Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Five Ponds, WCOC/HVO Winter Series #3, Long, 6.0 km. Nancy and I were bringing stuff to Stephen at his new digs in Hartford (started his first "real" job this past week), and Nancy suggested we swing by Litchfield first. A couple of inches of crusty snow, so off-trail travel was a bit laborious. Not all that hard as navigation goes, since this used the permanent markers, though I lost a little time at a few controls looking for the marker once I reached the feature, most notably on #13 when I saw the feature (boulder), but it looked so small and under a fallen tree that I was looking around for a more significant one. The other time losses were taking a leak on the way to #2, and a really bungled #8 where I somehow drifted way right, ended up on a bigger trail, and worked my way up to the control, but not very quickly -- not a good route.

splits

Snow dealings, round 5: my driveway. I have a complete disaster on my hands, as I didn't deal with this in a timely manner and have all this refrozen stuff covering the driveway. I was able to shovel off the most recent layer and get back down to the original crust, and even pry that lower stuff up in a few spots to expose asphalt. And I cleared enough away from the mailbox that I hope they can deliver. Now I'm hoping the sun will help out some.

C • Can you get some sand from ... 2

Willard Brook SE, In The Dark. I had the day off, and had a notion to look for a frozen lake if the weather looked favorable, but there was just enough snow falling to make that seem like it would probably be a waste of time. So I thought I might go out for a run, but never got out of the house all day. There are logs that I read on here where people say things about how it's just a matter of getting started. So I finally did at night. Wore a headlamp and had a spare light in my pocket and neer turned either one on because it was a sparkling night with a bright full moon. 22F, no hat and light gloves, two shirts and a light jacket. The ground conditions consisted of a few inches of snow that had a thick refrozen crust, and 1"-2" of dry powder on top of that. This was a challenge, because the new snow provided enough cushion to keep the studs from getting a good bite on the crust, and at times I was just sliding crazily. It helped to stomp a bit so that I'd break through the crust. The plan was to do the southern part of the challenge loop, but the trail is hard enough to find in normal conditions, and after a while I was just wandering through the woods. Eventually popped out on the bigger trail, and decided to head off into the area where the loop continues because the woods were so nice, and eventually I did find the trail in there and took it to Old City Road, and did the rest of the loop, omitting the twisties down by the road. Quite fine.