Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Breakheart Reservation, Red. I was wheezing in bed last night (unusual), so I was concerned about how things would go today. I was wheezing a little during the first part of the course, so I kept my speed down to a level where I didn't make it worse, which also allowed me to navigate almost error-free. Other than some hesitations here and there that cost only a few seconds each, the only goof was when I was a little off to the right on #14, but I corrected without much delay. Pretty much all the difficulty I has was due to the bungled drafting of this map, wherein a lot of the symbols (trails and roads in particular) are sized as if for a 1:15000 map, rendering them nearly invisible to anyone over the age of 40. So, pretty clean, but also a pretty slow pace.

I had a fun little adventure doing yard work at Mom's today. Here's a picture of me cutting a limb that got damaged in the snowstorm:


And here I am after successfully cutting through the branch:


Why so triumphant? Well, for that, you need to consider the big picture:


The story here is that the branch was about 40 feet up (based on a little sighting and triangulation) and about 40 feet long, so that when it splintered, the end of it was just dragging on the ground. It was in an unfortunate spot, close to where Mom walks to hang out her laundry and to get firewood, plus it was close enough that it seemed like if it fell, it might pivot and land on the house. The original plan was to go up on an extension ladder and cut it with a pole saw, but it was too high to reach. After adding a rake handle to the pole saw I could just barely reach, but couldn't do any cutting at all. My brother and I came up with a number of harebrained schemes, none of which really got off the drawing board, but we did cut off half of the limb from the extension ladder so that the hanging piece was a little less hazardous. Then I remembered that Charlie has this cool tree stand that can skootch up a trunk. I borrowed it on Sunday (with some misgivings on Charlie's part) and brought it over to Mom's today. She was originally skeptical, but when I demonstrated it on another tree (just a couple of feet off the ground) and showed her how the safety harness worked, she was reassured.

It's a pretty substantial piece of wood (which will probably contribute to heating her house, eventually).

C • Very fine 2

Mystery Blazes loop, not pushing all that hard, plus stopping here and there to move small to medium sized branches out of the way. There were a few spectacular limbs down, but the loop is still basically passable. I did lose my way completely going up the hill into Townsend, and the Howl trail looks like it's now completely dead. I'm probably the only person who has used that trail in a few years anyway, and it was kind of faint, but now it's really blocked. In getting around some of the lumber, I popped out on the S'mobile trail, and just took that instead. There are some fallen limbs there as well, but I'm sure Tom Bertand and the other S'mobilers will clear them out in short order. I may need to do some clearing of my own in some other places.

AOWN: While driving today, four turkeys took flight and crossed the road just ahead of my car. Everybody made it through safely, but that's a lot of poultry to have at windshield level.

John Read Middle School (WCOC), Sprint #1. Started wheezing badly as soon as I started, which made me both slow and stupid. Not enough oxygen in the brain to think, and I has several disastrous legs, as well as time lost near controls. PG thinks he's losing the ability to orienteer, but his failings are nothing compared to this kind of thing. Ugh.

John Read Middle School (WCOC), Sprint #3. Faced with my infirmity, I pretty much just walked this one. (I did #3 before #2 because the former was longer, and I figured that if I didn't do it second, I'd likely not do it at all.) The one "error" wasn't really much of an error, I just had to turn and climb a bit to get to the control. The highlight of this course was crossing the ruined "bridge" between 6 and 7.

John Read Middle School (WCOC), Sprint #2. Breathing clearing up somewhat by this point, so I was able to go a bit faster. The one mistake on this one involved coming down the wrong side of a complicated outcropping, so that I had to climb back up a line and contour across some steep stuff to get to the boulder. No question about where I was, but not a very efficient route.

And then a nice surprise party at a local restaurant afterwards, courtesy of Nancy.

C • Party 1