Training Log Archive: PG

Over a little southeast of Quabbin, the various Brookfields. All new to me. Nothing particularly adventurous or demanding, but lovely countryside and not much traffic. Thought I had a rather undemanding route mapped out, but by the end my legs were shot. It was a warm day, and the modified heat index* reading in the mid-150s may have had something to do with it.

* MHI = temperature (F) + age

Bike ride up in the hills, starting/ending in Charlemont. I actually had planned a route with another 6 or 8 miles and a serious hill, but the route also came by my car first. Not good planning. It was way too easy to quit.

But it was still a good adventure. The lion's share of it was all on a route I had done before, just in the other direction. And that makes it quite different. Started with a not quite 10 mile uphill, with plenty of time to look around and enjoy the scenery. Then another 10 miles of ups and downs, fast where I only remembered going slow, hard where I remembered it being very easy.

And then, because every good ride needs something new, time for a summit. In this case, Mt. Institute, top of the Berkshire East and, in recent years, the Thunder Mountain Bike Park.

It is a summit Phil would love. At 1,525' it is respectable enough for around here, and for skiing/biking it has a vertical drop of about 1,000'. But the actual summit is little more than a bump, with higher ground off to the immediate south. Since that was the direction I was coming from, most of my summit approach consisted of going downhill. Of course there was the final pitch to the summit, but I think that was no more than about 60'. As I said, Phil's kind of mountain.

So I got myself to the summit, the last couple of miles having been on dirt and mostly downhill, and not having passed any "Keep Out" signs (though I did pass a couple of "No Unauthorized Motor Vehicles" signs, which clearly did not apply to me). And at the summit, things were hopping. The chairlift was running, and bikers of all sorts were getting off, and where "all sorts" should not imply that there seemed to be any who were not male, and young, and on mountain bikes.

Well, I was certainly not in my element, even with my 1 out of 3.

I looked around and debated my options. They have built all sorts of bike trails in the past few years. I had a rough sense of the lay of the land, having skied there a few times, but no sense of the bike trails, nor any sense of what condition the ski trails might be in.

Of course I could have gone out the way I came in, back out to East Road and then continuing down that steep dirt road. But the lure of doing something different is sometimes so strong....

Time for a consultation. There were a couple of middle-aged guys at the summit, maybe biking's equivalent of the ski patrol. I pointed to what I remembered as the easiest ski trail going down and asked how that was, could I do it. Just like a road, came the answer. About 4 miles. Only a bit later did it become clear that they were talking about the bike trail that went in the same direction as the ski trail, but was at least twice as long because, well, that's what bike trails do.

I started off. It was pretty nice. It would have been better if my bike had had shocks, but it was still totally manageable. It was just that there seemed to be a u-turn about every 50 yards, and as I was trying to not be stupid and was going rather slowly, it wasn't clear I would get to the bottom before dark.

It shortly crossed a road of sorts, so I hopped on that, but all that did was lead me on a dead-end journey to a man-made pond, presumably built for winter snow-making.

Back from there, back on the twisty but totally ridable trail. Noises behind, and pretty quickly 4 folks pass me, go just a little farther, and then stop at a junction with a ski trail.

And one of then, neither male nor young as it turned out, started to chew me out for riding without a ticket. And I needed to leave.

I assumed she was an instructor or some such.

She asked how I'd gotten in there. I told her, in from the top. Well, I couldn't ride there without a ticket, so I'd have to go out the same way. I'd come down a bit by now. I looked back up. Not very appealing.

She was pretty unhappy with me.

So I said I talked to the patrol guys on top and they said it was fine to come down this way.

That threw her.

But not too much. She still didn't want me on the bike trail, because there were a lot of people using it. And I really didn't want to be there either, if faster kids were going to keep coming by.

Can I go down the ski trail?

She thought about that a bit and came up with no objection, and shortly she was gone. And I was heading down this really ratty excuse for a service road. Certainly steeper and rougher than I cared for. After a little while I came to the top of a lift and chose to go right. I think left must have been better.

It now got muddy too. At some point the mud swallowed me up, or at least swallowed up one foot and one arm and parts of one side of the bike. At another point, no longer muddy, it was steep enough that I was descending in basically a controlled slide.

But eventually the bottom came.

And in the meantime, I had seen a bear. Not a big bear, those aren't the scary ones. This was a little one, size of a largish dog but much rounder. Scary because mama is probably around and mama would be pissed if she felt junior was threatened. Junior had disappeared in the bushes to my left. I heard some rustling in the bushes to my right. It didn't take much thinking to lay off the brakes for a bit and get out of there.

The bottom was close to my car. Further away was one more serious hill (and a summit!). Easy decision.

One loop of the Mt. Warner single-track, done with some enthusiasm, plus mellow trips there and back. Upper 70s, S 5-10. 17:40, parking lot to parking lot.

Passed 10,000 miles on the dark blue bike today, about 3 weeks short of having it for 2 years. :-)

Although this year is going to come up woefully short of the last two unless I pick it up a lot.

My life on Attackpoint, so far.

C • RGR 7

Real nice ride over to and in the lower Whately and Conway hills. Attractions included:

-- Went by two guys parked on Conway Road as I was climbing up to West Whately. They had on waders, so I assumed they were going fishing. Got closer and I saw there was a laptop open. Got about 100 yards past them and decided I really should go back and see what they were up to.

Turns out I had met them before! One morning in Montague Center about a month ago, a small wildlife management area, I was there with my binoculars, they were there collecting data on stream temperatures and flow rates.We'd chatted a bunch then. I had occurred to me that they were doing similar stuff to what Alex was doing several years back.

So I asked if they were on the faculty at UMass. Nope. How about their boss. Yup, sort of, he was an adjunct prof, Ben Letcher, Department of Environmental Conversation. Don't expect she worked for him, but maybe she knew him? At least what they were doing seemed much like what she was doing.

-- Onward. Up Poplar Hill Road for the first time ever. Nice little climb, paved, then turned to dirt and then that ended at a gate, lots of signs, land owned by Smith College, various research activities done there. Kept going, the road now a woods road. Shortly came upon a bunch of student types, seemed to be doing some research project in the woods. As I rode slowly by I asked one young woman what they were studying. Molecular Biology. Didn't see a need to chat her up, out of my league.

-- Onward. Poplar Hill "Road" was now quite scruffy, but still rideable, though I had to stop a couple of times to dislodge branches from my wheels. Totally enjoyable, of course, because I'd never been there before.

-- Onward. Eventually out onto Roaring Brook Road, dirt, a few hills, and then turned on Whately Glen Road for the descent back to the valley. Delightful, enough mud holes and other obstacles to make it interesting, but they could all be avoided, which I did.

And then back home across the flats. No hurry. And mighty fine.

C • Ben Letcher 1

Upper 60s, N 5-10, sunny. Wanted to do some sort of shortish climb at a hard effort and settled on Eaglebrook. Headed out to it, steady effort for a few miles into the breeze, then hard effort (about 6:30) up the climb, then taking it easy heading home.

Breathing and heart rate seemed to recover just fine. Legs feel tired.