Training Log Archive: Fanatic

Not sure why I got out so late, but by the time I got to the Hopper, the parking lot was practically full, but I managed to expand the lot just a little. I completely forgot that it's Memorial Day weekend, and everyone and their brother wanted to be hiking today.

From the parking lot, I hoped to do a large clockwise loop that would go over Mt. Williams and Mt. Greylock before dropping down to Sperry Campground and the Hopper Trail that would take me back to the parking area.

Everything went as planned except that with my late starting time, I needed to do some downhill running so that I could be back home before 4 p.m., when Colette would likely be calling from Belgium.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move288391069

Large clockwise loop in Kennedy Park starting at the Arcadian Shop. Trails are just about perfect now--only the smallest of wet, muddy areas to be found.

Modified my normal loop to include one more climb and the addition of about a mile to my normal loop.

Not overly crowded early on a Saturday morning, no bikers seen, but about three couples out walking, one of whom had no clue as to where they were.

Since I had an appointment in Pittsfield, I stayed there and ran from the southern entrance to the Boulders on Route 9. Ran on some really nice trails for a bit until a climb was next. That led to the AT, which I took to the north for and out-and-back of five miles. Once back to the AT parking lot, I continued back to my car along the trails in the Boulders.

It was a great day for moving--cool, moist and no bright sun in my eyes.

Met a number of section hikers, all out to take advantage of the long weekend.

Out past the black cows and back.

Multiple loops on the condo grounds.

Back to the top of Reservoir Road to give the Finger Trail another try--no running since I would be going longer and my goal was to stay on the trail the entire way.

This hike was done in a counter-clockwise loop this time, which meant that I should know the trail fairly well for the last 75% of the loop which I had covered on Monday.

This time I brought more food, drank a lot of water just before starting, and I had power pack along to ensure that my phone wouldn't run low.

Still managed to have a least three head-scratching sessions when I thought I was off trail, but all were resolved just by being patient and looking around slowly.

Nonetheless, this is a tough trail, despite the seemingly benign stats. The difficulty arises from a number of factors:

1) It's all trail with lots of roots, rocks, blow-downs to slow you down.
2) It's a bike trail, so they love to go up and down, over every rock face possible, and it has tons of hair-pin turns.
3) It's totally unmarked, but the bikes have made a noticeable track in most places. The problems arise when they don't tear up the ground. :-)
4) It's so twisty that a compass is of little use; even if you know the general direction, the trail meanders so many times, and with swings in every direction, that it's very easy to become confused, especially on a cloudy day.
5) It requires a phone with GPS and a decent map if you hope to stay on track.
6) Water is scarce, there's only one brook that I would drink from, and that after filtering the water; so you need to carry a bit of weight to stay hydrated.

But don't get me wrong--this is a fantastic trail to get away from traffic, loud noises, crowded trails, or trash-lined trails/roads. You get peace and quiet, some beautiful trees, and a chance to be truly alone.

I spent some time clearing the trail when I first started, but it dawned on me that would slow me down too much, so I cut back on that, only taking things off the trails that were easy to remove--mainly by flicking them off with my feet.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move287698778

Out past Woods Pond and back.

Walk on the condo grounds.

Another walk on the condo grounds.

Taking it easy today, as I am hoping to do a long trail hike tomorrow.

I hadn't been on the real twisty, hard-to-follow bike trail to the north of Reservoir Road for some time, like perhaps a couple of years. I found a map of the trail on Trailforks.com, so I downloaded their app, hoping it might help with navigation.

Well, the app was doing pretty good at showing the tricky turns, but eventually I missed one and then found myself retracing my route--not a good option since I had already done about seven miles. And, my cell battery was dying, so there wasn't much time left. I put the phone on power save and shut the Trailforks app down (although it continued to run in the background) and opened up my compass on the phone and just headed south/southeast since I knew it would intersect the trail close to where I had parked.

On my way out, I met a couple of bikers, whom I had seen where I parked on Reservoir Road. They were out cutting up some of the bigger trees that had fallen across the trail. Chatted with them for a while, then conintued, only to find them back at their cars when I arrived.

So we talked for some time about the trail; in fact the trail that I used to run as an 8-mile loop has now been expanded to 14 miles! Little did I know. LOL

Turns out they do maintenance every Monday, so I offered to do whatever I could, albeit without a mountain bike to get me out there. There's still plenty of small stuff that could be cut back.

The trail even has a name now: The Finger Trail. I was told that they couldn't decide whether the finger was a thumbs-up, a #1 with the index finger, or a f*cking beast with the middle finger. Let's just say I'd vote for the middle finger option. It is listed as a Double Black Diamond, the toughest ranking on Trailforks, so someone might agree with me.

Next time I'll go counter-clockwise so I can learn the newer section better.