Magic Mountaintop Morning Medicine
Douglas J. D'Jay, an IT manager at Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association wakes in the wee hours of the morning so he can run up or hike up a local mountain (rain or shine) before beginning my workday. Last week, we shared D'Jay's snapshot of the snow at the top of the mountain (at dawn) overlooking Bennett’s Pond.
D'Jay's photos of our local landscape are breathtaking and we have decided to make his words of wisdom and photography a regular feature on HamletHub. Today, he takes us to the hilltop of Hemlock Hills.
I've been a skier since I was six, 51 years ago. Wow! I never did the math. Anyway, it's what I do best, and it brings me a tremendous enjoyment and makes me feel like a kid again. But I'm writing this sitting on a log in the sun towards the end of a 4-mile trail run in a foot of snow, and while the trails on the bottom of the Hemlock Hills park in Ridgefield are well traveled, no one set foot on the trails at the top. I broke trail up there last weekend and ran through unbroken snow again this weekend. It's twice as hard running in deep unbroken snow but there's nothing like having the whole mountain to yourself. And running fast downhill in the snow is as sweet as skiing. And now I have to hurry to finish my run because there's only 7% left on my battery on my phone.
(And you may not believe this but the battery died exactly when I stopped my run at the red bridge where I always stretch before and after my run.)
R