Training Log Archive: OutdoorsMama

Cue Guns 'n' Roses......cold November Rain (but at least it was still daylight).

C • Brave woman 3

Another frosty morning but at least the sun was shining. A local trail map showed a trail to Lively, but didn't say the whole thing was rideable. And yes there is a chunk in the middle that would be a challenging enough mountain bike ride for me, especially with snow covering the exposed rocks in the woods. So I retreated and stuck to the trails labelled as bike routes.

My next trip to Sudbury will be in early January, so I look forward to exploring that section of the trail by snowshoe.

Took a stroll around Onaping Falls. The "nature trail" was a jumble of rocks covered in about a cm of snow.....not your average stroll in the woods. I was the only one there (I parked on the road since the visitor's centre was closed). A longer loop was possible but I was a little weirded out about leaving my car parked on the side of the Highway that long.

AY Jackson painted the falls one spring. A group of students from a high school in Sudbury (maybe it was the only high school at the time) bought the painting and it hung in the school. After AY Jackson passed away, it was stolen and has not been recovered.

So the next time you are at a garage sale or estate auction, maybe rummage through those dusty piles of paintings.....

Nov 26: The wonderful folks behind the FB group In The Footsteps of the Group of Seven just shared this article....

https://southsidestory.ca/2016/11/y-jackson-painti...

C • It's a lovely place to xc ski 2

I wanted to find some sheltered back roads to ride, as it is still very windy up here in the North. I parked at the outdoor rink at Skead on the northern side of the Sudbury basin and rode cottage roads. Very little traffic and lots of hills. And those birch trees might slow down the wind but they sure don't block it. Still a -10C or colder windchill (air temp -4C). Swiftwick socks and neoprene shoe covers kept my feet warm.
A couple cm of snow made everything bright despite the overcast conditions.

After a snack at the car I set off again for a shorter jaunt. Skead is on the southern edge of Wanapitei Lake so with all that fetch, there were some pretty good sized waves. I could've ridden longer but it was getting dusky.
I suspect that in the summer those roads would be pretty busy, but it was a good place to ride today.

Frig. Shorts on Friday and frozen fingers on Sunday. Disclaimer: I was in Essex county on Friday and am in Sudbury today.
Just enough snow here to make the ground mostly white. I rode around the Laurentian Conservation Area on some gravel paths (XC ski trails) and then ventured onto some two track and single track. There is a boardwalk across one of the lakes that leads to more trails, so I started to push my bike across. But about 3/4 of the way across, it was a skating rink from the water splashed up in the high winds, plus the wind was pushing me sideways (i.e. uncontrollable slip and slide). So I turned around and headed back to terra firma.

Event: Kick-Start and Starry Night O-CUP Races
 

Shades Mills Conservation Area.
I lived in Galt (Cambridge) for 7 years in the late 90's/early 2000's. And I never went to this park. So it was all new terrain to me!
Rain/snow combo on the drive up but I had brought pretty well all my outdoor gear (except for snowpants) so I was ready, at least clothing-wise. A mass start meant there was a stampede up the trails and the remains of a congo line even when slow-poke me got to the first control. But everyone was going in every direction in the box section which got us spread out. Due to my old age (handicap), I only had to get 3 dog bones. I had mapped out a plan for getting 4, then remembered that the handicap was how many I *didn't* have to do. It was a lot of straight-line trail running. I did more bush-whacking after #4. I am always happy to find a control after holding a bearing on a longish leg (although there was a lot of open woods between 7 and 8). 25/48
A neat way to spread a lot of people out in a relatively compact area.

This one started with a box and I only had to get 2 controls. Then 1-2-3-4. Then another box. Then 5-6-7-8-9-10.
I picked my first 2 due to their proximity to #1, not realizing how dense the woods were around C. So it was back to the path.....bush-whacking through there was not going to be a good thing, even for me.
The second box put me within a few metres of #5. I was reading the numbers on the controls carefully so when I got to #7 before #6, I didn't punch it. Better bush whacking opportunities in this section, especially as the trails were kind of squiggly and I wasn't sure where they were leading (I had brought a lot of clothing choices, but not my magnifying glass). 11/27

Went out and picked up 1-2-3-4 at a walk afterwards. Going to the right (south) of the main ball diamond between 3 and 4 was probably the better choice (not that I did that during the race.....)

Thank-you STARS for putting on the 2 events in one day. I wasn't the only one who drove over 2 hours just for that reason.

The Warbird has landed!

Staples to work. Warm morning so the insects were humming in the long grasses as I checked out the Christmas lights that had been left on all night.

C • warbird...as in.... 4

Work back to Staples. Still warm as I rode into the sunset and darkness. Could have rode all night :)