Training Log Archive: CleverSky

If Zumba counts, then this does, too. I went to see a band that was playing nearby (I'd provide a link to their web page, but it's a Facebook thing that I can't get to), and spent the second set dancing vigorously, enough to get my heart rate up and work up a pretty good sweat.

Squannacook and Nashua rivers, orange boat. I wasn't expecting the rain this morning to end, but it was beautiful when I left work, so I hurried home and grabbed a boat. Parked behind David E. Ross, and started by heading up the Squannacook. That turned out to be a maze of snags with a fair amount of current in places, but it was spectacularly beautiful.. Worked my way through the obstacles, even managing to paddle up and over two things that looked to be shoddily constructed beaver dams. Had to duck under a few fallen trunks, and went over some shallow logs -- this would not have been doable if the water was much lower. Finally got to a spot where I would have had to portage around fallen trees, and who knows what would have been above that, so I turned around. I realized that the trip back was going to be a challenge, because in order to keep sufficient water speed to be able to maneuver the boat, everything was going to be coming up really fast.

Managed to get through it, and felt like I still had enough time and energy, so I went a little way up the Nashua. A lot more current, but easier to get around the few obstacles. Upstream was a lot of work, but then I turned around and got the screaming high-speed ride home. Wheee! (The roads that GoogleMaps shows in this section are pretty baffling. You'd think I went under a couple of bridges, but there wasn't so much as a trace of an abutment to be seen. But the little loop I did at the beginning, about three minutes in, was under a big ol' railroad trestle, clearly visible in the satellite photo, though no longer in use.)

I was sure glad I did the Squannacook by starting out upstream rather than by trying a downstream run, because I got to preview the obstacles and could always turn around if something didn't look workable. Downstream I could potentially have gotten most of the way, and then reached a non-navigable spot with no good way to portage. Not sure I'll paddle this stretch again, but I'm very glad I did it once.

Well School (actually Sargent Camp), Blue course, listed as 9.7 km. None of the five non-spike controls was a particularly major error, just hesitations and fishhooks. Hot day (probably 85-90F), and I was doing a lot of walking. Steve Olafsen also did Blue, about 8 minutes faster, I think, with some errors, but he was moving a fair bit faster. I just wasn't motivated to put out much effort in this weather. A total of 10 people showed up for the meet, I believe -- a combination of oppresive weather and competition from meets at Breakheart and Gay City.

The Blaze Lite shoes seemed okey for trail running, but I'm not too impressed with them for regular orienteering. I mainly got them for rogaine, if I ever do any of those again.