Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Willard Brook SE, with the more northerly variation, medium snowshoes. Maybe 10-15% of this had been snowmobiled in, and I was breaking trail for the rest. Maybe half of that had one set of old snowshoe tracks, which were not helpful. I was breaking through the crust and sinking in about 3" most of the time. Late afternoon, with the sunlight fading enough that by the end I could see distinct shadows on the snow from the quarter moon. Temperature about freezing. Like the other night, this was a very noisy outing -- crunch, crunch, crunch...

Shorter Mystery Blazes loop, In The Dark (hatlamp). After a couple of long work days with no exercise at all, I headed out at about 8 PM, and conditions were very, very different from Saturday. In the interim we had gotten an inch or so of wet snow, followed by some daytime temperatures above freezing, then while I was out it was 10-12 F. In some places people or deer had walked in the tracks, chewing them up, and the whole mess had frozen so it was lumpy and frustrating. I pretty quickly realized that I was better off going on the unbroken snow next to the old tracks, as I was sinking in only about an inch with the medium snowshoes. Very much faster conditions, note how much quicker I did the same loop, with less effort. The one spot where the snowshoe tracks were good was the Shorter cutoff, though it was a hair narrower than I would have liked, so I banged my ankles a couple of times. The snowmobile tracks in Hickory Hills were pretty good, although icy enough that the downhills were treacherous, and I had to run them in order to avoid sliding. Still no snowmobile tracks on the main trail, I wonder if there's been a crackdown, or if the guy on Holman Street has given it up. Nice night to be out, I know how to dress comfortably for these temperatures.

I've decided that it would be interesting to be able to sing "The Star Spangled Banner", so I've undertaken this week to learn the lyrics. I have most of them down at this point.

20 pushups, 20 pushups, 50 situps.

20 pushups, 20 pushups, 50 situps. I also did some cleanup work at Nancy's scraping ice off the driveway and such, but not really enough to log.