2020 Recap: Part IV: The usual year-end stuff

This is the fourth part of the riveting saga known as my 2020 Recap. I've previously covered injuries, trails, and an old race; this time I will stick to the "usual" year-end recap format. (I say "usual" because I do these irregularly. I'm currently on an every-other-year cadence, but that is purely accidental.)

The year in a few sentences

2020 got off to a solid start, running-wise. Half way through the year, I was on pace for more than 1500 miles, which would have easily been my most since college. I was also biking and roller skiing a fair amount to supplement my running. Despite having few extrinsic motivators, I managed to get in a harder effort many of those weeks, as well. This training block was bookended by two decent 5Ks - the first, in January, was a 15:50 at the Charlestown Chili race (on an arguably short course), while the second, in May, was a virtual 5K on the track. From that point on, there was no racing and relatively little running for the remainder of the year. 

I won't go into more detail than that, since I've already covered the injury story in my recent post. You can see the interplay between the injuries and mileage for yourself in the graphic below.

This "overlay" of mileage against injuries is always a fun trip down memory lane. It also shows just how consistently I'm dealing with pain of some kind. The most persistent pain this year was in my lower back, which really picked up after getting the dog, just as it has in the past each time we had a baby. I'm hoping this subsides as the dog gets older. This is one of the few injuries that hurts more on the bike than while running. 

In the end, my mileage was a shade over 1000. It's nice to have crossed the completely arbitrary 4-digit threshold, but of course disappointing to decline for the second straight year, as you can see in the chart below. (You could argue I've been declining for much longer than that, but let's stick to the mileage-based arguments for now.)

A strong first half allowed me to just crack 1000 miles for the third consecutive year. Maybe 2021 will be the year I finally return to 1500.

On the bright side, between working from home and few business or family trips to speak of, 2020 afforded me more opportunities (both in terms of days and time in the day) to work out. You can see this play out in the two charts below.

In 2020, I averaged just over six days a week of activity (317 total days). I was somewhat surprised to discover that this was the most I'd ever done. The fact that I worked from home and had no business or family travel to contend with made it significantly easier to get out nearly every day. And I can say with certainty that the only days I took off after Covid struck were planned in advance. I'm not sure I'll ever have this kind of opportunity again, but it has motivated me to keep it going as long as possible in 2021.

I hadn't really tracked this metric until I needed a pick-me-up this year. The only explanation I can think of for the uptick over the past three years is a renewed commitment to cycling on my days off from running, especially on the trainer during the winter months. And I can thank my old video games for making that part of the equation possible. Without them, I don't know that I could bear even 10 minutes on that thing.

My workouts were divided mostly between running, biking, and roller skiing. In the chart below, you can see that, when able to run, it is the dominant activity. The biking and skiing time didn't vary much until I wasn't able to run, when they naturally became a bigger factor. Lifting, meanwhile, was once again an afterthought. I would like to address this "weakness" (har, har, har) in 2021.

Aside from a couple of down weeks when I was especially sick or injured, I maintained a pretty consistent routine. As usual, the summer months, with their extended daylight and good weather, allowed for extra workout time

Thanks to the extra time available, and the dearth of running in the second half of the year, I was able to hit my highest cycling totals ever. It's the tiniest sliver of a silver lining. 

Lots of time in the saddle this year (relatively speaking). Looking back, the 2004-2005 peak coincided with my triathlon phase; 2008 was a big duathlon year; 2010 was an injury-plagued campaign. Meanwhile, the recent peak reflects doing more cycling on my off days.

You can thank Strava for helping me easily keep track of shoe mileage. It's interesting to see how the Hoka Cliftons really dominated the pre-injury half of the year. When I returned to running, I seem to have struck a nice balance across the eight(!) shoes in the rotation. I have to admit, even I didn't realize I had so many shoes in use right now. 

Looking ahead

I can no longer confidently set running-related goals, given the number of ways outside of my control those could be derailed. So, let's try a simple, whole-self approach to goal-writing for 2021:

1. Beat my 2020 total # workout days (317 days / just over 6 days a week)
2. Beat my 2020 total run + bike + ski time (300 hours / 5.8 hours per week)
3. Run my first race as a 'Masters' runner (I turned 40 at the start of the year, so I really hope this one is achievable) 

Photos

Here you'll find one photo, taken during a run, ride, or ski, from each month of the past two years. Why two years, you might ask? Well, I didn't manage to get a year-end post out last year, so I'm a bit overdue. A few observations while combing through Strava to find these:

• It's amazing how many of my favorite photos of the past few years have come from the mountains around New Paltz. It's equally sad knowing I'll seldom have the opportunity to experience that area in the future, now that my parents have moved.
• The variety of photo locations was, of course, greatly reduced in 2020. I'm glad Rhode Island still has some scenic spots to snap the occasional picture.
• It's interesting to see that the same things capture my attention year-over-year -- the snow and ice in January and December; the fall colors in September and October; views in Maine in July; and, strangely enough, sunsets in November.

January 2020: Mike runs ahead on the aptly named Undercliff trail at Mohonk (Gardiner, NY)

January 2019: Frozen face after low-single-digit temps in Burlingame (Charlestown, RI)

February 2020: Morning Boston skyline over the Charles (Cambridge, MA)

February 2019: The only picture I took during this month was of my victory in Tecmo Super Bowl (which, I should mention, came out in 1991) while riding on the trainer

March 2020: A wave splashes on Pier No. 5 (Narragansett, RI)

March 2019: New growth after the devastating fires at Cheesebro Canyon (Agoura Hills, CA)

April 2020: Daffodils abloom at Biscuit City (Kingston, RI)

April 2019: The lush Marquam Trail (Portland, OR)

May 2020: Low tide at the Town Beach (Narragansett, RI)

May 2019: Along the Leine (Gottingen, Germany)

June 2020: The newly reopened Mohonk Gatehouse entrance beckons (New Paltz, NY)

June 2019: Misty beauty along Lake Mohonk (New Paltz, NY)

July 2020: Our new pup enjoys his maiden voyage in the kayak (Fryeburg, ME)

July 2019: Speckled Mountain summit (Lovell, ME)

August 2020: Sure, there's a nice quote, but this photo of the URI library is the only photo I took in August, so it earns its spot here by default (Kingston, RI)

August 2019: Classic shot of the Trapps ridge at Mohonk Preserve (New Paltz, NY)

September 2020: Early fall colors along the Mountain Division Trail (Fryeburg, ME)

September 2019: 18th Century buildings at Valley Forge, PA. Fun fact - In 1777, during the Continental Army's encampment at Valley Forge, it temporarily became the 7th largest metropolis in the United States. 

October 2020: Fall tones on the South County bike path (South Kingstown, RI)

October 2019: Deciduous and Coniferous reflections on Tarbox Pond (West Greenwich, RI)

November 2020: The sun sets on Wordens Pond (South Kingstown, RI)

November 2019: Amazing glow of the setting sun (San Juan, PR)

December 2020: Snowy roads in Tefft Hill (Kingston, RI)

December 2019: Fresh snow on the Tri-Pond Trails (Peace Dale, RI)

2020 recap, part III: Big-time Injuries

I'm no stranger to injuries, but in 2020 they have played a more significant role than usual. This is a not-so-brief synopsis of the year in injuries.

Here's what I learned about myself in 2020: I require very little social interaction; I can spend 20 hours every day in the same room and be OK with it; baseball without fans is weird but still essential to my happiness; my kids are loud and hilarious and cute and terribly annoying in large doses; my body can tell me when it needs some time off, and I should really listen to it. It's that last point that I'd like to dive into in this post. 

One of the most interesting opportunities presented by 2020 was the freedom to train without an objective or even a plan. For much of the year, there were no races anywhere to be found. This afforded me some much appreciated flexibility in my training. If I was thinking of a running workout but my work schedule didn't allow it, I'd just do something else instead and worry about the workout another day. If I felt a twinge in my foot, I'd take an extra day off, no second thoughts. After all, there was very little to gain from pushing myself relative to what I'd lose (namely, my sanity) from overdoing it and getting injured or sick. I followed this laissez-faire training approach for several months and really loved the mental break it provided. 

Then, one day, for no reason other than a need for some variety, I flipped the script. Why not use this weird year as a way to test a few limits? Now, let me be clear about something: my limits are as modest as they come. By testing them, I wasn't planning to suddenly start running 100 miles in a week; 40 miles in a week would even be a stretch. Rather, I wanted to start cutting out non-running days and push through any niggling little injuries to see if I could overcome them without taking time off. If it worked, I'd be able to establish a new running baseline. If it didn't, I'd at least get a better understanding of those nebulous limits. 

So, what happened? As you might guess from the title of this post, my limits are now crystal clear. Sometime in June, I started feeling a general ache around my left knee. I'd felt a pain like this many times in the past -- it was something I used to associate with heavy training loads (mostly in college), but it never became more than an annoyance. It seemed like the perfect injury to train through to see what would happen. I did this for eight weeks. It was always sort of there. That it wasn't getting any worse was a good sign, right? While I was on vacation in Maine, however, it began to deteriorate. I didn't have my bike with me, so I stubbornly ran on it anyway. The final run was an 8-miler right before we drove home. It hurt terribly on the drive and was extremely painful to walk on, especially up and down stairs, for several weeks afterward. 

Now I know -- this kind of pain requires a little time off. Since I didn't give it a little time, I had to give it a lot. 50 days, to be exact. When I finally started up again, it was with a cautious progression, starting at 1 minute, and increasing by a minute or so with each run. It took another 100 days to run an hour. All told, that's almost half of the year spent injured or recovering from this injury. 

It got me thinking - how many other times had I had an injury of this duration or longer, and what were those recoveries like? It turned out this was the tenth such injury in my running career. As you can see in the chart below, most of these were in the 11 years from 2003 through 2013, when I had not yet made the mental adjustment to my post-collegiate running reality. 

In the past 18 years, these ten injuries have resulted in 1076 days off running (nearly three years) and required another 950 days to ramp back up to "normal" training, which I arbitrarily define as being able to run for an hour. The total impact of these injuries, then, is 2026 days, or 5.6 years (31% of the last 18 years). This number only accounts for these "major" injuries. There have been dozens of other injuries, as well, that were less "injurious" to my running. For instance, only one of the 50+ ankle sprains shows up on the list.

"Major" running injuries and the time spent off and recovering from each.

To further make this point. I'm currently dealing with an undiagnosed issue with my right knee that doesn't show up on this list but has cost me roughly six weeks cumulatively over its ten or so recurrences in the past three years. This one worries me because of how different it is from anything I've experienced before. Most running injuries, as you probably know, start off small. You might notice it after a run or the next morning and think nothing of it. Gradually, after trying to ignore it, it grows into something more worrisome. If you ignore it long enough, as I did with the left knee, it gets to the point that you need to take some time off to fix it. The other type of running injury is an acute trauma (e.g., an ankle sprain) with a fairly obvious origin and diagnosis.

In the case of my right knee, neither of these categories fits it. This one spontaneously starts with an unprovoked sharp pain in the midst of an otherwise typical run. The pain is so bad that I literally cannot take another step. Most of the time this has happened, the pains abates completely after a few days off. In many cases, I've raced within a week of the "injury" without any adverse reaction. As a result, I wasn't too worried about this...until now. This injury had happened a couple of times a year until 2020. This year, it's happened four times - in March, May, July, and December. You might say, 'Hey, you went five straight months this year without any single episode.' Well, person I'm pretending to talk to, those were the five months I was either not running or ramping back up from the other injury (see above), so it does seem like this thing is happening with increasing frequency. Also, it doesn't seem to be rapidly improving, as it had in the past. I'm worried, to say the last, but still hopeful it won't be the next entry in the "major injury" chart. 

Here's to never discovering my running limits again!

Appendix: Timeline and notes on this current right knee pain

9/17/17 - This was first time I recall the sharp knee pain, though I don't specifically mention it in my Strava post. Took two weeks off from running then slowly returned.

7/23/18 - After a track workout, I wrote, "had strange pain in front of knee on cool down that I couldn’t run through." Took three days off from running and was better within a week. Raced Run4Kerri 8 days after the knee started to hurt.

9/3/18 - Had a recurrence sometime this week, but I never mentioned it in a Strava post, nor did it really affect my running.

5/18/19 - Had planned a run on the bike path to the beach in Narragansett to meet the family, but then... "Random sharp patellar tendon pain early, mostly gone by end, really sore after." I ran through this because I needed to get to the beach, but it wasn't a smart move. Took three days off from running, then resumed with a couple of easy runs before being able to do a big run in the mountains a week later.

9/14/19 - Developed knee pain that I described as patellar tendinitis. It very well might have been; I don't quite remember. I took four days off and then jumped directly into two races with a patella brace on. It flared up a few weeks later but then finally dissipated.

3/21/20 - Went for a road run around URI until "some out-of-the-blue knee pain triggered a route change mid-way. " In this case, I smartly adjusted my plans and immediately returned home. However, the next day I stupidly ran 10 miles on the roads because I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. This set me back, and I essentially took a week off after that. Once I returned again, all was well.

5/24/20 - The day after a longish run and hill workout, I ended up with the knee issue again. "Right knee pain in same spot as usual. Couldn’t make it more than a mile." Took a couple of days off, then was able to run a virtual track 5K a week later. 

7/23/20 - While in Maine, the day after an interval workout, I had to stop my run after just 2 minutes, with the simple description "right knee hurts." I was able to run just two days later without any issues.

12/1/20 - After a nice trail run, as I was running up the final hill back home, the knee pain started with its usual suddenness. "My “good” knee suddenly started hurting at the end. It got so bad, I had to walk home." This time, I paid close attention to how and where I felt the pain. It seemed to start just above my kneecap before creeping down and around it and settling in on the outside edge. Took three days off and was at it again.

12/19/20 - While waiting for Santa to arrive on our street, I decided to keep the dog entertained by sprinting with him up and down the road. In the middle of one of our laps, I saw Santa's truck turn on to the street. I picked up the pace a little, and as I was slowing back down my knee just kind of "went." I knew it immediately. And, sure enough, the next day, I was only able to make it a minute before it hurt too much to continue. After a day off, I tried to ski but that also caused too much pain. I tried again to run on 12/27, made it two minutes, and then had too much pain. And that's where I am today. 

1/11/21 - 3/22/21 - 1/16: "Had another right knee “event” on Thursday, which ended my run after four minutes. After two days on the bike, gave it another try, and it was as if nothing had ever happened. I need to figure out what’s going on in there. It’s like something is catching and just needs to be put back into place, and once it’s in place, everything is perfect. But when it’s not, I can’t run a single step on it. So bizarre." 1/20: "Knee suddenly "went" without warning, as usual." 1/23: "Knee continued its unpredictability. It stopped me short on the only run I tried during the week but was completely fine today. I’m still searching for a pattern so I can figure out how to keep it happy. 2/7: "Knee fine for two miles, then too painful to run. Walked the two miles home" 2/11: "Another knee fail." 2/17: "Knee ok until 19 minutes. Stopped before it got bad." 2/25: "Could feel the slightest bit of knee discomfort. " 3/4: "Knee got the tiniest bit sore at end"  Went 7 weeks without cracking 5 miles on a run. 

10/18/21-10/25/21- "Noticed slight jarring pain in right knee during downhill on Sunday run. Adjusted stride and didn't feel it rest of way." Next week: "Still something odd with right knee but haven't had it "go" again."

12/6/21 - "Right knee thing happened out of nowhere while running downhill during warmup on Tuesday. Continued with workout anyway, but knee was in rough shape for rest of the week. Managed to race without pain on Saturday." 12/7: "That weird right knee thing came on while running down a hill during my warmup." 12/10: "Knee hurt for first few steps, then I was able to keep it under control."

7/4/22 - "Right knee sharp pain showed up suddenly on a straight-legged step during workout on 7/10"

9/12/22-9/26/22 - "Right knee has been wonky and nearly "went" at end of run on Sunday. Walked it in."

7/17/23 - "While doing squats as a warmup, my right knee did its sharp searing pain thing and hurt for the first couple minutes of the run. I did some massage of the area around it and kept going without further pain."

5/6/24 - "Decided to do a jog/walk on Friday, which went reasonably well until right knee did its sudden pain thing just before I finished. Painful when biking on the weekend, for first half of ride, then suddenly went away and didn't return." This was my first run of any kind in 7 months.

4/14/25-5/12/25 - "Sudden sharp pain in right knee, just below patella.... Was on flat ground when it happened but had been on lots of hills prior, including a steep downhill just before this happened." Following week: "Have managed knee pain by trying to run with bent knees." 4/23 Strava: "Weird knee thing from the weekend was only mildly sore on downhills and otherwise didn’t bother me."

7/7/25-7/14/25 - "Patellar pain showed up a couple of minutes into run. Stopped, stretched, then manipulated the patella for a couple of minutes while standing without flexing quad. Pain abated after that and was able to complete the run."

11/24/25 - "Right knee sharp pain suddenly appeared on outside of kneecap. Was able to manipulate kneecap to run through it." Following week: "On Saturday, right knee pain migrated to inside of kneecap and was unbearable to run on. Didn't dissipate no matter what I tried, so had to walk home. Knee pain showed up when standing or turning later in day." Dec7 Strava: "Knee was quite sore for first 15 minutes, then pain totally vanished and was also fine when walking later." Following week: "Able to complete a trail run without full-on knee pain, but almost "went" a few times, especially when running on straight, non-trail sections, or when going faster. Pain was bad the following morning, mostly below the kneecap now, when getting out of bed and going up/down stairs. Same thing happened other days in the week." 

2020 recap, Part II: Tying up loose ends (Social Distance Dash - Virtual 5K write-up)

Way back on May 30th, I competed in my only "virtual" race of 2020 (and hopefully of my life). Shortly thereafter, I wrote this post. For a reason beyond my grasp, I never published it...until now. As we say good-bye to 2020, here is the post on my final race of the year, almost exactly seven months ago.

It's a strange time to be a runner, especially one who centers much of his training around races. It's now mid-June, and there isn't an actual, live race in sight. My training has been fairly consistent, with a few minor hiccups (knee pain, a funky hamstring, and the usual hip issue) that required short stints on the DL. I've been reminding myself that, given that there isn't "something to train for" right now, I can afford to take the extra day off when my body requires it. On the other hand, I say back to myself, isn't this also the perfect time to take some risks to see what happens? If the risk doesn't pay off, and I end up making something hurt worse, then I can take that time off I'd promised myself. 

Now, it's important to consider that I'm risk-averse by nature, so what constitutes a risk for me is rather innocuous by normal standards. For instance, I might run 5 days a week instead of 4. Or go for a 12-mile run once a year. Recently, it's meant running through nagging pains -- with extra days off, no workouts, and a knee brace -- when I normally would have taken time off. I can't say it's paid off in any real way yet, though I seem to be getting over the injuries (and maintaining my mental health) despite the "aggressive" approach. 

The biggest (dumbest?) risk I took with this current knee injury was triggered by a race, actually. Not an important race, nor one that anyone outside of a small circle would even know about, nor one with any spectators or other runners. But a race nonetheless, and given the state of racing in 2020, I couldn't resist the temptation. This was the first (and hopefully only) Amgen 'Social Distance Dash 5K' organized by the local Amgen Rhode Island running club. 

Given that it was a virtual race, we were allowed a seven-day range during which we could do it. This setup offers tremendous flexibility that, I thought, would let me race under ideal conditions. A few days before the racing window opened, I began monitoring the weather forecast, with an eye toward the predicted wind speed and direction. I was balancing this against my own running schedule and recovery. I was planning a long run on Sunday - the first day of the racing window - which would mean I wouldn't race on Monday or possibly Tuesday, depending on how I felt. However, it was shaping up to be a windy week, and Tuesday was the best bet from that perspective. I told myself I'd wait to see how I felt on Tuesday and go from there. 

Well, as you might have guessed, I didn't feel good. My legs were fine, but my knee began hurting terribly after Sunday's long run, and I couldn't run, let alone race. The particular knee issue is one I'm familiar with, so I knew that I'd need a few days completely off from running and then would have to wear one of those knee bands you sometimes see on old men playing basketball at the Y. This is where part I of the risk-taking happened. I decided to run on Wednesday so that I'd have time to assess my knee afterward. It felt OK on that run but was quite sore afterward. Thursday was another day off. I wasn't yet sure if racing was a smart idea, so I chose to do another easy run Friday.

Suddenly, it was Saturday. My window had dwindled to nothing. It was now or never. OK, yeah, I'm being a little dramatic, considering this was a meaningless virtual race; that's just how desperate I was for a little competition. 

The weather wasn't ideal (warm, very humid, breezy), and my knee was iffy, but I decided to go for it anyway. The other bit of flexibility afforded by the virtual race was its venue. I'd narrowed down my options to the middle school track and the bike path. I liked the idea of the track, since I could carefully monitor my pace, but it was likely to be windier than the bike path. The deciding factor, however, would be the presence of other humans. If the track was nearly empty, I'd run there. If not, I'd opt for the path. That the two were located within a few hundred feet of each other made this a convenient set of options.

I jogged the mile from my house to the track as a warm-up and was glad to see just one other person using it. However, she was occupying lane 1 at a pace that would mean I'd have to pass her nearly every lap. Maybe she'd see me and move to another lane, I thought. But, no, she was committed to it. I'd just have to deal.

My plan for the 'race' was to run 78 seconds per 400 for as long as I could. This was a somewhat arbitrary goal, but aren't they all? 

There wasn't much drama the rest of the way. The first mile was right on pace in 5:12. The second was 5:14, with a couple seconds lost due a lack of focus over the laps 7 and 8. I was realizing what a mental drag racing alone around the track is. I tried every psychological trick I could think of to avoid my tendency to continually calculate exactly how much of the race was left, but nothing worked. The two slower laps did snap me out of it a bit, and I was able to hit 78 again for laps 9-11. (This was also when my lane 1 friend left, so perhaps the better pacing was due to finally running the shortest distance around the track.)

My legs were seemingly tiring just as I needed to get the final push out of them. I modestly picked it up in the 12th lap to 74 seconds and then "kicked" home with a 34 final 200. The final time was 16:14 (rounded up to 16:15 on Strava). It's about as well as I could have hoped to do, given the circumstances and fitness level, so I'm happy from that perspective. Of course, I'm never totally satisfied with a race, virtually or not, so at least something was normal about this experience.

2020 recap, Part I: Trails

As 2020 winds down, I'm submitting a multi-part year-end recap. Each segment will cover some element of my year in running. The first of these is about trails - specifically, the trails I've started building around here. This post is almost certainly irrelevant to anyone but me, but isn't that what a blog is for? Anyway, you're here in the first place because you're procrastinating doing something more important, so why not stay for a few minutes? 

I grew up in a place with hundreds of miles of trails, nearly all of which were contained within the bounds of two large preserves. Access to those trails always required a drive -- a brief drive, but a drive nonetheless. Upon arriving in Rhode Island, I discovered a very different situation. Here. there are no preserves of the size or with the volume of trails of those in my hometown. Instead, there are many dozens of small trail systems scattered around the state. After some initial disappointment, I have since come to appreciate the variety of runs this has enabled. 

It has also led to fun route planning brain teasers in which I try map a run that includes as many trail systems as possible in a single run while minimizing time on pavement. This sometimes results in interesting runs but more often leads to me wishing there were trails in places where they do not exist. I now spend many of my runs examining the surrounding woods and thinking about where I'd put a trail if I had the ability to. 

During 2020, I finally decided to satisfy this craving by creating some short trails that I will describe in more detail below. Before I get to that, I would like to spend a few sentences on my own personal trail building code of conduct, since I suppose this discreet habit could be frowned upon, and I've tried to do this in as "right" a way as possible.

Rule #1: No Trespassing on any individual's property. In other words, I'm not going to cut a trail through your backyard. 

Rule #2: Don't build a trail just for the sake of building a trail; the trail should have a purpose. For instance, it connects two trails/properties together that otherwise wouldn't connect, or it adds meaningfully to the trail system it is part of. 

Rule #3: It should be benefit someone other than me. Every trail I build, of course, is a most selfish pursuit. However, I will not build a trail that only benefits me. Each trail should enhance the experience of at least one other person. This also means these trails are not meant to be secrets; they should be available and known to all.

The following sections describe the new trails and include labeled Strava heat maps to point of the locations of these trails, which are, of course, missing from more traditional maps.

Potter Wood SW loop

The nearest trails, a mere 200 yards from where I'm sitting right now, are in Potter Wood. This small preserve contains a labyrinth of trails concentrated around the main path - at one time a narrow paved road connecting South Road with Biscuit City. Given the volume of trails in there, I'd assumed all available space had been used, until one day, while looking at a parcel map of South Kingstown, I saw that the southwest corner of the property was entirely empty. On a scouting mission, I found this area to be quite nice, crisscrossed with stone walls, and with a magnificent glacial erratic sitting at its core. A couple months later, I'd cleared a trail covering most of the empty section of the woods, with a swing by the erratic, and connected it in three places to existing trails. For some time, I had the trail to myself, but this didn't last long. As part of the improvement work to the preserve, I'd received word that a new trail would be constructed. It wasn't until I ran on "my" trail again that I discovered the new trail would follow, almost exactly, its course. My trail would be legitimized! It was fun to watch the trail's usage increase and know that I'd helped create something that others would enjoy. 

Future option? 

I'd really like to make a short connection from the new trail over to the path that bridges Ventura Circle to the Biscuit City road network. This would greatly reduce the amount of pavement required to get from my house to the trails described in the next section. It's not totally self-serving, though. It would also give better access to the Potter Wood trails to people who live off those roads, as well as those over in the large development of Tefft Hill. I've already charted and mostly cleared this one, so it's just a matter of some finishing touches.

Kingston Water District loop / Tefft Historical Park

There is a small network of trails, mostly on private property but also spanning SKLT land, that connect White Horn and Berry Hill to the bike path. These trails careen down a small hill and weave through the ruins of the Tefft family homestead, which dates back to the 1600s and includes the possible grave site of the infamous Joshua Tefft. There isn't much room to add to the trails in here, but I was intrigued by a map I'd found of the Tefft Historical Park, which showed where many of the ancient features are located. There was one section of the land with some of those features on the SKLT property that had not been traversed, so I made a short path through it. Unfortunately, two large trees fell across the new trail earlier this year, so any hope I'd had of improving it have diminished.

Directly across the bike path from this area is land owned by the water district, which includes an old access road and what I believe to be the corridor once cleared for the water supply pipe. I explored that corridor and found it to be flanked, and in some cases completely enveloped, by large, lush rhododendrons. Earlier this year, I biked over there with a handsaw and cut back the growth to make a narrow passage from the bike path to the access road that exits on Ministerial. 

On the other side of the property is a nice, open woodland bordered by one of the many swamps in the area. Best of all, there are few briars, so it took just a single outing to make a simple loop trail along its perimeter. Combined with the other trails in the area, both new and existing, there are now enough to make for an interesting excursion off the bike path without the need for any repetition, which any self-respecting trail runner knows is simply unacceptable.

Future option?

A large portion of the SKLT property, to the east/southeast of the main trail, is without anything more than a small path that connects to a dirt road (but only if you're willing to cross through a gauntlet of warning / no trespassing signs). I'm interested in putting in at least on more trail in there and connecting it down to another small path that ultimately empties out onto the bike path. There were so many briars in there when I checked it out that I haven't had the ambition to go back yet. Still, I think it has potential for an interesting and varied trail or two.

Browning - South Shore connector

It was six or seven years ago, but I can still recall the amazement of stumbling upon a network of hidden dirt bike / ATV trails off Sand Plain Rd. on the western edge of South Kingstown. This was topped only by the excitement of realizing I could connect to these trails from Browning Woods. Fast forward to 2020, and the South Shore Village retirement community has since been placed directly on top of this area, completely reshaping it and messing with my sense of direction. Once I got the area sorted out in my head, I was pleased to see that instead of demolishing the old trails, the ownership decided to incorporate some of them into the community's recreational offerings, even improving the footing, which had been horrid before. I attempted to find the old connector to Browning, but it was overgrown and unrunnable in places. Rather than reestablishing this trail, I searched for another route, eventually finding the remains of an old farm/woods path with a small berm built on the wetlands between the two sets of trails. It was a perfect route for its simplicity and brevity and now gives easy access (albeit with a short, steep climb) to Browning from the South Shore trails. I don't think anyone I haven't told about it has used it yet, but I hope it can make for a better option for South Shore residents who would otherwise need to walk on Shannock Rd. to reach the Browning trails.

Some other possible future options

Peckham - Biscuit connector

Long before there was the URI bike path extension, cutting along the edge of Peckham Farm, I envisioned a path from the Biscuit City preserve over to the fields and dirt roads of Peckham, which I'd dreamed of being a haven for soft-footed workout. The new bike path has changed this to an extent, but I'd still like to see this one through, if for no other reason than it would create an interesting loop option for anyone using the Biscuit City trails. However, there are two big obstacles here. The first is water. A wide stream (White Horn Brook) flows directly through the area I'd need to cross. My initial exploration hasn't revealed any easy route across, so doing so will require some creativity. Then, once you're over (going from Peckham toward Biscuit City), the next section is very wet to the point of being impassable. Even if I were to conquer those, there's the matter of the second obstacle: the briars. They are absolutely everywhere, as if there were a maximum security prison in the vicinity. I am undeterred, though. I will find a route through it this year.

CCMS woods

Finally, I would really love to add to the small set of trails at Curtis Corner. Just look at all that empty space! The only deterrent here is that the land is surrounded by houses of people who might not be as excited about new trails as I am. I think this is probably the least likely to happen of all the trails floating around my mind at the moment.