Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Assuming the weather forecast holds, I'm planning to be up on Talcott Mountain a little north of the Heublein Tower this evening around 6 PM with a hang glider. In case anybody in the neighborhood wants to go for a hike and say hello.

C • possible 5

Up the main trail to the launch at Talcott, dragging my cart with the glider and harness on it, probably about 100 pounds total, fairly hard work. But I flew for more than twice as long as the climb took. And Woz brought the cart down for me, so I didn't have to hike back up for it. Beautiful evening, I'm pretty sure I could see Mt. Tom up on the northern horizon.

Over to Mom's house to put up her screens.

And back home.

Townsend State Forest, wanted something relatively relaxed after the busy weekend, so I mostly stayed away from technical singletrack. Almost got around this without any stops. Mountain laurel in bloom was magnificent, FDFs were plentiful. I think it's sticky hat season.

Harris Center, Blue, 2nd place (I think). Warm day, and with the tiredness from yesterday, it wasn't entirely clear that Blue was the smartest thing to do, but I heard that Ernst was out on Blue, so... I wore shorts, and despite some scratches on my knees, I'm happy with that choice because of the temperature; it's not like it impeded my ability to move faster. Forgot my GPS watch at home, so there's no track, but it was pretty much just straight on all controls except #13. I went with a plan of not hurrying, and just being careful and staying in contact. I wasn't entirely successful at that, because sometimes you're just too hot and tired to read the map, and next thing you know, you don't know where you are. My definition of a "spike" is pretty liberal here, but there really wasn't anyplace where I lost any significant time. The bulk of this was walking, though I did jog a few times.

Started right out with losing contact, though I got lucky and found a hill that I remembered from vetting, and I managed to locate it on the map; I had veered a tad left, and was just north of the control. I met Clint at #6 (on a different course and coming from a different direction). We were together for the next leg, then he made a comment abount a "Hail Mary" leg. He was on Green, so I figured it was different because I had a short leg to #8, but then I noticed that was #18 (the line to #8 was broken because it went through the #18 circle), and I also had a leg going most of the way across the map (same leg, in fact). He headed left to take the trail, and I went pretty much straight. I lost contact pretty quickly but just kept going, and fortunately found the trail 3/4 of the way there, just before the big marsh, and I got to the control about two minutes ahead of Clint. Ethan passed me near the control, and I could see him up ahead on his way to #9. On #13, I took my one trail route, on the right, attacking past #14. Missed #14 on the way back out and had to bounce off the trail. Poor execution leaving #16; I climbed up and over some topography instead of going left on the trail and just heading up the valley. As I was about to climb the steep hill, I met Mark Webb, who had just come down it and had no idea where he was. I pointed it out on his map (nowhere near his course). And the rest. Phew!

About 34 minutes behind Ethan, and 15 ahead of Ernst.

Back to Seeley to pick up Nancy's car. Time includes one dismount on the downhill (downhills are intimidating!) when it took me about four tries to get restarted. I will note that at the beginning, as well as on Thursday, I managed to get started with just one try. I stopped about 100 m short because I was riding on the left* shoulder of Rte. 2A, and a pack of about a dozen bicycles was heading my way, and I hopped off to let them by (and just walked the rest).

*It's a hard call as to which side I should ride on, and I don't know if it's specified anywhere. Am I more like a bicycle or a pedestrian? I usually ride on the right, but switched to the left when I got to 2A in order to avoid crossing it twice.

Mt. Monadnock, denemesisation hike with Nancy on the Dublin Trail. Deducted the time for the picnic at the top. Perhaps the most crowded I've seen it, probably a couple of hundred people at the summit, with more continually arriving and departing.

Long Pond, Rutland State Park, with Nancy near sunset.

80 situps, after getting back from the 25th aniversary Nields concert (thanks, Cristina!).

Home from Seeley after dropping off Nancy's car. Solid evidence that this is faster than a brisk walk (compare the two times I recently did it on foot). Thsi was even a hair longer, because I did a lap of the parking lot before heading out onto Rte. 2A.