Autumn colours in Spout Lane Plantation
The aim tonight was just to get some gentle miles in to try to recover from Passing Clouds and the fairly hard session I had on Wednesday, and to free my legs up for a decent long run on Sunday morning (hopefully).
I took a nice easy start from Forest Glen, running along the road past the Buckatree Hall Hotel to the M54 bridge, and then back over the Ercall. When I got back to FG, I started off along the north side of the Wrekin past the rifle range and the bottom of the Heroes track, and the round the west side of Little Hill.
Coming up towards Spot Lane Plantation, I heard a stag bellowing off up the hill somewhere, then saw some movement in the trees to the right. I slowed right down and spotted another stag and his hareem of four does just 40 yards away. We watched each other for half a minute or so and then headed off on our respective missions. It's moment like this that add richness to all of the miles. I saw a white owl hereabouts at dusk this time last year - it was like a hole in the sky: they seem to suck all the sound out of the woods.
Anyway, back to the run. I continued back along the south side of the Wrekin and then up to halfway house. A fast descent of Beeches (picking my feet up again and upping the cadence) and I was down for my usual warm-down lap of the Forest Glen Reservoir.
Nice steady pace tonight, felt strong climbing (except a short section around the fourth mile), descended well and did the level bits and the switchbacks nice and controlled.
6.8 miles, 920', 1h 26m including a couple of brief stops.
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