lot of sunshine for once. Usually I like to get my runs done in the morning but I was glad that I waited until noon today because the clouds continued to decrease as the day went on. Before I started my run I noticed that the park had put up a new sign next to the steps leading down to the tunnel that goes under Rt. 303. I'm not really sure if a sign of this size is necessary to tell people what seems to be common sense information but oh well...

My plan today was to run from Happy Days to Kendall Hills with a few possible variations from my normal route depending on where I felt like going. I headed up to the ledges area and made a left. I took the following photos as I passed through this section. It was really beautiful on the trail today with the sun shining brightly through the trees. A nice change from our usual gray winter skies. I thought.. man, I'm glad to be a trail runner and be able to experience the outdoors on these kind of days. There are a lot of people who don't know what they're missing out on.

Through this section I looked to the right and saw a tree that had fallen across a large open corridor and landed on the rock formation on the other side. It made me think of Corey (one of my running buddies) and his uncanny ability to walk across long narrow trees during some of our night runs. What do you think about this one Corey? Looks like a challenge to me....

I felt great on my run today. I don't know if it was because my muscles were rested or because it was a nice day to run or a combination of both... but I was running a lot of big hills today that I would normally walk up. It was probably because I hadn't run since Monday when I did 5 miles with Bob. I figured that the rest was good though since I had just done another 50K last weekend with my brother.

Once I reached the road next to the large open field I made a right (instead of heading straight to the overlook) and headed up the road, past the parking lot, and to the trail which leads to the Ledges Overlook which runs alongside of a steep dropoff . I love running the entire length of this narrow trail because you are right next to a cliff on your right side and you can take in some very nice views in the distance...

Me at the Ledges Overlook

Once I got to the Kendall Hills area I decided to run these hills without stopping on my way to the water fountain and on my return trip back. Here are 3 photos I took en route to the top of my favorite hill in this section...

It doesn't look that bad...

OK, this is pretty steep...

Man, this sucks!

Once you reach the top of this hill you are rewarded with this great 360 degree view...

It was now primarily downhill heading back to Happy Days. I decided to take the lower portion of the ledges trail on my way back and enjoyed leaping over all of the scattered rocks and boulders. It's sometimes hard to pay attention to your footwork through this section when you are admiring all of the awesome rock cliffs on your right side...

I finished the run in approx. 7 miles and was pretty happy with my effort today. This is definitely one of my favorite running routes! On my way home I spotted what appeared to be a new Ferrari driving through Hudson. Very sharp car...