Things I've Seen (and Smelled) On Recent Runs

Last weekend I ran 15 miles from Winooski through the Intervale to the New North End and back through Burlington. This weekend I ran 17 miles from Winooski to Colchester, down the bike path and around Winooski again. A few photos:

She looks lonely, but the rest of the cows were nearby on the riverbank.

What ARE these?!

The Intervale is an agricultural area in Burlington that takes advantage of the rich river-deposited soil. That said, I have never actually seen cows drinking from the river in all the times I've run through there. So cool!

Further along near the Ethan Allen Homestead, I stopped to loop at the trail map on the park bulletin board, when I noticed the sign posts were crawling with these red and black bugs. I didn't study the grass, but they were definitely coming up from the ground. Filed under "cool/gross."


And then I ran waaay out to Peninsula Point, an oxbow on the river that forms pretty field edged by trees. On the far side of the field -- the farthest point from the trail head -- I found this:

A monkey mascot carefully draped over a tree limb. At first I thought it was a eagle costume (not that that would make it more explainable...) but it was definitely a monkey. Someone would have had to walk a few miles in the monkey suit (or carry it) to get to this point. If not the sunny blue sky and the good mood radiating from all the people I passed on the trails, I would have found this scene... worrisome. Instead, I just want to know: who left the monkey suit in the woods?


I don't usually take photos while I'm running, but for various reasons I've been carrying my iPhone on long runs lately. What my phone can't capture is the smells I encounter. Farmland, at least at this time of year, does not smell like manure. In fact, it just smells like outdoors. Like Vermont. But the city offers a few distinct smells. Particularly on Riverside Driver, which is less river and more industrial park. Within about 100 yards, I pass the two most polar opposite smell locations in Burlington: the waste water treatment plant, and the Koffee Cup donut factory. One is awfully, olfactorily offensive; the other is deliciously sweet and hunger-inducing. Best to hit them in that order.




This weekend's long run has one picture to capture the weather: soft, gray everything. The sky, the horizon, the river, the lake. For long stretches on the bike path, I didn't see another person, but it didn't feel lonely or sad. The temperature was warm, and the air felt soft. Most of the leaves are on the ground now, but enough are still on the trees to give the bike path a foggy, quiet leaf-shroud.

From the Colchester-Winooski bridge, the lake was silent, and soft-gray.