Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Shorter Mystery Blazes loop. A couple with snowshoes and poles with a dog were starting out on the trail just as I was, but I left them in my dust. Or drifting snow, or whatever. I was breaking trail for most of this (until I got back to the snowmobile tracks in the Hickory Hills section), so it was pretty heavy going, with the crust that was five inches down cracking under my weight. I ran into Doug Pulsifer at the turnoff for the shortcut -- he didn't remember me, but I remembered him -- and we chatted for a few minutes. Temperature around 20F, I think, but the hat came off and the zipper pulls went down a bit after about 20 minutes.

Randy was talking about snowshoeing Monadnock tomorrow, but I don't think either of us has enough time. There's a possibility that we might do Watatic, though.

Snow dealings, round 7: snowblowing out Mom's parking area and woodpile. The snowblower started on the first pull, and was working pretty well, so this didn't take very long. Her woodpile is definitely diminishing, don't know if she'll be able to get another delivery (and if so, I guess I'll have to stack it).

Snow dealings, round 6: snowblowing my driveway. This went easily, due to the light fluffy snow, and required almost no shoveling. The only unpleasant bit was when the shifting winds dumped the snow right in my face. At this point we have 16" of snow on the ground, with a hard crust 5" down and a softer crust 5" below that.

Snow dealings, round 7: shoveling Nancy's driveway. I had Stephen shovel out a space so that I could pull my car in, but told him that he could just put the snow onto the adjacent part of the driveway, since I figured he would have trouble throwing it high enough to get it on top of the snowbanks. The bulk of the driveway was mercifully easy due to the fluffy snow, but the last part, moving the plowed-up snow from down by the road, was really tedious, because at this point I have to carry each shovelful about 20 feet (diagonally uphill) to get to a spot where the banks are low enough that I can launch it up over the top. Tough on the arms.

20 pushups, 20 pushups

Snow dealings, round 5: cleanup at Nancy's house. Things were not nearly as dire as I had feared, she and Stephen did a good job, but there were still some places where I was able to improve the situation a bit. Maybe 30-45 minutes of work.

20 pushups, 20 pushups, 50 situps

20 pushups, 20 pushups, 50 situps

Snow dealings, round 4: After having gotten home from work at a little after 11 PM and rammed the car up the driveway, I got up and snowblowed. The snowblower was able to handle most of what was out there, even though it was dense snow with an ice crust, but not the plowed up stuff at the edge of the road. It got the bulk of it, though it clogged a number of times, and I finally gave up and finished with the shovel. Then I tried taking it across the street to do the mailbox, but gave up immediately. 52 minutes on the operation at home, then I went to Mom's house to shovel out her car and the path to the woodpile -- I didn't even bother to start her snowblower, because I was pretty sure it wouldn't be woth the effort, as opposed to just doing it manually. I still have to get over to Nancy's to help out with the stuff that she and Stephen had to give up on, because the piles on the sides have gotten too tall for them to throw snow over.

20 pushups, 20 pushups, 50 situps

20 pushups, 20 pushups, 50 situps

20 pushups, 20 pushups, 50 situps