Return to the Greenway

It seems like a long time since we were cursing and slogging through the snow/mud of the 2007 Greenway race! Now it's almost time to start training for 2008. Joe & I had a nice rainy run along Seneca from Darnestown to Berryville and back, then an out-and-back past the Mill and along the creek. They've put in a gravel pathway under the bridge, and done a couple reroutes to reduce erosion of stream crossings. (We've seen this south of 355 too.)

It was a beautiful wet day, with intermittant misty rain. The woods were cold, dark and sleeping, except for a few deer and occasional birds. As usual, we saw very few people; a family with 2 dogs, another pair of runners. Through the thickly pine-forested stretch of woods between the Mill and Darnestown, the forest floor was filled with dead stalks of some waist-high broadleaf plant. I don't remember anything but pines growing here -- but maybe I've only run this stretch of the Greenway in the winter months, other than the 355 N/S sections. Spring, Summer, and Fall, with the days of longer light find us further south or north for races. But as the air gets crisper and we stay close to home, it welcomes us back to the familiar wooded hills and fields, the earthy smells of damp leaves and river.