I didn’t know there was such a thing as a trail runner — until I read Ben Kimball’s guide to 51(!) trails in our area suitable for trail running.

Kimball is a runner, hiker, author, blogger, cartographer and photographer. He will speak and show photographs of trails and nature on Tuesday at the Dickinson Memorial Library in Northfield.

His book, “Trail Running Western Massachusetts,” is small enough to fit in most pockets and wide ranging enough to appeal to most runners and hikers in this state and adjoining ones.

The area covered in the book stretches from the Quabbin Reservoir to Upstate New York. Kimball discusses trails in a number of parks, reservations, mountains, and forests here in Franklin County.

These include Pelham Lake Park in Rowe, Colrain Ridge Trail, Northfield Mountain, Mount Grace in Warwick, the Wendell State Forest, Mount Toby in Sunderland, the DAR State Forest in Ashfield, North Sugarloaf Mountain in Deerfield and Greenfield Ridge.

For each trail, Kimball discusses how hard it is for runners, how long it is, how to get there, what shape it takes, the terrain it traverses, and so forth. He has obviously run along all the trails in the book.

He writes with knowledge and enthusiasm. His narrative provides tips about sharing trails with other runners (and non-runners); the best times of day, week and year to run; and what runners should pack for their journeys.

He also lightens his descriptions with a little humor. “If you’ve found most of the runs in this guide to be on the tame side,” he writes, “the Hopper awaits.” (The Hopper is a historic trail that starts in Williamstown.)

Conveniently, each trail map in this small volume features an instant-access (QR) code. Readers may download an app that allows them to scan these codes with smartphones; the phones will then display more detailed maps and color photographs.

I have heard about QR codes at book conferences, but this is the first time I have seen them in an actual book. They look handy and intriguing.

I don’t know that “Trail Running Western Massachusetts” will convince a middle-aged person with bad knees like me to begin running like a gazelle along mountain paths. Nevertheless, I am almost tempted by Ben Kimball’s prose.

Comparing trail running to hiking, he writes, “you feel the ground differently — you flow over it rather than just stepping on it.”

Ben Kimball will talk about trail running at the Dickinson Library on Main Street in Northfield on Tuesday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. This program is free and open to the public.

Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” and “Pulling Taffy.” Visit her website: 
www.TinkyCooks.com