Giving MVHF A Second Chance!

   Monday was my day off and I thought I would head out and hit the trails at the Medway Valley Heritage Forest once again.

At the top of the valley, looking down on Medway Creek.
This pic really doesn't do it justice.

   I had been there probably about a month ago and had left somewhat unimpressed, partly due to not being familiar enough with my surroundings but mainly due to the amount of multi-use path I found myself on. I made a mental note that day to maybe try a different part of the forest and this Monday was the day for that.
   Careful perusing of the map of the forest made me decide to enter near the Elsie Perrin Williams estate. There was a three-car parking lot there and I managed to squeeze in between the other two cars already there. 
   I found myself looking out over the Medway Valley and it was quite scenic. The trail, however, led straight down the side of the valley for about a hundred yards and I really felt more like a mountain goat picking my way down a sheer cliff than anything. Eventually hit bottom and off I went, a-running. In a brand-new area, it's always a bit of a crapshoot picking which way to go at junctions and I must admit I made a couple of bad choices that had me running right back up the wall of the valley long before I wanted to. At one point, I found myself looking straight up at the longest, steepest hill I had ever encountered in my brief trail running history. And those were the actual words running through my head. I took a bit of a breather and then headed up, running. Gasping, I reached about 7/8ths of the way up before I realized I had almost run myself back into the parking lot. I had just run up the same hill I had had to imitate a mountain goat to get down when I first arrived! Won't do that again!
   

At the bottom of the valley.

I then gingerly made my way back down and headed the opposite direction to what I'd done the first time. This had me running along the Medway Creek floodplain and it was actually pretty scenic being that close to the creek, which is really more like a river.
   Unfortunately, I could only go so far before running out of real estate. I actually ran out of trail before I even got that far and found myself picking my way through thickets. At one point, I found myself following tracks which could only have been made by either deer or cloven-hooved satyrs, take your pick. I was pretty sure the trail wasn't for humans and was quite glad to finally find myself back on something which was actually marked.
   At this point, I hadn't even come close to decent mileage but was exhausted by bush-whacking and steep valley walls and so decided to head for home. This, of course, meant

The Hill. Stupid pic doesn't capture its glory!

negotiating (for the fourth time) the same steep hill I told you about at the beginning. This time, I walked.
   Okay, the jury is still out on the Medway valley Heritage Forest. I know there are sections which I still have to encounter and I will simply wait til I do so before I pass any judgement. I know that when I was down by the creek I could see open runnable trails on the other side of it so I will find those and run them!