Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Pawtuckaway, Red, 6.6 km, something like 4th or 5th, I think. The park is pretty different, because there's been a fair bit of logging, so there are open areas, some with dodgy footing in spots, a bit of slash, and some big skidder trails. Not too bad from an orienteering point of view right now, but I suspect that in a few years those open areas will grow up with a lot of nasty low stuff.

Navigation wasn't awful, a few small errors probably amounting to a minute or two each: hesitation on #2 to figure out which boulder was which in a logged area, a fishhook on #5 near a logged area, slow at the end on #9 with trouble reading the contours, and a little detour at the end on #11 when I mistook which marsh I was at.

(Why in the world did AP think this was running instead of orienteering? It's the opposite of Phil's problem.)

results

Pawtuckaway, Wicked Hard Night-O, 7.9 km, 2nd (tie). Ernst and I decided that it would be pleasing to go around this course together, and he noticed right away that loops 1 and 3 went through the logged area but loop 2 did not, so we opted for the order 1-3-2. We had company on the first loop, consisting (I think) of Keegan, Violeta, and Michael, and at one point I also saw Phil. Keegan took off like a shot when we got to the trail at the end of the loop, and he then did loop 2, probably by himself, and seems to have made good time, coming in after two loops. We had some minor trouble between controls here and there (the logged areas were mapped for the night course, unlike for the day courses, but it wasn't clear how accurately they were mapped). Only one control (#6, the first one on our last loop) where we had to fumble around looking for it. Saw a few people on other loops when we were near the ends of our loops. Vilppu was way ahead of us, not sure how many others besides us did all of the controls. Very pleasing having Ernst for company. A couple of times out there I made comments like, "This is what we do for entertainment? What's the matter with us?". Time is corrected for the fact that I stopped the watch about 5 minutes late.

results

Willard Brook SE, In The Dim. The intent was to try the Challenge Loop in the reverse direction, but I made a wrong turn either leaving Old City Road or shortly after, and ended up doing more (and extra) stuff in that section. I wasn't expecting rain, guess I wasn't paying attention, but it did. Not such a big deal since I wasn't wearing glasses, having stepped on them the other night, and sometimes you're in a mood where running through the woods in the rain in fading light seems like the right thing anyway.

Near the end I passed a couple of mountain bikers who had stopped for a moment. They had headlamps on, and as this crazy white-haired guy appeared out of the darkness and zipped by, one said something like, "How's it going?", and I replied "Great!". The next stretch was downhill, giving them the advantage, so they eventually overtook me, but as the second one passed me (I stepped to the side of the trail but kept running), he said "You've got a pretty good pace!", and I said, "Doing what I can". They very gradually pulled ahead, but they paused again at the trail junction, where I popped out, made an immediate left and headed for the car.

Back to Seeley to pick up Nancy's car, In The Dark. What the hell, I was already sopping wet. No glasses, no flashlight, no problem.

Walking home after dropping Nancy's car off at Seeley.

From Rte. 9 up to wherever it was that Nancy and I finished hiking last time. Coupla decent hills (not very long), but no big deal because this bike has plenty of extra gears (it just doesn't particularly have brakes).

As an orienteer, I travel though life looking at terrain thinking about whether it would make a good map, and how I would map various features. As a hang glider pilot, I similarly go through life looking at fields and thinking about whether I could land in them, and how I would set up the approach. I don't really do much XC flying, so this is mostly just idle musing, and another pilot has pointed out that it's not that useful doing this exercise when you're looking at the field from the ground. Nevertheless, I rode past a somewhat overgrown field with signs designating it as a wildlife refuge or something, that looked like a likely landing zone, and I considered the wind direction and how I'd come in, and thought it looked pretty good. Yeah. As I was running past that field and hour or so later, it occurred to me that it was the "Spencer Airport" that I had seen on the map. Really? I sure didn't see any signs on the road indicating that, and I guess there's still an asphalt runway, but it was out of sight from where I was. The former owner was apparently killed in a crash at the airport seven years ago, and it's now owned by a woman with the same last name (most likely widow or daughter, I suppose). But the aviation websites indicate that it's still open to the public, with 10 aircraft based there and ~50 flights/week.

Midstate Trail, from Browning Pond Rd. to Rte. 9. A pleasant mix of stuff, from paved and dirt roads down to the tiniest of trails. Wore a belt with a water bottle, and actually drank most of it. 75 F or so. A little less than half a Highlander (but the Highlander is as the crow flies), and less than a month to go. This one could be ugly. The last little bit of the trail on this section got really small, progressively so, until I was literally pushing my way through weeds that were at least as tall as I am, no way I could have pushed a bicycle through that. But I kept finding the distinctive yellow triangle signs, and then I popped out on the shoulder of Rte. 9 next to a big sign reading MIDSTATE TRAIL. Would have been a lot harder to figure out where to go in heading northbound.