Training Log Archive: CleverSky

A liitle something before dark. Had to walk some of the steep bits back by Vinton Pond; my starts were pretty good.

Dark. Mostly trails, some wandering aimlessly in the laurel, contemplating the fact that life has treated me quite well.

C • wandering aimlessly in the ... 3

I originally intended to do this loop in the opposite direction, which would have had some advantages, but the Midstate Trail routing on the USGS map is obsolete, and the trail markers aren't necessarily helpful unless you know what you're looking for. So when it wasn't obvious what to do at the Mile Hill Rd. crossing, I figured that the blazes woudl be more obvious starting at the southern end. I guess I'll have to send away for the trail guide.

Midstate Trail, Westminster Rd. to Wachusett parking. Had the weekend's weather turned out differently, I might have had a short (or no) flight on Saturday, and a longer run/bike today. But after I landed yesterday and was feeling kinda wiped, I was thinking that a rainy day lying in bed and doing nothing would be just fine. It did rain pretty hard for a while in the morning, but the thunderstorms looked like they'd be more spotty in the afternoon. Rather than risk having the bike get rained on, I opted for the next section of the trail to the south, where I figured I could do the return trip on foot, and where I could maximize the hazards of wet rocks/roots and the chances of getting hit by lightning. No electrocution, and only a couple of inconsequential slips, though I had to go slow on part of the descent because the trail is really polished rock -- this is likely the most heavily traveled section of the Midstate Trail. Warm and steamy, I skipped the pack and just brought a gel in my pocket and carried a very small bottle of water, which I finished at the summit. Pleased to have gotten it done.

Some kinda endurance training: no hiking or running or carrying of gear involved, but I spent just shy of five hours in the air at Rutland.

This was intended to be paddliing, from Harbor Pond up the Squannacook as far as I could get, and back. Maybe as far as Rte. 13, that would be cool. I checked out a map online first, whcih is a good thing, because otherwise there's no way I could have guessed my way out of that pond, through the marshy labyrinth, and into the "river". Slow going, had to get out of the boat a few times to get past obstacles, and finally reached a log that was too close to the surface to get over, but in water too deep to get out. Scouted out a portage, and put back in at Pat Tie's. Had to do a second portage, then I didn't get too much further before I was blocked again. This time I went out on foot a way to see what lay ahead, and it looked like after a couple of hundred yards it would be clear for a while, but that was going to put me pretty deep in the woods if it got thick again. And I was facing a fair amount of poison ivy. So I decided to cut my losses and go back on foot, knowing I could drive down to Pat Tie's from either side. Seemed like South Harbor Road would be the longer way, as ooposed to Main St. (turns out it's about the same), but would be on a less busy road. I picked what I thought would be the shorter option, but then remembered that I could take the rail trail! Except for the detail that there is no rail trail because the people of my hometown are idiots who have organized opposition to such an evil thing being established. Somebody has cleared a path next to the tracks, though, so I took that. It does have one detour that loops back to the tracks after a little bit, avoiding the incursions: Harbor Auto Body has built a chainlink fence across the rail line and is storing delelict cars inside it, and at least one other abutter has expanded their yard out across the B&M property. I was able to drive my car to the river to get the kayek, but just barely, because I think almost nobody goes down there any more and it's getting grown in. There's a sign denoting it as a boat launch, but there's not much point in doing that any more. When I was a kid, it was a popular swimming hole.

"Running" on the retrieve leg was hampered by the fact that I was wearing water shoes, which are among the worst footwear I have for running.

It would be cool to do some more of this river, further upstream, but I'll have to do some scouting to see if it looks navigable. Might be beter in higher water conditions, or tha might just be an invitation to drowning. Trees across the river that are a couple of feet over the surface now are going to be obstable in any conditions. I also ought to think about whether I know anybody with one of those dinky plastic kayaks that I could borrow, that would be a more suitable vessel.

Midstate Trail from Watatic to Whitmanville, with my pack. The split I took is at the furthest spot that I remember ever getting to before (and turning around). A bit of an oops when crossing Russell Hill Road, as the trail marking pointed left and I didn't spot the ones almost directly across the street that basically went along the edge of somebody's lawn. But I had my new phone with me, so I figured I'd call up a map on it and figure out where to go. No luck, didn't have good enough signal down there in the rural valley. Saw only two people, a woman walking her dog, and a guy fishing. I did have a truly fine AOWN experience, though, stopping a few times to grab handfuls of one of my favoritest foodstuffs in the whole world: wild blueberries. Starting to lose focus and attention by the end, but I wasn't eating much (had one gel), probably could have used more calories. I didn't miss any turns other than at that road crossing, but I had to keep reminding myself to look for blazes, and a couple of times I did that just in time to spot an easily overlooked turn onto a smaller trail. I think I did a little bit of the southern end of this with PG about five years ago, starting from down near Rte. 2. Wrenched my right ankle in a minor way early on, but it didn't bother me; it's slightly tender now. Overcast all day, which was fine for running, and not so great for the flying plans that I cancelled.

And back to the car, using the bike that I had stashed on the southern end of the Baldwin Hill map. Pretty leisurely ride.

On my way home, I really wanted a cheeseburger (and a coke). There are several food establishments along the route that are defunct, and I ended up going to a place in the center of Townsend where I had only ever gotten ice cream in the past. There was a particular type of cheeseburger that I had in mind, but didn't really know where to find it, so I just had to take whatever they had. I was delighted when I opened the styrofoam box and saw exactly what I had been hoping for, and that feeling was reinforced when I tucked into it. It was sublime.

When I was outside for a few minutes this afternoon, I was wondering what the hell I was doing at work on such a beautiful day (as opposed to, say, flying). I think there may be a rule that if you cop an attitude like that, you're obligated to get off your ass and get outdoors in the evening. So I did. A variation on the usual tour over here, using both sides of the road, but avoiding sketchy stream crossings. I probably went a few places I hadn't been before, and was kind of improvinsing in a few sections. I had my headlamp with me, but didn't use it, although I was just on the edge of it being too dark to see my footing. O-pants, as is my wont, but being a summer eveing, it was not cool and dry. There are branches growing across the trail in a bunch of places, so there was ducking required. Before I went out, I spent a little time sprayin herbicide around my yard (trying to beat back the poison ivy), but made up for that with a couple of fine AOWN incidents: I had a porcupine trying to stay ahead of me on the trail at one point, and fireflies were starting to come out near the end.

Winnipesaukee with Nancy (me orange, her yellow). A little bit of a headwind on the way back, and quite a bit of powerboat traffic (ski boats and jetskis) for most of this -- might be worth looking for a more secluded part of the lake for next time, if such a thing exists. We did fine in the (smallish) waves, a promising sign for future saltwater excursions.

On the drive home, coming south through Merrimack NH after having attended a play, I saw a disturbing thing that I have rarely encountered before: headlights coming toward me on the highway. I was in the right-hand lane, and a car was coming up the breakdown lane. Soon after, we saw three cruisers with their lights on coming up the other side of the highway. Not too long after that, a car passed us going a little fast, which looked like it might have been the same car, but I didn't say anything. Then a police cruiser got on the highway, stopped ahead of us, and the officer went around and was doing something in the trunk. Then we got passed by five cruisers going our way, who I supposed were chasing the car that had passed us after he had done a U-turn behind us. I was quite intrigued by the possibility that we might be heading for a roadblock with bullets flying everywhere as they caught this scofflaw in a rundown (knowing that my fascination would have no impact of the probability of it actually happening). Nancy was more skeptical, saying that I was imagining more into the situation than there really was, though it was undeniable that a car had been going the wrong way on the highway and there were packs of police cars doing something. She suggested that it might be as tame as an old geezer having gotten on the road the wrong way, and a bunch of otherwise bored cops looking for something to do. But it appears that there was indeed something nefarious afoot.

C • So, to be clear, it was not... 3

Another outing that I thought of quite some time ago, and it was fun to get around to actually doing it. A coworker dropped me off a few miles upstream from work and left my car at the boat ramp, so I could do a one-way paddle. Did a lap of the island to take in all of the sights. Orange boat.

And then when Nancy got out of work at 7, she came over and joined me for a lap of the lower section of the river. Beautiful evening. (I stopped the watch a little late, so this includes a bit of hauling the stuff back to the car.)

Me in the orange boat, Nancy in the yellow one. Nice evening, but too windy for the beach or for flying.

Dropped the car off for some maintenance, then rode over to Mom's house to appropriate her car, because she's up in Vermont this week. It's about 10 miles from Grotn to her house, but once you manage to get out on a nice summer day, you don't necessarily have to take the most direct route to your destination.