Training Log Archive: bl

Lolled about at noon, spent time searching for hamstring rehab cures & potions. Found some promise (can cynics find promise:-) here. Some hot-cold contraptions as well as consideration of home US. $ can buy happiness...?

Thought about the varied weekend (865mi on the road): memorial service, TT SUNY campus sprint, Peekskill forest and WPR camping with its interesting offerings. Nice time, no cost benefit analysis. Thanks to those who make things happen! It also marked the end of the spring 0 season, in case the heat wasn't making that point. Emailed OCAD today, requesting instructions on how to get OCAD 10 "out of hock" so as to get on with BB course planning.

C • Hot-Cold Contraptions 2

DP in Sandbox, hot, dry, no water, deserted "desert" except for prints and pleased-enough dogs.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #66

(a Monday guest from as far away as Ward Pound Ridge)
"Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago in the Carboniferous period"- Wikipedia. It's prime time for ferns at 7 Allen as well.
And the deer kept away from the hostas in our absence this past weekend so maybe an effective solution.

TT long, 8.6k. Walked 1 mile each way to shelter w/o any trouble but when jogging to loosen up, could see that it was going to be a problem - stiffness/soreness that did not go away - definitely diminished capacity at start but hard to quantify. So started w/ doubt..."just get thru accurately" - did ok til 10-11, getting a bit less accurate. Small error at 5, but saw Charlie, caught nearly 4' but he got ahead again to be seen again at 7, which I found first. Followed Marie Arnesson (?) off to 8, we both went left of intention (my conclusion); got to 8 after Charlie & Marie who went an entirely different way. Ken Walker caught/passed me at 11, I followed out to path, he went left, I went right then thought his way looked better, turned, took a few steps & got some fairly sharp pains up & down back of right leg and that was that, couldn't run. Was only 400 m or so from finish, straight line anyway. 305 has the route. Time to try QR as I have the tools (not true today's try revealed). Not sure why the line to SUNY!

May started w/ promise at WP, ended with uncertainty in Peekskill. Don't want to think about it near future - can't imagine running for awhile, maybe stuff at gym. Less than 2 mos. for Europe. Why me, why May, why hamstring?:-). The answer is blowing in the wind but it does exist. Throbbed all spring when on a long car ride - needed to shift weight to left side. Asked PG if he stretched - he said "no" and further stated that days of stretching, for him, were associated with periods of "frailty"...what works for some doesn't necessarily work for others.

Spoke with Dave Pruden, saw Steve Templeton in passing. Way positive notes: prior to red start, found my compass well put away but in the "wrong" place. And, namely, when cleaning out the car after returning home (vacuuming behind the front passenger seat, there was a black rectangular object...the missing wallet from last October, the one that disappeared w/o a whimper! (but of course). How many times and how carefully had I looked at every possible nook and cranny in that car... $18 "reward" plus a few other things and some now-worthless credit card plastic.



Note
Night at Milestone shelter in PWR. Had to walk a mile, thus the name. In a clearing surrounded by open forest, ferns, a spring (covered by a small stone "house" for protection). Light sleep, mosquitos, no repellent but they went away as I was perfecting the art of covering up from mosquito whine/threat - tho' that made warm almost hot. Mocha barked at something as well. Up early & back to car, lots of birdsong. Not sure what affect, if any, on today...a weird night's rest but felt ok at start, putting leg doubt and certainly poor-night's-sleep doubt aside.

"Heard you're packing to leave..."* - Milestone

S&G ♪

C • GPX and Ham 5

Red TT - Splits

Event: US Team Trials for WOC '11
 

Saturday: operative word was "hot". B minus run due to #8. Haven't seen splits but it felt like maybe a minute lost - do not have mastery of ISSOM symbols & certain significances, esp. as applies to campus/cities with large &/or complicated buildings as well as walls - where a cul-de-sac etc could cost critical time. On #8, ran more or less under the control! So a bit disappointed - about 2' behind PG, within a minute would have been of satisfaction. Distance a guess.

1 - ok but stairs/gray need more facile interpretation - don't know what gray indicates & no legend readily available - esp not at this picnic table at WPR where I'm writing. Maybe at start area earlier - but maybe for TT, ISSOM is familiar but there were a lot who would have benefited from this info.

4 - not sure of what feature was but could see control thru fence; spending extra seconds knowing what the feature is & where it is might very well save time - tend to run to feature in the center of the circle, not necessarily knowing what exactly it is - usually get away with it.

5 similar - ran to center of circle yet not knowing what I was looking for & where; in my case, control descriptions needed to have been more readily available (were on shorts at waist lvl, no shirt on)

8 - was not able to read map, potential for 3-dimensional situation/confusion

10 - had already driven thru the tunnel 2x looking for meet site, so could figure it out!

Right hamstring disgruntled at requests made of it

7 to 8:

oops, pic omits top of tunnel - ran to its end, saw the light of day & wide open spaces (on a 1/4000 map) and thought "uh oh". Turned around and found a staircase before oblivion set in. Can see depression tic line on map but making the appropriate observations OOB in the heat is another process.

No FR route for some reason....

Note

Dropped Beth off at WPR about 10:30 with plan of a 10 mi hike with O map. Went over a route, plan was to meet at XC center at 5p. Stopped at office before heading off to learn that shelter 6 was available. Was avail yesterday am but being a mile walk, I wasn't interested. After driving some 10 mi away on way to Liberty Corner, decided a license to park in WPR was worth something, called, but it was gone. Today it was available - last minute Memorial Day weekend camping is not likely, I was reminded. Last night's $108 room was fine but nowhere near as nice as this moment at a picnic table, breeze, sun, green & shelter waiting, located on O map.

Spent some 90' looking for meet locale @ SUNY Purchase! Arrived before signs, went to main campus. Asked a campus police officer who had no clue. Went to the admin police office, still no. Asked some students at a bus stop re wifi (campus quiet, between sessions). Even provided a password but no luck. Finally approached a group of 30+ visiting musicians (clueless) but they pointed out a woman who might be able to help. No wifi signal adjacent to the Performing Arts center but she took me to her office for a hardwired computer. Nearly 5' later we found the crucial words: "PhysEd building parking lot" and she provided a campus map. Some runners said there was a late-posted map but, interestingly enough, we did not see in our complete perusal (so I thought). An addition to the annals of finding the start triangle.

Under Father Time and too hot for a shirt

C • #8 6

C • Wicked.. 1

Red - Splits

Mentally, warming up for the TT, not as in competing tho that should be fun - as in Harrison/Purchase, WPR/Rte 35/Katonah & Blue Mountain. The last was the site of an A meet back in November, 1980 - the month/year I bought RHODORA & brought her back from the Chesapeake, missing the meet. Back then, missing close-enough A meets was not something well tolerated. This was close enough that I drove there about a month later to run the courses (recall the ground being white). Also in those days, I owned GYPSY, a camping van and was able to sleep on the map without anyone disturbing me. Wonder if that is still possible on December nights...it might be.

WPR full for the weekend - as was Mountain Lakes! Que lastima! Went on to Liberty Corner for CBE memorial service at LCPC, 90F kind of day. Visited Harry Dunham park for dogs' cooling, Mocha found a "roll supreme" and stunk to high heaven, the latter in keeping with the message of the service. After service, spent an hour at English Farm, noting an end of an era ('66-present) as well as significance of grand and great-grand kids. Sorry to have left w/o taking a single photo. Then 287 to 87 to Newburgh as tent plans are the best laid plans of mice and men for the time being. No enthusiasm for hide-away in Harriman as once might have been the case. Could wifi peruse from the Days Inn parking lot and now inside a room. "No pets" allowed sign but they're quite at home & can be seen from here.

Room with a view


TGIF: "What, me worry?"

Molly, 1997 (wearing bone talisman from a birthday steak for Duke, '74)

C • Harry Dunham Park 2

Good energy, hot! Singlet provided decent defense so did SW wind when
coming at me, shade-seeking as well.

Off to NY-NJ, incl the some of the TT! - just as if it were some 30 years ago.....

Luti CW, got hot! Took off shirt which I've become more self-conscious about doing - in somewhat public setting - but better that than heat stroke.

DP, fair-weather clouds, all's right with the World for the moment.

SPS SloGo wander after work, over just as rain started. Along rooty, rutted (and in a few places flooded) shore of Turkey Pond, voices on the languid waters turned out to be crew. Nice scents on the air.

DP w/ Beth as well, made it to the slough. Warm, sun trying. Marvelled at the industrious ants - steady rain til wee hours but all the mounds were fresh.

Evening DP - raucous peepers, cheerful crickets, birdsong, a distant barking dog, warm & humid. Just 10' + a treat and they were complete - seeing as they don't wear a watch.

On watch at dusk

C • Is it a bear? 2

DP, shades of green and brown, accents of black all under gray overhead.
Generally dreary since BG, a week ago yesterday.

SPS trails & track (4x400 at 9' pace), figuring out what's up with hamstring. Not weak or painful, just sl. sore - and muttering something...? Am prone to some hypochondriasis but don't imagine things, either.

at the TI, Beth there at same time, sit ups side by side.... Mostly stretching of hamstring. It's not happy but not rebelliously unhappy. Stretch, stretch.

Bought one variety of deer repellent on the way home - an organic version made of garlic, cinnamon, clove, white pepper, rosemary, thyme and peppermint. Keep away from my hostas or else...!

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #65
"Sunshine!", crew of the ANNA CHRISTINE, Chilean channels, February, 1982.

(back, l>r: Wollert (Nor), Howard (NZ), Tapio (Fin); l>r front: Brin (Nor) and Rags (Nor).

AM DP with Beth along. Was not done with red squirrels; just removed mama. Beth noted what had to be a baby at the bird feeder yesterday, put out the HAH trap in the eve & Voila!


Repeated the release at the wood pile.

Day off, sore right hamstring. Think it works but did not try.

C • Prudent, 2

Northfield Mt. trail race warmup

Northfield Trail race. Have wanted to do this for maybe past 2 years. Diane had a bit to do with my showing up. Had good energy, never beat or hurting or significantly OOB - walked maybe 5x briefly. HR monitor would reveal what's what, I suppose, in way of effort...pick 4 for the whole thing. Don't know where I could have picked up a few minutes. PG was 5' faster. More races, perhaps better results. Not as steep as I expected and trails were wide. Passed first MM in 8:29, heard PG say it was short as well as other "discrepancies" tho total length is correct. Spent maybe 3 miles with one fellow (results say he was 38, probably not pleased with my presence). Nice outing even if 164 mi RT for "6.5 mi" running in 57' - a lot of pretty NH countryside to take in. Time was 57:18 but watch restarted or some such (58:45) - not sure what that was about...should have turned off.
5/22 in 60-69 age gp (135/225), PG 4th/101. Brian 62:59, Diane 72'.

Start imminent


Building rising from the grass, Northfield-Mt. Hermon School

C • Dave Dunham had advertised ... 3

C • significantly OOB 2

C • Re: the photo--is that even... 6

AM DP, up to W-H Road - walk on Mike Dumas' property, a portion of his woods thinned, maybe 60%, looking very open & mysterious in the foggy green.

Had a red squirrel in the HAH - it ran along a wood pile & up a tree. Zoe spent inordinate minutes sniffing the pile but did not consider up. Now, hopefully, no more squirrel in the wall front and center when I sit at the computer. It went on too long. Or are/were there babies...time will tell.

At the T.I. which had spanking-new and brightly painted weight machines. Will take some getting used to.

Evening DP with me as guest.... Beth's turn, done together after anniversary dinner in town. Frogs croaking, a small (but dead) Milk snake, deer in flight, turkey tracks, two people at a distance - probably the Saltmarshes, as well as avoiding wet feet which wasn't easy.

Event: CSU Park-O: Esplanade
 

Teenie weensie DP under umbrella watching dogs eat grass on edge of Sandbox - Mocha on leash as it is pet therapy day. She had a bath last night & her preferred "perfumes" are taboo!

This little guy wanted inside (or seemed to)

Warmup on Stoneybrook, not visited much anymore yet a quiet street

Sprint O, wet & knarly. Fell once, no less dead fall than last week. Slower but took easiest routes the first time. Foggy glasses needing a croakie. Took an Ohio thorn out of left forearm.

Weather too unattractive to make Boston attractive.

Mini-sprint - Splits

Still gray & rain. Walk & talk on phone for a change.

Fisk-Little Pond, cw, slow start but felt good second half. Steady
rain by end. Different shoes, felt better. Need more pairs, Be-kind-to-feet week
coming up.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #64
A view of Mount Darwin (from voyage of ANNE CHRISTINE), 1982


From one of the best adventures I ever had - showed up on a dock in Punta Arenas, Chile on the St. of Magellan with a backpack and a dream. Thirty-six hours later, I left on a 40' Norwegian yacht to see famous Cape Horn and sail on to the Falkland Islands. I'd not met the young Norwegians aboard until then. Among other things, my orienteering in Scandinavia drew me to the boat like a compass needle to the magnetic field. I've since visited the owner of AC in both Oslo & Bergen.

C • Reminiscence 3

DP, gray & raining but getting greener all the time.

CW Luti in the gray chill, got hot easily enough. Raining at end.

Overdue visit to the TI - been a month. Cap'n Crunch is counter-weighed with abdominal crunches, never enough of them however.

Walk/jog thru SPS woods & trails, "kink reduction."

Found an empty robin's nest on top of the fence by the bike path at shoulder level. Not too smart.

Q. How smart are robins?

A. Robins are not quick to learn new things as blue jays, and do not have as good reasoning power as jays. But they are adaptable, and can quickly figure out how to find food and shelter in a new area where they've never been before. Many of their behaviors are instinctive, which makes them very adaptable but slow to learn new things.

Robin was a childhood nickname. I've never seen a rocket scientist when looking in the mirror.

More desperate dog stuff. Went right into scratchy woods for adventure (close-together pines), then one thing led to another, SOD disappeared fm lack of sun & then the fun began as it took awhile to figure out where we were - but then a path & fun was over all too soon.

Event: Billygoat Run
 

BG #33 - rained on & off over night, hard in the early AM as we were contemplating the Great Out-of-doors & what it was providing us - rain all but stopped a bit before start time. I'd call this a B run - visibility got to me on several occasions. And the eyes are the brain's windows.

#1 & 2 were mostly follow, look at map a bit. Had decided to skip #14, never took time to look at all 36 legs - 14 looked good enough.
#3 & 4 began to navigate
#5 had decided I'd keep splits on 305 for an exercise; stopped to get water & recall pressing the watch but did I e-punch....? Plagued me for much of the rest of the way...wasn't going back, even when I first asked myself
6, 7, 8 one or two unknown runners in sight ahead
9 getting to be on my own for a short white
10 went by the three pools, down the reent, left on path - a group of maybe 4 kept on going on the path as if they were going somewhere else! That was cause for pause but cont'd round the green marsh, contours not yet providing reassurance - finally a spur &,yes, the reent, looking-marsh flat ahead, a rocky knoll & cp
12 believe this was where I saw Jeff Saeger
13 saw Glen leaving this, maybe 2' ahead - huge boulder!; saw Pavlina as I was leaving
14 skip
15 caught up to a lg gp by doing so; Angelica Riley asked me if I'd skipped like I'd had better had! Ernst, TP & others as well
16 & 17 keeping with this rather lg gp
18 noted TP taking a bit of a short cut & when we got to swamp, maybe 4 othrers just ahead having taking a bit of longer rte
thru 22 controls where I could see Alex J and Becky C a bit ahead, running tandem. Could not catch. JJ at 21/2
Approaching 23, I thot the refreshment tent was at 19/27, so I figured I had to go another 125m south but something was computing - went bk, looked at code & I was where I was supposed to be - phew!
24-26 alone;
19/27 saw Phil & Charlie but did not consider they were at 19!
28 by far, the worst, vis got to me. First left 90 deg wrong way - sorted that out before 100m wasted; then misreading of walls, never saw the green uncross marsh, came to expected path but where. Nothing really helping but finally marsh on right, stream exiting across path - should be on map! but was nearly 300m fm where I expected to be! finally noted 2 bldrs in the marsh, was sure where I was. Got to cp vicinity in mt laurel, did not find, wasted another 90" (alone, leaving heard 2 voices)
29/30 alone
31 mostly alone saw a fellow I'd seen earlier but he disappeared so alone again, but got it no problem
32 alone but saw color as I stood on top of spur thinking "down/over there?"
33 long trail run, ponds in fog. Leaving 33, heard someone behind...was Pavlina! Across road to 34, felt a bit of a rt thigh cramp, she disappeared in green & mist
34 3/4ths way there who should appear but Jeff, moving faster. Got to trail with him but he was gone

Finally the finish! Did not know how I had done. Being alone a lot made me wonder. Seeing Charlie & Phil at "27" made me wonder even more - later learned C was having big vision problems, PB hamstring problems. When Pavlina and Jeff showed late, that helped.

Really pleased my own hamstring (right this year) held up. Was worried before the start as it has been noisy all spring .

Was a really nice course/map, forest (another fairy land) & meet in general. Great job by WCOC; the refreshment station well in the woods with tent took a lot of hauling. Not sure how the 305 knew my heart rate w/o monitor.

Very nice time visiting with Steve, Betsy & Ernst...hours for chatting!

Any more?


Award MOC's


"Podium" finishers


"Can we go home?"

C • can we go home? 3

Billygoat - Splits

Event: Speedy Goat Sprint Relay
 

AM DP w/ paper as well. Good (no porcupines) & bad stuff! eg, cyber bullying right here in Concord, 13 y/o's Facebook post wishing her teacher dead vs. bin Laden's killing all those WTC people - 1st amendment vs threats/bullying (teachers count!), plus inanity/insanity in contemporary behavior. Right below same page, mother guilty for 2005 cook-baby-in microwave. Then state politics where two good quotes came up: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" (Derek Bok, Harvard) & William Buckley: "Conservatism implies a certain submission to reality" --- but not in NH.

Time to get out of town! Come to think, time to go to the BG.

C • BG 1

Drive to Bethel, CT with Steve Tarry, lady friend Betsy and Ernst. Stayed at Brautigam's. Put up tent in their yard (#8). Joe & especially Pavlina were most generous with providing dinner & breakfast at short notice in a preoccupied Head Goat household.

Mellow AM DP, newspaper & camera.

Sandskrit past and present

C • The meaning of life maybe? 2

Went to SPS w/ idea of 7' pace on track. There were several hundred kids
doing some sort of games around track & on infield. Went to a nearby soccer
field with idea of running perimeter but idea slowed to a jog and even less for some reason. Some Rt. hamstring guessing was part of it. Watched robins "shop" for worms amidst the dandelions. Prime May day.

South to Iron Works, Clinton, Langley, considered Memorial track but had to get back. Some 50 on 50 off. Ticks everywhere after the stewardship walk. One turned up on the oncall room bedspread at NHH. Beth had one crawling on her neck at the gym and placed it between the weights, a challenge which it might likely have met.

Route
(good distance est.)

PM DP as well as warmup for first of mini-O sprints. Z&M were thrilled to get so far afield compared to past DP's...well into the woods at one mile plus.
Mosquitos assured motion. Left 305 on car in garage - suppose it could/should be a near-constant companion at least for distance covered. Don't always get along with OCAD distance measure.

Mini-sprint, not hot. No compass necessary. Some query on way to one & two, rest were served by memory. 3 to 4 w/ a lot of blowdown to negotiate - tried west edge of big depression - east is bad as noted when streamering. It is filled with new growth. 5-6, 6-7 have rc options that should be fun/interesting to compare.

Mini course. QR will happen.

Mini-sprint - Splits

DP, quiet, gray, cool, no tracks.

SPS XC for first time in a month? 18:09 & 18:25, no interest in anything real. Same sole cluster of daffodils in the field. One near faceplant, tripping on a root, painted red but not the right red.

BOS stewardship walk of Titus-Lindquist ? conservation easement with Bob Dawkins & Ken Demain by Rte 3A.

Bob & Ken by Dow Road culvert

Desperate dogs with Beth at twilight.

Long Pond & Little Pond, longest lunch run taken.... Clearly OTL. Penacook Reservoir is a lovely place. Cool, cloudy.

At Memorial Field after work, countless HS kids doing sports. Hefty female softball pitcher threw a ball so hard/fast, it made me wonder if it could be hit - how times have changed.

On grass at Memorial Field & in woods behind. Tired, never got back to sleep in Burlington after the alarm went off at midnight (Jenn thought she set for 0450). Up at 0445, away 0500 as the sun was brightening the sky over the mountains in the east. Monday, Monday.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #63
Cuna Indians, San Blas Islands, Panama, 1985

Burlington Mother's Day treat. Got out of car opposite Fletcher Allen, stumbled upon Rte. 127 bike path which led to Ethan Allen Park & 80 Poirier, Jenn's new house. Was thinking 6 miles would be about right & direct route couldn't get much closer. Had considered running along 89 in the hinterlands but it seemed too complicated. Perfect day to be out & about.

Blue water

DP, getting warm. Slow enough to experience black flies.

Course

DP'd/streamered a sprint-type course for training; more running than O but in the forest, on a map, even if the map isn't needed. Crappy blow-down halfway to #3, otherwise ok. Rain showering, flashes of yellow brilliance.
Plan to run twice a week.

Purgatory-Black Brook loop, ccw. As nice a spring day as could be. Climb worked for first time.

Kimball Pond run-off in fine May greenery

DP to slough, no tracks to speak of. Strong SW wind. BG is next weekend...snuck right up, esp. when April turned the corner.

DP in NH Audubon woods w/ Beth. Cool, no rain.

At Bear Brook to take a look - a walkabout which pointed out that I might just as well make courses & view in that fashion. A green mansion?? lots of green, good contours, lots of small white pines that tend to hide. Field checking is good to very good but that does not surprise. Forgot a compass...how could I? Good practice but maybe harder than I cared for. At one point, down a 2.5 contour line spur (to SE of one mile marker on USGS, interesting level of detail) to a re-entrant with a path crossing one end, there was no path. Went back to top which really did not look quite the same. Sun was sort of lighting the west sky - OK, go east & hope (would be most convenient) for a path at some time & voila, there was. October BD will feature hard-to-relocate terrain, possibly a course setter's peril.

Had decided to leave dogs behind, tied to car while Beth did needlework. Unholy wailing & protesting..."how could you?!" How could I? So called to Beth not 150m away. They came fast for old dogs, Mocha dragging a 20' line. Met a fellow with a 7 m/o pup who couldn't get enough of play to Z&M's disgruntlement.

Drove to Portland (for a sail) & Kittery (for varnish) first, making for a tiring day. Passed up CYC dinner.

AM DP, drizzle/mist. Back to reality, no fairyland forest.

BBR-WH-Allen loop, cw, moderate rain, hardest part was getting out door.
Used to do this loop a lot.

Woodhill-Hooksett

WPR, red course M21B from possibly 20 years ago. Control card says TEAM TR (Y/N) but no year & cannot recall when. Belonged to one David Smiley. 6.9k, 255m. Goal was to keep in motion, not miss much in the way of navigation & also note the surroundings - all 3 pretty much accomplished after shakey start in the wrong place:-) - 1/15 scale deception.... 1/15 scale crams alot of detail in a small section of map - yet the looking at the mapped terrain shows plenty of room for separation of features & ease of spotting...particularly at a place like WPR. Need to go over FR - missed a split, wonder how much info is still recoverable.

For natural beauty, I think I prefer it to Harriman - not so rugged, more walls & greater percentage of gentle terrain. Some of woods were breathtakingly open and clean on the ground. Skunk cabbage abounded for darker green. Did not see a single person on any of the paths...woods to ourselves as well as apparently nearly all of the lean-to or camping sites.


Note
After passed thru the relentless wealth/materialism of Bedford & Purchase. Spent $4.62/gal for gas as the tank was about empty. Stopped by Three Ponds, a magic childhood place for frog, turtle and snake hunting fifty years ago. I can still see the turtles sleeping warily in the sun and hear the RWBs singing from the marsh grass. Still there, once pristine in pre-IS 95 days, now overgrown, more or less forgotten - sandwiched between route 95 traffic whizzing by not 100 yards away and the RR track. Part is maintained (ie, adjacent grass cut) as the Miriam Osborn Memorial home cemetery is adjacent. There are probably more than 150 flat gravestones in the grass marking the burial sites of virtually all nonagenerians, wealthy spinsters buried alone??? with a large stone monument in commemoration. The dogs perked up under a large, old tree - lo & behold, there was a young raccoon in a hole in the trunk about 8' off the ground. Speaking of old trees, there were a few who were undoubted witness to our hunts & games those 50 or more years ago. All looked old, even for trees and some were just ghosts.

After, a quick visit to 15 Danner neighborhood, Harrison Ave. School, LK Middle School & the "new" HHS. Went to Becker's corner deli (still there/little changed 50 years later!) with a different name and current owner of 9 years. Then to 95 and away from time encapsulated. Stopped in Spofford to visit Olaf & Mette on the way home...as in olden O days. My worst WP weekend was a DNF followed by a DNS. Olaf & I sat up late around a campfire drinking wine. Morning brought sleet on the camper windows and along with it the need to do something else. Great to see O & M, had not been to their place in maybe 4-5 years.

Spent some quality time with Beth!

Ward Pound Ridge - Splits

Surebridge Mt. map walk with Beth & dogs. Gray day but since we were on the west side of the Hudson, it was going to be. No rain. Parked just beyond Kanawaukee Circle by the side of the road. Walked up an old asphalt road to an abandoned building site in the woods - don't recall what the structure was for. WOC courses passed thru the area in '93. Hiked to Hogencamp Mountain and then NE. Was looking for the place I took a photo in December, '04. Thought it was a circled rock face on the map but could see I was mistaken as we were approaching - terrain was not sloping as it did in the photo. Somewhat severe on the heights, green & embracing lower down. A snack on a log & return more or less the same way...Beth left a nice Norwegian sweater under a rock and knew where to find it.

After, drove to Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River, a Westchester County park & default place of fields & woods (BG, '97) when a motel is not of interest. A nice tent (night #7 for season) site, the 30% chance of rain is evaporating as the sky brightens. The black flies are hungary, a stream rushes at the periphery of hearing and spring is only a day older.

Hogencamp


A world apart


"Forest, forest, thou art fair,
But with me,
You don't compare."

Mocha hopped on a rock (so as to be in the photo?) as I was contemplating a scene that might have been attractive, even on a gray day.

Everything has a story


FR out to lunch? - just a straight line.

Long, 0853 start, not hot. Good energy/effort. Managed to concentrate for an entire hour which, I'd say, is the exception to the rule. Looked hard at terrain as well as at map & knew where I was the entire way. Maybe a bit too pedantic at times, maybe a bit too much walking but constant feedback was the pursuit. There were no-one-instant knowing where one is then something somehow lapses and "WTF?". Compared splits w/ PG who was always a bit faster. I loved the terrain, some funky map feedback for some, not so much that I noticed.

More faces







Another WP meet now past history - very well done & perfect weather. Went to USMA visitors' center in HF which was very nice - WP quite the institution. Don't feel particularly beaten-up.

C • Weekend 3

Long Green Y - Splits