Ben Nephew: New England Trail Reports

Gertrude’s  Nose 10/16/11


This is another loop in the Gunks Trails Challenge around New Paltz, NY. I was in town for a birthday party, and managed to meet up with a teammate, Jason Friedman, to run one of the longer loops in the Challenge. The run was 15 miles with about 3k of climb and plenty of difficult technical sections. The weather  was  perfect,  and  I’m  sure  any  trail  in  the  Shawangunks  would  have  nice,  but  Gertrude’s  Nose   was spectacular. It is regarded as the best singletrack loop in the  GTC,  so  I  guess  I  shouldn’t  have  been   surprised. In one run, you get plenty of challenging singletrack, short steep hills, long gradual hills, perfectly groomed carriage roads, and a ridiculous amount of exposed ridge running for such a low, short run. The  Gertrude’s  Nose  trail  itself  is  the  centerpiece  of  the  run,  with  clear  views  out  towards   other great trails in the area, including Escarpment,  Devil’s  Path,  and  Slide  Mountain. 
It would have been a great run with just those few miles, but you then connect to the Millbrook Ridge, which I have run before and was formerly my favorite trail in the area. Jason is not a big fan of the slow singletrack that makes up most of the route, so I appreciated him agreeing to run this particular loop. We had a major navigational challenge at one spot where there were two bridges and other major damage from all the flooding that they have had this year, and I probably would have turned around if I had been running solo. If you have only have time to do one run in the Gunks, do this one. In New England, hiking trails often have good viewing spots marked by stars on maps. If you put stars at every notable view on this loop, many sections would be entirely covered by stars! It took us over 2:40 to complete the run when you subtract the detour due to the washed out bridges,  so  it’s  not  the  quickest   15 mile trail run. My  Terrafly’s  were  great  on  all  the  exposed  rock,  small  streams,  and  rooty  sections. They provide a nice stable base to push off no matter how rough the trails were, and feel like a great road shoe on carriage road.

GPS track:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/122289908

Tully Trail
10/22/11 http://www.thetrustees.org/assets/documents/places-to-visit/trailmaps/Tully-Trail-Map.pdf Royalston MA


This is a loop that is new to me, and I had been trying to find time to get out there for a run all summer. I  didn’t  actually  completely  the  official  loop  due  to  fading  light,  but  the  hiking  trail  is  22  miles with probably about 4k of climb. Most of the trail is easy to follow, but there are a few sections that are not obvious at all, or confusing, and I spent some time searching for the trail. Once again, it was a perfect cool and dry fall day. My navigational issues starting immediately, as I wanted to run clockwise but could not find the start of the singletrack in that direction. So I ran towards Tully Lake and up along the Tully River and very runnable mountain bike trails. The steep climb up to Spirit Falls was a lot of fun, but the following section along the power lines was one of the spots I went off trail. Once I got back on track I made good time to Royalston Falls, where I again took a detour. The trails around the falls are scenic but slow going as you constantly wind through the trees.
Once you cross route 32, the trail becomes primitive until you reach Bliss Hill Road. The next few miles are on old logging roads which I covered at low 6 minute pace; the  Terrafly’s  were  especially  good  on this section. The climb up Bliss Hill was runnable, but I did lose the trail a few times due to the fact that it  was  getting  dark.    I  knew  I  wasn’t going to have time to cover the entire loop at this point, but I wanted to get as far as I could before bailing out onto the roads. Things got a bit stressful trying to follow a primitive trail in a region I had never run in. The smart thing to do would have been to stick to the roads after Bliss Hill, but I thought I had just enough light to cover the Butterworth Ridge section. This is another densely forested section, and almost spent the night in those woods. It was pretty dark by the time I reached Butterworth road, and I have never been so happy to see a road in my life. Although I am not a fan of road running, all the road sections on this loop are great. Nice, quiet country roads that offer a nice break from route finding and allow you to stretch your legs.
It was hard skipping the last few miles of trails, but it was completely dark by the time I ran the shorter route around Tully Mountain on the roads and got back to my car. After running it once and figuring out the difficult sections, I think it would be a relatively fast run the second time around. Some of the technical sections are always going to be slow, but there are plenty of flat and fast miles as well. The waterfalls, consistent solitude, and several miles of streamside running make it a unique run,  and  I’m   sure I missed some nice views trying to run it in the dark!


http://connect.garmin.com/activity/123574585

Whitehall State Park Hopkinton, MA
~9 mile loop around Whitehall Reservoir




http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/trails/print/WhitehallMap.pdf
For those who live in eastern Massachusetts, this is a must-do run. I’ve been driving by this park for years without realizing that there was a trail around the Whitehall Reservoir, which is basically the entire park. I can easily say it is one of the nicest singletrack loops I have run. It is almost 100% winding singletrack right along the shore on a bed of soft pine needles. There are only a few short sections where you don’t have some sort of view of the water. The constantly rolling terrain make it perfect for a trail tempo run, and all the turns ensure that you have to be proficient at changing gears. I prefer to run the loop clockwise from the main parking lot to put the most runnable miles at the end. You could probably add on another 1-2 miles with some of peripheral trails, and an added bonus is that you can easily connect with Upton State Park. I’m working on mapping out a 20-22 mile single loop that includes both parks. While this is not that difficult to do in many states, most of the parks in New England are too small to run loops of this size.
Whitehall loop waterfront