explore – Mellace Writes

Last week I talked about my 2021 word—wonder. I also mentioned that I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. And while that is true, I do still have goals. That’s not the same thing, right? Anyway, the 2021 goal that I set for myself was to run/hike/walk at least one new place each week. After several weeks of holiday downtime, in which I found myself discovering loads of new trails, that goal seemed like no big deal. I even managed a new location during the first full week of the year (Blockhouse Point, also discussed in last week’s post). But Week 2 of 2021 proved a little more challenging when it came to my schedule and I got off track. Or did I?

I’ve been super fortunate to have a few clients in my new business venture, MellaceWrites. So this last week found me running closer to home with less time to travel to trails. And for the record, I’m absolutely not complaining! I’m so grateful to have the work and be off to a wonderful start. So, instead of beating myself up for not meeting my goal, I found new ways of looking at things on my normal #mileswithbella. Like this funky mushroom growing on the side of this tree…

FUNKY MUSHROOM: This was growing about 6 feet up on this tree that I pass almost every day on my walks.
First time I noticed it was this week.

Or this branch that I never noticed before on these pine trees that I’ve photographed so many times…

PINE TREE ALLEY: One of these is not like the others.

Or seeing the sunset from a new angle as I moved off the path to let another walker pass safely by…

SUNSET PINES: Just seeing a sunset from a different angle can be a new experience.

My long run this weekend was also going to be on a familiar trail at Black Hills Park. That was until my friend and I arrived to find the trails closed for a managed deer hunt.

TOTAL BUZZKILL: Plans for our 12-mile run were quickly squashed and we had to figure out a new plan.

My immediate reaction was one of disappointment. I really need to psych myself up for my long runs, so this was a real buzzkill. There is another park within a 20-minute drive, which was my first thought, but my friend didn’t miss a beat and suggested we try a new-to-me trail that was just across the road—the Hoyles Mill Trail.

AN UNEXPECTED ADVENTURE: For years I’d seen signs for this trail but never knew where it led. I’d forgotten about it until my running friend suggested we give it a try seeing as our original trail was closed for the day.

I had been looking forward to the original trail that skirts a beautiful lake offering views like this right from the start…

SUNRISE LAKE VIEWS: This is the view that greets us at the start of our run at Black Hills.

But our new plan didn’t disappoint when we were immediately greeted with this sunrise view…

HOYLES MILL TRAIL: We had gorgeous views right from the start.

From there, we ran along single-track trails, country roads, and more open fields. It was a fantastic variety of views and terrain and lots of water crossings, which I love.

HOYLES MILL TRAIL: This crossing had a bridge, but there were about four others that required careful negotiation.

HOYLES MILL TRAIL: The water crossings weren’t deep, but enough to get your feet wet if you weren’t careful.

The really cool thing about this adventure was that it took us through three different parks: Black Hills Regional Park, Hoyles Mill Conservation Park, and Schaeffer Farms, which is part of Seneca Creek State Park.

PARK/TRAIL HOPPING: Better than bar hopping…our 12-mile run was an out-and-back (6 miles out, 6 miles back).

SCHAEFFER FARMS: We ran to Schaeffer Farms before turning around. I’d been on some of these trails when I ran the Schaeffer Half Marathon in November 2019…a great race organized by EX2 Adventures.

And what’s even more exciting, is that these parks all link together as part of a much bigger Montgomery County trail system—one that encompasses 100 miles of trails, many of which I haven’t done (yet!).

So, while I was ready to accept that I had missed this week’s goal, I will admit that I’m really happy I didn’t. And I learned that a trail-closed sign isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, it led us to an unexpected adventure, and some new trails added to my “wonder list.” There’s a life lesson in there, isn’t there?

Until next time…

I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. I can never keep them, so why bother making them. I’ve also never chosen a guiding word before—a word that is to be my constant reminder to help guide me in my decision making and help keep me moving forward in a positive light. But this year is different. This year I felt a very real need to choose a word that I could live by for the next 12 months. And, in doing so, I found a word that I want to live the rest of my life by. My word is wonder.

I found my word with a little help from a good running friend. We were out on the trails the other day and started chatting about what word or phrase we wanted to adopt for 2021. I told her that I was thinking of explore or discover. Then she said, “I think your word is wonder. When I think of you, I see someone who is always finding the wonderment in things. I think that should be your word.” As soon as she said it I knew she was right.

The definition of wonder is “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.”

In my last post, I talked about how I’ve made a conscious decision to seek out the beauty that surrounds me. In doing that, I’ve discovered so many things that stop me in my tracks and make me think about just how wonderful our world is. I’m talking simple stuff here—coming around the bend in the trail to see the sun peeking through the trees …

Or seeing beautiful flowers dancing on the side of the road during a run …

Or seeing a mound of moss that somehow reminds me of the little garden gnomes from the Disney movie “Frozen” (I can’t explain it, but it makes me smile).

While there is so much that needs our attention in today’s world … so many heavy things … it is my hope that my word will guide me to view the world with a sense of wonder each and every day. And I vow to take that sense of wonder into everything I do—every word I write, every person I interact with, every bend in the trail. I hope you can find the wonder in your days, too.

Here are some pictures from my word discovery run the other day and another new-to-me trail: Blockhouse Point Conservation Park in Darnestown, Maryland. Enjoy!

Tag: explore

An Unexpected Adventure

What’s Your Word?