If you live in New England you can relate -- here it is a weekend, and it's raining ... again. We've seen rain every weekend for the past 2 months. Having recently completed New Hampshire County #3, Merrimack, what better time than now with the rain pouring down to reflect on the roads traveled over the past year through the county's 27 towns. Yes, we've seen Merrimack County in all 4 seasons, winding our way through 195 miles - now at over 500 miles for the 3 counties completed to date!
The first town in the county was Wilmot and it was time to welcome a new mascot (Mac) and a new twist (bread crumbs). As a fun aside for each run I've now marked golf balls with the RUNNH234 leg number and left them in a visible place along each route. I reference the breadcrumb location in my Instagram posts (in case you are ever in the neighborhood) and am leaving a bit of the adventure behind.
Midway through the county Nancy and I were joined by our new adventure companion "Chef" who is great in the car, enjoys the stops along the way and makes cameo appearances in all of the Town Hall pictures. He even joins me for running sections at times, usually on trails and dirt roads.
Merrimack has been noticeably flatter than Cheshire and Sullivan, but still offered plenty of challenges along the way - and some beautiful off the beaten path scenery. I've been trying to plot a course "less traveled" and it's definitely enhanced the experience. The hills returned with the last few towns, winding up with Murray Hill in none other than .... Hill.
When you stay on main roads you'd have no idea how many dirt roads there are in New Hampshire. Let me tell you -- there are a lot of them!
It's interesting how common it is in New Hampshire for a road in one town to be named for the neighboring town it is going towards and then when you get across the town line the road name changes to the name of the town your were in. More often than not that's a good sign that I've found the road I want for
the route, but not always. For example if you want to go from Warner to Henniker and you opt to go via Henniker road as you travel from Warner you'll find you are on a dirt road not maintained November through May. We've encountered a number of Class VI roads that fall into this category and so timing is everything.
If it's winter / early spring then it's spotty on which roads are passable. That's part of the fun and adventure, figuring out how to get around seasonal obstacles.
Memorable highlights from Merrimack County that come to mind:
Getting excellent sandwiches at the Danbury Country Store
Running past Pleasant Lake - Wilmot to New London
Runs with Haley: Sutton, Bradford, Newbury
Running through Bear Brook State park and past the staging area for Reach the Beach race (ahh the memories)
Tearing a hamstring in Pittsfield and limping it in the last 2 miles (and then out of action for the next 2 months).
Running past yard sales in Andover and thinking at first it was a Trump fundraiser only to find it was town wide.
Number of runs on the Northern Rail trail -- Northfield to Franklin, Franklin to Boscawen, Andover to Danbury
As we now enter Grafton County the terrain and feel have definitely changed. It is now about 75 miles to starting points for runs and the roads are more dirt/back road with hilly terrain. I strive to find original meeting houses and town halls which isn't always straight forward, but that's all part of the challenge.
Almost out of room on my running hat where I write the names of all the towns completed to date - I'll either need to write smaller or get a new hat!
For those of you that are runners you can appreciate how fun it is to be able to run point to point in a variety of new locations - with support on the way I might add! I'm so grateful for the time and support Nancy puts in on this quest. I couldn't do it without her - and wouldn't want to.
So it's 3 counties down with 7 more to go. Goodbye Merrimack ... Hello Grafton.
Bring it on!
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