Active long weekend

 I kicked off July with a long weekend of running, biking, hiking, and a little swimming. I missed doing the Chelmsford race, but my ankle/foot just did not feel up to racing. On Friday I headed out and got in a nice run on the Londonderry Rail Trail, then onward for a fantastic, rare Friday morning ride. 

A migraine hit which had me feeling off for the remainder of the weekend. I set up camp in Bear Brook and got in a nice swim to cool off. The water was bathtub-warm but still felt good to get out of the heat and humidity. 

After that I headed over to Epsom for a run up to the highest point. It was buggy and the footing was a bit rough over the 1.1 miles that climbed over 600’. The view was terrific, but the haze cut down on what I was able to see. It was a rough night with temps only getting down to 70 and high humidity. 

I got up a couple of times to see if I could catch the International Space Station, but low clouds kept it out of sight. 

I got in a very buggy run on the camp road and ended up with welts all over my back from deerflies feasting on me. I woke up with something wrong with my left ear which was not feeling right. I headed over to Concord for a nice Holiday group run and checked out the ceremony at the capital building.

 After that I headed over to Bow for a hike to the town high point. The unofficial trail to the summit became overgrown after 100 meters so I bushwacked straight to the top. The summit was covered in blueberries and featured a nice view that like the previous day, was obscured due to haze.

 After catching the fireworks, I decided to head for the hospital as I now had no hearing in one ear. I was worried it might be related to my migraine but also thought it could be water from the swim that I couldn’t get out. I ended up spending 6 hours in the waiting room overnight and another hour getting my ear taken care of (water and wax). It was a relief to get my hearing back, but I was exhausted from being up over 24 hours

. No time to rest as I headed over to the Northern Rail Trail for a nice 10 mile run in the much more refreshing conditions (68-74 degrees but lower humidity). I checked out the geocache near the Hannah Dustin statue and after that it was on to the always fun Sunday ride, closing out the weekend with a nice 2 hour ride in optimal conditions.