Midstate Trail Traverse Preview

Matthew at the Southern terminus of the trail this past weekend

Growing up in Princeton, MA in close proximity to the Midstate Trail, I spent a lot of time in my younger years hiking and biking on the trail. I knew that the trail ran through the Wachusett Meadow Audobon Sanctuary (it has now since been relocated) and up Mt. Wachusett to the North and South into Rutland and Barre Falls Dam area, but not much more than that. What I didn't realize growing up is that it is a long distance trail that runs from the end of the Wapack Trail at the New Hampshire border through Central Massachusetts to the Rhode Island Border where it connects with the North South Trail, continuing to the Atlantic Ocean.

Another challenge to come?

My wife, brother-in-law, and I section hiked the trail from North to South over the winter of 2008-2009 as training for the White Mts. of NH and had a great time experiencing the diverse characteristics of the segments. From the Northern higher elevation sections to the Southern almost coastal seeming scrub oak and pine areas in Douglas, a hiker moves through many different types of forest ecology. My friend Justin Contois, who is also familiar with the trail and has spent a lot of time exploring it while he lived in Central MA, and I had discussed putting together a through-run someday. After extensive planning and logistics, we have agreed that we are going to run the entire trail North to South on April 13th as a long through run of 95 miles. This will be fully supported by Justin's and my family providing a mobile aid station at pre-arranged spots along the way. As far as we can tell, nobody has run the trail yet, but (assuming we finish) we hope to set the bar at a level that would interest other runners or hikers to attempt the trail in one continuous push.


The training for this run for me has been okay this winter and I feel ready to give it my best shot. I would have liked to get more back-to-back long runs in on the weekends, but they didn't seem to work out - so I'll take what I can get. I put in a few 20-26 milers in mid-March and did some runs along the southern end of the trail that gave me a refresher on the course. The Northern end of the trail we are tackling first is a little hillier and the Southern section has more road sections as it passes through Sutton and Oxford.

Northern terminus of the trail

One of the three moose we saw near the Ashburnham Sportman's Club

Coming down Blueberry Hill

Blueberry Hill section

View of Wachusett from Blueberry Hill

The Northern 30 miles of the trail will probably be the hardest as it passes over Mt. Watatic, Mt. Wachusett and many smaller hills in between. The footing in this area is a little more technical and we will be running for the first six hours in the dark. We are starting at midnight on Saturday night, so the sunrise, which we could hit perfectly at Wachusett, combined with the warmer temperatures will be energizing as we continue the journey to the Rhode Island border.

Looking down at Winnekeag Pond from Mt. Hunger, with a little snow coming down

River crossing

Nice pond in Westminster

Amanda (my wife) at the shelter in Westminster

The section through Westminster was very scenic and I am excited to get back there. It has been three or four years since I have hiked that section and I remember that we enjoyed the stretch from Camp Winnekeag to the Wachusett Village Inn.

Views from Crow Hill

Looking towards Mt. Wachusett

After the Crow Hills section which includes some pretty technical hills, the next obstacle is Mt. Wachusett. This is the largest single climb of the trail which we will hit at about 30 miles in and hopefully catch the sunrise just right at the summit.

Balance Rock Trail on Wachusett

Taking a break right before the 122 crossing in Rutland

The next 7-8 mile section through Rutland from 122 to the 4H camp we headed out on right after a snowstorm that dropped two feet on the area. The combination of the ice storm that happened in December 2008, a month earlier, and the unbroken 2 feet of snow the entire way made for a tough slog. This was by far the longest and toughest hiking day that we experienced that winter, and it took us about 7 hours to complete the 7.5-8 mile trek.

Unbroken trail for 8 miles makes for slow going

Sampson's Pebble

Halfway point, 45ish miles

Shelter in Rutland

A different shelter in Rutland/Spencer in the Four Chimneys area

Snowmobiles packed down this section. Where were they for the previous stretch?

Looking down from Moose Hill

Windy Moose Hill Dam crossing, snowshoes in tow

Audobon section in Spencer

Huge saw blade, my dad and Amanda

Snow had melted in the Oxford/Charlton stretch

Stonework

Near Whittier Farms, Sutton/Oxford

Fitting it in

Nice boardwalk section

Moving through Douglas' scrub oak forest

Douglas State Forest bridge

Close to the finish

A little sidetrip to the shelter to recreate the image in the guidebook

Douglas shelter

Southern terminus bench

Finish time

We have invited a few friends to run whatever distance they feel comfortable with and we are looking forward to meeting up and spending some time with them out on the trail.

This traverse is going to be an interesting experience. Other than one 100 mile race that I did in 2012 at Ghost Train, I have not run further than 50 miles since. I remember the ups and downs of that race and how it took Justin and Jeff Lane to help pull me through those slow miles in the overnight in order for me to finish in 26+ hours. Justin is projecting a time that would require me to take 10 hours off my time in 2012, but I will give it a shot. I am looking forward to getting out on the trails with my old running partner and enjoying whatever the trail throws our way.

Shifting Focus

Last year I saw some improvements in my running that started at the approach to training. Trying to be more competitive in the races that I choose to run, I started to push a little harder on my workout days and was pleased with the results from it. I didn't have a running schedule in place, but rather ran similar workouts to target the specific races that were forthcoming. Ending 2013 satisfied with my efforts at races, and after taking a planned break around the holidays I am just starting to get back into something that resembles regular training.

This year I will be training to attempt the following:

• Get faster and try to run a five minute mile: The 5 minute mile is something that has eluded me as I have always struggled with increasing my speed. Over the past few years, I have mainly focused on building base mileage and have not been concerned with trying to be competitive or running the long distances at a faster rate. By putting in a consistent amount of speedwork and dedicated workout days, I plan to attempt to run a five minute mile someday.

• April 13 - Midstate Trail Traverse North to South (95mi): My running friend, Justin Contois, and I have always discussed how it would be fun to run the whole Midstate Trail that runs from the end of the Wapack Trail near the MA/NH border in Ashburnham/New Ipswich to the MA/RI border in Douglas. This year we plan to attempt it as a supported run on April 13th. 

Intriguing

Amanda and I after we finished section hiking the Midstate Trail in March 2009, this is where Justin and I will finish in April after the through run

• May 10 - Wapack-and-Back 50 miler: I ran the 50 mile option of this race last year for the first time and finished the race, but feel like I could improve on my time. I didn't do well after the turnaround at mile 21 and feel with more specific training and some longer back-to-back runs - my time could improve. Here's a link to last Spring's race report.

Jogging the last few hundred feet of last year's Wapack 50 with my son Matthew

Foggy section of the Wapack Trail near Temple Mtn.

• June 7 - TARC 50 miler:  The venue has changed for this race from Weston to Hale Reservation in Westwood and it sounds like it will be a fun and hillier race (which I prefer). I paced Justin Contois for a few miles and Eric Ahern for a few more miles at the TARC 100 race this year through the mud in Weston (writeup here) and had a great time at the first year race. 

TARC 100 Pacing: with Justin and Eric in the early morning hours

TARC 100 Pacing: One of the mud puddles along the way

• July - White Mts. MacPhail Hut-to-Hut Traverse (52mi +/-, 18,000'+ climb): This is a run/hike that has intrigued me for a while as it moves through the White Mountains hitting all the AMC huts along the way. I will probably plan on starting at Madison Hut and ending at Lonesome Lake in Franconia Notch. Logistically this route seems to make sense since there are many opportunities in the summer to refuel at each hut along the way. Here is a link to more information, or here, and here.

Madison Hut

Lonesome Lake Hut in 2008

• August - Pemi Loop (31.5 mi, 9,160' climb): I completed this run for the first time last July with Justin, report here. in 9 hours and 30 minutes. I would like to return and try to take some time off, hopefully it will be on a less humid and windy day with some views.

Bonds

• September - Double Presidential Traverse (42 mi +/-, lots of climbing): I have some unfinished business on the Presidential Range after we had to abort our trip prematurely. This run I attempted last year in August, although I ended up bailing at Pinkham Notch on the way back. My plan that day was to get to Mt. Pierce and turn around at the summit, making the route sort of a partial traverse. This year, assuming I get the time and weather window, I plan to hopefully complete a full double traverse going from the base of Madison to the base of Pierce and back, making up around 42 miles and quite a bit of climbing.

Summit of Mt. Adams

Ridgeline views

Since the majority of the runs this year will be mountain focused, I plan to visit Mt. Wachusett at least two times a month for some hill repeats. It is a small mountain, but is only a 25 minute drive from my house and I can get most of my running done before the sun comes up and be home for breakfast with the family. I am trying to also hit Mt. Monadnock as a focused workout before the Wapack race and I will be going to Pleasant Mtn. in Maine during our trips to my wife's parents Sebago Lake cabin.

Rather than training just to get the miles in, like last year's training method, I plan to dedicate at least two days during the week on most weeks to focusing on speed. For these runs I am planning on running interval runs on one day and maybe a tempo or progression run on the other - roughly planning on Tuesdays and Thursdays/Fridays. The rest of the miles I will make up with easy/moderate runs and a long run or two on the weekends. We'll see how this goes, as I attempt to go from taking some time "off" during the past few weeks around the holidays to able to run almost 100 miles in less than three months.