Training Log Archive: Bash

It's been 36 hours since the ice started to melt so 'Bent and I thought it should be safe in the forest today. About 80% of the time, it was - but then some big ice chunks started falling near us in a pine plantation so we cut our trail work session short. The safety in a particular area depends on vegetation (deciduous generally safer than coniferous) and recent sun exposure.

We wore helmets and snowshoes with cleats. We've heard several additional reports of local people with head injuries from ice and branches so there's no point messing around. Gusty winds are forecast for tonight which will be helpful in clearing things up, although it will also get very cold again.





In many places, we could clear the trail with hand tools.



Other places will require someone with a chainsaw. (We don't have one.)



Other places will require someone with a chainsaw and a lot of time. This is 'Bent's commuting route. This is the only trail access to the Palgrave conservation land so this is going to be a problem.



Although this was also a strength workout, I hate to risk offending JayXC so I will just call it "snowshoeing". ;)

Fans of Stuart McLean's "Vinyl Cafe" may enjoy reading about the walk Coach LD logged on Christmas Day. I think it would make a perfect Dave and Morley story, especially if she included some missing details. (Think "urgent need for a nature break" and "fancy neighbourhood full of security cameras".) She could submit her adventure to the Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange for sure!
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_9846/pe...

After a full week with everything outdoors encased in hard ice, the temperature finally rose. Starting around 11 p.m., ice chunks crashed against the house and from our trees for the next 12 hours. It's not finished yet, and an ice avalanche from our roof could still kill someone if they stood in the wrong spot, but the worst is over. We've only had 8 hours of power outages today, which isn't bad considering that 1200 homes in our area are still without power. We should be able to go safely into the forest tomorrow and start the big trail clean-up.

We've just learned that a neighbour (not sure who) was found unconscious with extensive injuries beside a fallen tree on our road 6 days ago, and she is still in serious condition in a trauma unit. Yikes. And Coach LD saw an injured hydro worker in Bolton today. Not good.

We had great plans for a snowshoe excursion with Myka, Amik, Eco and Coach LD but the rapidly changing ice conditions and power outages threw us for a loop. In the end, 'Bent and I decided to head up to Mansfield this afternoon for a short ski.

I let Bazinga-Idiot-Dog out the side door on leash for a quick nature break, as I often do. Terrible timing - he leapt out the door and turned on his full power to sprint toward a squirrel off to the right. My hand and lower arm were smashed against the corner of the brick wall; I lost my grip on the leash and yelled for 'Bent. To my horror, B-Dog ran through a tangled pile of fallen branches from the ice storm and emerged from the other side without his collar - and then he entered the forest. It was like the Monty Python Black Knight scene as I threw on my coat and ran outside with blood spurting from several cuts, my hand swelling and my little finger completely numb. Fortunately, he returned within 2 minutes looking very guilty and submissive as 'Bent put his collar back on. (The steel Fastex buckle had opened when it got squeezed against the branches.)

My engineering iron ring was stuck on my swollen little finger, which explained the numbness. After finally forcing it off with the help of some lubrication, the feeling started to return. Coach LD phoned as I was bandaging myself up and came to join us for the trip to Mansfield. My hand and lower arm are swollen, bruised and cut but I will survive.

The skiing at Mansfield was fine, considering the conditions - icy with lots of small debris but they'd worked hard to clear the big fallen branches and trees. 'Bent, Coach LD and I skied the blue and yellow trails. Coach was handicapped by using slow skis so we were able to stay fairly close together as long as I didn't slack off. Lots of fun!

An update on the 2014 UTMB draw.
http://www.ultratrailmb.com/page/68/News.html

'Bent and I want to get back to cross-country skiing now that our house has electricity and doesn't need babysitting. It's still too dangerous to go into the woods here while tree branches and ice chunks are falling, and last night we discovered that for much of the next 3 days, our ski club, Highlands Nordic, will be closed for O Cup races. (Official Motto: "O Cups. They're not just for orienteers anymore.")

So we made a quick trip up to Highlands this morning, even though I had to be home by 1 p.m. So glad we went! They got more snow than freezing rain up there so the skiing was fantastic and the scenery was breathtaking. I did the red trail including the 3 black diamond side loops and the upper orange loop, so I saw most of the trail network.

There weren't many people doing the outer red loop, and when I stopped to re-wax, a speedy skate skier slowed down to ask if I needed anything. I thanked him, then Tarno and I recognized each other and spent a few minutes catching up. :)

Brilliant way to start the day! My heel, which had been sore last night for no apparent reason, felt much better today in spite of all that classic skiing. What a huge relief. I don't want to contemplate the possibility of losing another sport.

There is now a layer of snow on the ice that began to coat everything a week ago. The trees are bending lower now, a few more of them resting heavily on power lines. Our power returned at 5:30 p.m. but we're ready for the next blackout.

Ice storm outage began on Sat. Dec. 21 after dinner.

Some brownouts and brief periods with power on Sunday but mostly blackout.

Blackout continued until lunchtime on Christmas Day, although we were away with my family for the day getting spoiled with heat, running water, hot meals and much more.

Power went back out at 7:30 am on Thurs. Dec. 26. Only 85 households in the outage this time so we won't be as high a priority. It's warming up so our focus has switched from frozen pipes to frozen food, which is less expensive if we get it wrong. The trees are hanging lower with a layer of new snow over the ice so this isn't a surprise.

The adventure continues!

Took the dogs for a hike on the Reddington golf course. We went out today to buy a second backup power supply. I think that was my first-ever visit to a Boxing Day sale. We'd planned to go up to Highlands for an afternoon ski but by the time we got everything else done, it was too late.

Three firefighters just came here to see if we were OK. They're going door to door to check on everyone without power - probably checking out the folks with generators too, since there have been cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in Ontario. Most of the local firefighters are volunteers so that is extra nice. We stopped to thank the hydro crew working nearby. Probably all of those people missed Christmas with their families, and some of them are a long way from home. Really, we've got it easy by comparison.

Merry Christmas, Attackpoint friends!

Although ice storms are annoying when they interfere with Christmas plans, they can be very pretty.









The sun dog doesn't show up too well.

And *still* no power. Going down to -17C tonight. Decided to drain all the water lines as much as possible. (No running water in a blackout but pipes could still freeze.) It's been 3 days so far, with a couple of brownouts on Sunday for variety. If we could ski, this would be more fun but we really can't complain. It is useful that we own way too much outdoor gear!

Eugenius kindly checked in on us on his way by. It is nice to see other humans! We are making a break for it to get hot food and warm company at my parents' place but we'll be back to tend the fires soon.

Hope everyone else is OK!

Still no power. Keeping two fires burning now.