Concept
The plan to run the entire Mid State Trail in a calendar
year was hatched by John Grenier and Nick Popiak in the spring of the year. I
offer the following as background information for those unfamiliar to us or to
trail running. After years of running on the roads, we both enjoy running trail
and like to venture forth into new areas. We like to run in the woods with only
an occasional road run these days. We enjoy the adventure of running in new
places and it’s always a good thing to run on a new trail for the first time.
So, we decided to attempt to traverse the complete Mid-State within one
calendar year. The Mid-State Trail runs North-South from the New Hampshire
border to the Rhode Island border. We have local knowledge of the trail as it
passes near our homes and we were both members of the CMS team that
participated in the Mid State Trail Relay Race in the late nineties(Year?). For
the most part, the Mid-State is excellent trail. The total distance of the
trail is listed at over 92 miles. About 85% is on trail with about 13 road
miles mixed in. Most of the road miles are between the Charlton, Oxford and
Sutton sections of the trail.
Summary
We completed the trek in 11 sections or legs. The legs were
chosen based upon the convenience of starting and ending points. Some of the
legs were run as out-and-back sections where we essentially ran the same
section twice, while the longer sections were generally point-to-point runs.
For these, we had to drop a car off at one end, drive to the other end, and
run, and then go back and pick up the cars. 6 legs were of the point-to-point
variety and they covered 75% of the trail distance. The legs averaged almost
8.5 miles with the shortest being 2.1 and the longest being 17.75 miles. Total
running time was approximately 20 hours and 10 minutes with an average pace of
about 13 minutes per mile. We feel these are very respectable numbers since all
these runs were essentially no-aid runs where we carried all our own food and
water and provided our own transportation.
TABLE 1
The first table lists the legs in order of completion. We
started in April up in the Wachusett Mountain area with a run over the
mountain. That is about the time that we decided to try running the whole
trail. Not much got done over the next few months and we averaged a section a
month until December, when we put the pedal to the metal and pushed to get the
whole trail completed. We were very fortunate to complete the trek by the end
of the year because the lack of snow in December, allowed us to run some very
long sections of the trail under some very nice conditions.
|
Section
|
Date
|
Time
|
Dist
|
Leg
|
Type
|
|
Wachusett Mountain
|
04/03
|
0:30
|
2.1
|
4
|
OB
|
|
Wachusett to Rt 2A
|
04/10
|
1:36
|
6.44
|
3
|
PtPt
|
|
Rt 31 to Rt 9
|
5/23
|
1:30
|
7.5
|
8
|
OB
|
|
Rt. 122 to
Rt. 31
|
6/13
|
1:30
|
6.84
|
7
|
OB
|
|
Rt 12 to
Route 16
|
7/18
|
2:04
|
11.1
|
10
|
PtPt
|
|
Rt 9 to
Rt 12
|
8/15
|
4:00
|
17.75
|
9
|
PtPt
|
|
Rt. 16 to end
|
10/17
|
0:55
|
5
|
11
|
OB
|
|
Beginning to Rt 101
|
12/5
|
1:20
|
3.75
|
1
|
OB
|
|
Intervale Rd to
Rt 122
|
12/12
|
1:55
|
9.25
|
6
|
PtPt
|
|
Princeton to
Intervale
|
12/19
|
1:50
|
11.3
|
5
|
PtPt
|
|
Rt 101 to Rt. 2A
|
12/24
|
3:00
|
12.75
|
2
|
PtPt
|
|
Total Time
Average Pace
Average Distance
|
|
20:10
13
8.45
|
|
|
|
TABLE 2
The second table lists the legs in order from North to South
and contains a description of each leg.
|
Leg
|
Section
|
Summary
|
|
1
|
Rt 101 to Northern Terminus
|
Started at 101 headed North, went over Mt. Watatic first,
then to NH and back straight to Rt 119. The Midstate now goes over
Mt.Witatic, which is new and is not in the trail guide as part of the overall
route. Coming back from NH, we followed the old trail markings. Nick got hurt
going out. So this made for a long day. We also went past the end of the
trail into NH. The trail markings are not very clear where the Midstate ends,
now that the trail follows the Wapack Trail. We stumbled upon the end of
trail markers, which were in the woods off of single-track. This was our
first time over Watatic. Nice views, we’ll be back with snowshoes, skis and
crampons!
|
|
2
|
Rt 101 to Rt. 2A
|
This section was Very hilly. Started out going over Mt.
Hunger and the whole section was up and down. We named this section; the S
and H trail which stands for Streams and Hills.
|
|
3
|
Wachusett to Rt 2A
|
Ran North from Wachusett Parking Lot Rt 2A. Very rugged.
Beautiful woods, tough single track, glacier rock fields, this had it all.
Very difficult section to make any time. Well marked.
|
|
4
|
Mountain Rd to Harrington Trail Head
|
This was an over the mountain jaunt. We did this section
with Rich LaChappelle. Very familiar territory.
|
|
5
|
Princeton to
Rutland (Intervale Rd)
|
Very nice trail on the other side of the mountain going
thru miles of Wildlife Preserve. This section was all down hill and finished
with a couple of road miles between Princeton and Rutland
|
|
6
|
Intervale Rd to Rt 122
|
Beautiful Trail run. Very runnable trail. My vote for Best
Section of trail. This went over Barre Falls Dam and went through the Rutland
Prison Camps. Most of time we were in pinewoods, which is always the easiest
terrain. Seems like we were going downhill the whole time.
|
|
7
|
Rt. 122 to
Rt. 31
|
Start at 122 and headed South to Rt 31 and Return. This is
very nice section too. Lots of single track and some cart road. Lots of horse
sign, this goes thru Boy Scout Land.
|
|
8
|
Rt 31 to Rt 9
|
Ran North From Rt 9 in Spencer to Paxton Road in Spencer
where we had 2nd Car. Ran North to Rt 31 and returned to Paxton
Road. Overall running terrain was 100% Trail and Cart Road. Very Runnable.
|
|
Leg
|
Section
|
Summary
|
|
9
|
Rt 9 to Rt 12
|
This was an event. We did this just after Hurricane
Charlie. It was wet and wild. The trail sections from Rt 9 to Jones Road were
all single track and runnable. From here to G H Wilson was terrible, We got
lost, trail was not marked and uncut. This is the only time we got lost and
couldn’t follow trail. Lots of road from here thru Oxford. Gas pipe line area
was overgrown. Don’t do this area in the summer! The Cow tunnel was neat. The
road section before entering the Hodges area was tough for us at the end of a
long run. After doing this run, the trail was rerouted over Fay Mountain in
Charlton, we will try and go back and do that piece.
|
|
10
|
Rt. 12 to Rt 16
|
Not a nice trail section since at least half of this was
road in Oxford and Sutton. Nice trail in Douglas as the trail enters the
Douglas State Forest.
|
|
11
|
Rt 16 to
Southern
Terminus
|
Ran south from Rt 16 to Southern Terminus and Return. This
is my most familiar turf. This is a great running trail, a mix of technical
rocky terrain, cart road and single track.
|
|
