Training Log Archive: danfoster

After a few hours sleep (and even fewer for my teammates), we broke camp and hit the trail at 8AM, just in time to greet the waking insects. It was another day in the 80s, and there was no good choice between long clothes for insect protection and shorts for temperature control. We sweated and swatted our way south, climbing hills and dropping down into buggy streams before climbing again. Ran into one of the North Quabbin Trail Assn members, and gave some feedback on improving the trail markings. Restocked on water from a friendly local's hose, and then got routed into a grassy field of ticks to avoid the road walk by another friendly local.


Took a much-needed break atop Tully Mtn, and a refreshing dip amongst the lily pads of a small pond before we rejoined the Tully Lake trail and re-entered civilization.

Final run for Jess before a weekend lazing about at home. I will envy her tonight!

The Adventure Dogs! are heading out for a full night of training. Camping at Tully Lake for the weekend, and rolling out at 3PM today for a 40 mile gravel loop followed by a 14 mile trek to the shelter at Royalston Falls. We're hoping to keep moving from 3PM until around 2AM, and then catch some sleep before hiking another 7 miles back to the campground in the morning.

Since AP loves dot watching, please follow us live and cheer us on! The link below should have 10 minute live updates from 3PM Friday until we go to sleep, and then again on Saturday until we make it back to camp. And then sporadically for the rest of the weekend, depending on what we decide to do next.

https://share.garmin.com/TheAdventureDogs

24 race training at Tully Lake with The Adventure Dogs! We met up at the campground and set out at 3:30PM on a 40+ mile MTB ride on gravel and back roads that I'd found on the Internet. Started with a long climb in 80 degree heat up to the town of Royalston, getting buzzed by pickup trucks along the way. Then a turn onto Town Dump Rd, which quickly turned into washed-out, unridable jeep road. We got to the bottom and found a deep, 40 ft wide river, with no sign of a bridge. Our internet track continued merrily down the jeep road on the other side. Fortunately, there was a side road that detoured us around, or we'd have had to swim the bikes across. Given that we were only two miles into our ride so far, this was a very ominous sign.

Our next dirt section was supposed to start with a turn onto a faint track between "two junky houses". We found one, with plenty of junk, and a guy polishing his boots on the stoop, but no sign of a public way. We blasted down to South Royalston, stopped for water and views, and then worked our way north through Otter River State Forest.


Had a relaxing ride north through Fitzwilliam and Troy on the Monadnock rail trail, and took a detour to grab water and snacks before grinding up Richmond Rd as it got closer to sunset. A local stopped us to warn that the road ended ahead. Went through a few closed gates and entered an active logging zone, with lots of side trails, and stopped for selfies in front of a huge log pile. Ground our way up the hill on rutted, muddy skidder roads, and then picked our way down the other side in the dark, mostly managing to avoid the mud holes. Saw a few porcupines along the way.

Once we got off the jeep trails, it was mostly gravel riding back to Royalston, with a few big climbs at the end. We had elected not to do the Tully Bike Trail in the dark, which meant a grueling climb back up to Royalston and then a screaming descent back down to the campground at 10PM, just in time to go trekking!

Next up was a trek around the Tully Trail, a 22 mile backpacking loop, with a shelter 2/3rds of the way around. Given the late hour, we opted to hike the short way to the shelter, rather than our original plan. The hike went pretty smoothly in the dark. We had one issue finding the trail again after a short road segment, and when we approached Royalston Falls time seemed to slow down, as we were within a kilometer of the shelter and we never to get any closer. Eventually we rolled into camp around 2:30AM and bedded down for the night.

Woke up to dreamy fog and calm wind. By the time we made it to the pond, the fog had burned off, but an early-morning paddle on mirror-smooth water was a rare treat.

Quick loop at dusk to confirm the shop figured out how to fix my creaky bottom bracket. Jess tracked down two deer and a half dozen tick nymphs, and I picked an infinite number of gnats out of my eyes. But no creaks!

The ride before the ride before the paddle.

Printed out a 27K MTB loop through all of the conservation lands surrounding Walden Pond from Ride with GPS, and attempted to follow it with a paper map. Things would have gone much smoother if I had marked up the route ahead of time, brought a compass, left on time, and if all of the trails were actually on OpenStreetMap. Cut things short at the 15K mark, which didn't seem anything close to halfway around, and made it back to Walden in time for our 4PM kayak session.


I now have an 8" stripe up my left arm from spearing a tree along the way.

Season opener at Walden. Borrowed an Epic wing and tried to get used to paddling and rolling with it. Whatever the "armpit muscle" is will be sore tomorrow.

Pushed the pace today. Cool temps and light rain felt great.

A fantastic night ride. Eerily silent with Jess not wearing her bell. The only glitch was that the magnetic end cap of my handlebar light was up against the GPS receiver for Jess' tracking collar, which completely overwhelmed its internal compass. I could see how far away Jess was, but not which direction.

Figure-8 hike on Mt. Wachusett. Jess was a hit with the hundreds of schoolkids the first time we summitted, and then we had the place mostly to ourselves the second time around. Jess found a baby porcupine on the way in, and another group of hikers pointed out an adult one on the way back to the car.

Muggy but not buggy.

Sunset SUP with the pup.