Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Fitchburg City Forest and Nashua Valley Conservation Area, with Nancy. Nice woods, but very limited parking.

Late in the hike, we heard, then spotted, an owl of some sort, and kept track of it as it flew to a few different perches. I'm guessing it was a barred owl: pretty big, round head, and the calll was a single "Whoo-r-r-r-r", without the question about caterers. That reminds me, on Thursday night, in the fading light, we scared up some animal in a farm field that scooted into the woods. We were guessing it was a deer, but it kept making a strange noise that sounded something like sneezing.

C • Deer sneezes 2

Times being what they are, circumstances converged for an an entertaining moment: Nancy went into a bank wearing a mask and came out a few minutes later with thousands of dollars in cash; I was waiting in the car with the engine running.

Nancy's house to home on the Incubus. Google Maps estimates 1:27 for this trip by bike, on a slighty shorter and somewhat flatter route than I took (2A the whole way from Ayer).

Arriving home, I noticed that some hornets were building a nest in the garage door bay. So I armed myself with a snow brush and a spray can of the right kind of poison. I put the scraper end of the brush against the base of the nest, and with a quick flip propelled it out into the middle of the driveway where I immediately doused it with the poison. A perfect plan, except that one guy flew out of the nest and immediately homed in on the marauder, nailing me on the left thumb. Hurt like fire, though a shot of benzocaine spray eased the pain. A few hours later, it's still a serious annoyance, though.

Down to Seeley to pick up Nancy's car. Mounted first try, but I walked the steep part of the downhill and took a few tries to get back on.

Post-prandial crepuscular stroll with Nancy. Lots of fireflies out at the end. GPS lock was bad at the start, we didn't really swim across the river.

After dropping Nancy's car off at Seeley, I went out for a ride, In The Dim. First up to Small Town Forest, where I hadn't been for years. When I was on the ConComm we had half-baked plans to have some logging done there, but it neber got off the ground. Looks like it has now, though. After a loop around the logged area, I found the trail out, and got to the exit on Pierce Rd. that I was hoping to find, after taking a trail that maybe continues, but kind of looked like it dead-ended at a beaver dam. Then I took the other trail that I was hoping to find, that went over some more difficult terrain and again popped out where I hoped, on Warren Rd. At one point the trail vanished, and I pushed the bike through terrain that I was imagining might be an ancient trail remnant, then spotted the real trail (also faint) off to my left. In retrospect, this was probably right below where George and I camped in the summer of 1979.

Then I was going to go around to Seaver Rd. to get into Hickory Woods, but I spotted a trail that looked like a shortcut, but in actually ended up in somebody's back yard, so I skootched through and kept going. Looks like better shortcut would be off of Wildwood Rd. When I went into the woods the next time, I turned on my headlamp. And at the end, I didn't feel like dealing with the poison ivy on the trail out to Gilchrest, so I went around to Holman.

I didn't get rained on, but it had rained during the day, and although some places had dry pavement, the vegetation in the woods was really wet, and although it wasn't that hot, it was humid enough that my glasses kept steaming up.

I believe that makes half of the days in this nutty year that have now gone by. And I've managed to log something on every one of them, though a few have been pretty marginal.

C • Impressive! 1

Groton Town Forest, short on time, so I didn't go that long, but I ran fast. Rained before, rained after, but not while I was running, although there was plenty of moisture in the air. Went some places where I don't think I had ever been.

The kind of day when it was always either raining hard or threatening to. The roads were wet, the woods were wet, so running on the road seemed like a better idea than the bike or trails. I've exhausted most of the possibilities close to the house, so I drove a little bit and ran near where my friend George lived when I was growing up. Very humid, but not hot. I started out feeling like this was just ticking a box, but I went far enough that I guess it was worthwhile.

To give you an idea of how friendly folks are around here, when I got done I walked for a minute or so, and the guy who lived in the house where I turned around asked if that was my car. When I said it was, he (politely) asked if I could please not park there, because it blocks the view of the already blind curve when he's pulling out of his driveway. Now, my driveway is at a blind spot, and so is Nancy's, both I'd say much more than this guy's. And my car was:
1) Fully off the pavement on a wide dirt shoulder
2) An estimated 150 feet from his driveway
3) In a different county

Whatever.

With Nancy in Flat Rock Reservation, a place I had never been that's located behind the hospital where I was born. Pretty humid, with a threat of thunderstorms. Interesting place, with a lot of laurel, abundant rock, some nice woods, quite a few trails, generall bland contours, and a lot of laurel. Also a lot of laurel. Unlike last year, which had specatular blooms, this year is generally subpar in that department, with the occasional bush here and there that seems determined to make up for all the others. I also found a few blueberries and ate three. The rain kept missing us until mid evening, when we finally got some much-needed precipitation.