Training Log: CleverSky

Down to the lake and Back, In The Dim. Chilly, but at least it wasn't as diabolically windy as it had been all night and most of the day. First pavement, then ice, then more pavement, then pretty icy trails. Didn't need the light until I went into the woods. All of the snow is gone from the lake, but it's really bumpy from the snowmobiles. It might work for iceboats, but it's too rough to be interesting on skates. Other nearby lakes might be smooth, though, and this one would be fine for the ice bike.

(AP guessed this as pedaling? Weird.)

Over to Timberlee and back, In The Dim. Bundled up again, and picked up a bunch of tiny streets, 15 of them, which gets me to a hair under 50% of Townsend. Temperature wasn't too bad, though it was getting really windy, and even that was okay until I was on my way past the lake at the end. Headlamp was off for a lot of this, then I turned on the strobe to make myself visible, and for the very last part I had it in regular headlamp mode.

If I want to have a goal of riding a bike at least once every month, that's three down, including probably the most challenging ones.

Riding over to Shirley Depot to meet Nancy. As I was starting, one of the leather toestraps snapped - might have been original equipment from the 1970s for all I know. I opened the garage door and in under a minute located an unused pair of leather toestraps, so I was good to go. This ride was in jeans and lightweight hiking boots and ample clothing.

With Nancy, picking up some CityStrides streets.

And back home, by a slightly different route, and picking up another few streets in Shirley.

A few streets in Townsend, with Nancy, In The Dark. This did not turn out as expected. She had checked the forecast and it was supposed to warm up as the evening went on, getting above 40 F. However, that was for Lunenburg, and we went to the icy abyss of Townsend, where it was several degrees colder, specifically, below freezing. I might have dressed a little warmer if I had known, but in particular, we both would have chosen different footwear. Skates might have been a good choice, though spikes would have sufficed. The asphalt was treacherously slick, enough so that Nancy walked on the shoulder whenever possible, or on little bits of snow on the verge. It was bad enough that we considered going home to get her ice creepers. Nice moon, though we had to have the headlamps on most of the time to look for the glint of ice. Nancy was picking up these streets for CityStrides, but I'm doing Townsend by bicycle, so I stopped the watch every time we went somewhere I haven't pedaled yet (Adams, Dix, Boutelle, Cross, Kimplen, Smith), thus my fragmented track, and I took the total time/distance/climb from her log. We made it almost the entire way around with no falls, but with just a couple of hundred meters to go I had an acrobatic close call.

Mt. Watatic, the short and steep way. Does it really qualify as a mountain if I can climb it in the winter with a small backpack in under 17 minutes?

Back down the long way, after photographing the moonrise (not bad, but a day later would have been better in terms of timing, though not in terms of the weather forecast) The last 1.2 km/7 min was on pavement. I saw maybe a dozen people, most of whom were at the south summit for the sunset (though it was all cloudy to the west).

Walking around the Emory Rd. development with Nancy, In The Dark. Two purposes for this: to pick up the missing CityStrides node on (the unplowed) Laurel Lane that's well beyond the barrier chain (but there is a very lonely fire hydrant back there), and for Capone to meet Molson(?). I somehow missed turning off my watch at the end of this and it captured the drive home and sitting in the house until the battery ran out. Nothing I haven't done by bike already, though I did edit the track for AP.