Training Log Archive: bl

Elm Brook with Willow, blustery fine March day. Saw two couples, each with a dog.

O walk at BBSP - gray, warm, first day of spring. Gave O an hour plus the walk back on Podunk. O from Podunk parking doesn't interest me anymore. Woods are overgrown, recently logged or not very interesting. Better from Hayes Field area or to the east of Bear Hill Pond. I've known BBSP for some 45yrs, since '77 - pretty sure I have a map from then, certainly '78.

Event: DVOA Big Woods National Event
 

BHS grounds. Pretty much a walk around the perimeter starting at Turee. First a tom and 3-4 hens at parking which wound Willow up. Then more rain than I cared for but generally under trees at that point. A long stretch along a stream til first house, then across the cemetery and the edge of the track. Across the campus entrance & back into woods, more stream and the start of the Turee wetland. Wanted to keep in the woods (where I'd never given it a thought before) and it proved easier than expected. Got to the car w/o resorting to the road. Good fun for the last day of winter.

DVOA would be fun but too far, too early for me. Maybe I can find one of the maps there from way back when. Also, West Point may not be achievable given an upcoming trip overseas. Anyway, snow is gone from the woods.

Stopped at this forest (Upton-Morgan SF) for a DP on the way back from town. Couldn't recall its name. Just started along a path failing to notice the kiosk with map which would have helped - but also a very hemmed-in forest, even by I89 on one side. Still, nice enough. Also, an earlier DP near the audiology office as we waited for Beth. Nicest day of 2022. Spring in 2 days, mother's birthday too - she would be 102.

Kimball Pond, East End Tr. Warm, gray, sprinkling in the latter portion. More beaver ponds than I recalled.

Probably my best sighting

Beth dropped me & W off. Set out for far side of first field. Heard a gunshot, later saw a fellow 100 yds away w/ 2 dogs, thot that was he. Cont'd toward a flock of crows who didn't move...finally got w/in 20' before I realized something was fishy, first the 3 closer to me. They were decoys. Cont'd on thru back field, saw a line of telephone poles, incorrectly figured it was a road; fm sat view, noted I could connect w/ another field and then noted I was about to encounter the Contookcook R, another surprise. Cut thru fields, heard a second gunshot ahead, emerged onto the final field for me, a big german shepherd came out of nowhere, cowering W. An apologetic owner followed. Noted I'd lost the dog leash. Got back to pkng to wait for Beth sans leash. As I was leaving the two hunters returned to their truck with a big bag of decoys. Wish I told them how much fooled I was by their birds.

Fooled me: 1, 2.

Annoyed for having lost the leash (for now), I decided I'd go back to the Pinnacle to look for the one I'd lost last fall. I had a rough idea where I lost it and was pretty sure it was off trail, so I had some hope. I walked the road to the pump station and then started along the small footpath. I recalled the sloped shore being like a big, shallow reentrant where I elected to leave the trial to return to the road above. I got to a point where I thot I might have left the trail - the slope seemed right. I headed up, thinking "this is nuts". Not 5 seconds fm thinking that, there was the leash, maybe 30feet at most fm trail, a 'green snake' on brown background. Picked it up - there was only half but looked a bit to my left and voila, the other half, critter severed. Sure got a chuckle over my luck as well as pursuing intuitive hunches.

PF ellipitical

PF 15' cardio, 35' wgts

Waked on a road in a place I'd passed by for 25 yrs. Up and up, it took me to the PL. Some very nice West Point-like woods with large cliffs. Saw a field with a good amount of half junk, half useful stuff that was a mystery. Wanted to poke about but signs clearly said No Trespassing. Forgot to restart the gps having stopped near the end.