Training Log Archive: CleverSky

A stroll back up to the Middlesex high point from the north side in an unsuccessful attempt to find the compass that I dropped Tuesday night.

In the part of NH I drove through, Trump campaign signs are popular. One that I found perplexing read "TRUMP - NO MORE BULLSHIT". But if you want... oh, never mind.

C • Message 3

Little bit: mowed a bunch of the lawn, more than half, I'd say. Took about an hour.

Down to the post office and back to drop off a letter. On the way, I saw flock of small birds that I think were American Goldfinches, most of them unremarkable, but one of striking appearance.

Most of the long Fake JWOC course at Townsend. I had the advantage of having put out the streamers a month or two ago. I had the disadvantage of having taken the path of least resistance to print out the map, resulting in a 1:15000 version plus a 1:10000 version of most of the map, both inkjet prints on not particularly great paper, and of the ooriginal version of the course before I moved a few locations. I mucked up #4 pretty good (on the hard to read 1:15000 part) and then screwed up the exit from #5, hitting the trail in a different place than I expected, so I turned the wrong way, but I recovered okay. Then the heart of the course went fine, very enjoyable in the nice woods up north. A little trouble on #11. Eventually it got to be a race between whether I would run out of daylight, watch battery, interest, or controls first. After #15 they were all getting to be in short supply, but daylight won out: in the vicinity of #16, I just couldn't read the map well enough to figure out where to look for the streamer (and I didn't remember that location at all. Kind of funny that my exit from there was along the exact same line as when I was leaving #5. I had no idea at the time that I was in the same place. Then after going around the pond, I looked at what was left, decided it wasn't that interesting, and called it a day.

Feeling pretty tired when I packed it in, and thinking that I'm not in as good shape as I had been hoping, because I took over two hours to not even finish a 9.7 km course. But the GPS shows me as having gone almost 12.5 km. Something is fishy here, and I did better than I thought.

But... one of the best AOWN moments. At #4, I heard a noise and turned around to see where it was coming from. I was expecting to see maybe a porcupine, maybe a raccoon, but about 8 feet up in the small tree next to me was a fisher, trying to figure out what it should do. I've definitely never seen one that close up. It looked so cuddly (hah!).

splits

A little bit shorter ride, though it included three minor climbs: Hunting Hill, Flat Hill (The Lane), and Clarks Hill.

WBNW, checking out some areas where I hadn't been and some areas of interest. An indication of how gnarly the trail was and what kind of shape I'm in: on the way up the Brook Trail, I saw a couple of mountain bikers ahead, and I was closing in on them. I eventually overtook one, and as I caught the other one at Damon Pond, I said "All that machinery is just slowing you down!". A fair bit of running through the woods in shorts in August; the woods are pretty nice if you pay attention to where you're going.

Well, this was a disappointment. I've driven past "Townsend Conservation Land Walking Trail" myriad times, but I never stopped until today. It's got an impressive archway, behind which is what appears to be deep dark woods. So I stopped and went for a walk. It seems quite possible that I'm the first person to do so in a decade. There were a few arrow signs, without which I never would have guessed there was a trail, and would have turned around, the first time about 50 feet from the car. For much of the loop, it was just an undistinguished poison ivy patch. There was one little spot that looked like it used to be a clearing that had a sad, broken picnic table in it. But viewed as an undisturbed bit of nature, I suppose it's not so bad. I'll leave it that way.

C • Conservation 1

Little bit: carried a bunch of boards, including most of what I pulled off the small shed, over to the dumpster staging pile.

With the forecast of the remnants of Isaias coming in, the best bet was to get out early. I almost timed this right, but the last mile and a half was in a soaking rain, which has since let up; I think it will be off and on all day.

After that one brief downpour, it's been dry all day. But I think rain is coming.

North side of Watatic with a bad copy of the USGS, In The Dim, with a side trip to see if I could find the Middlesex County high point.


I got to the south summit around the time the sun was setting.


And the moon was rising (which was the main point of being there).


Three kids up there also enjoying the moonrise and playing some pretty cool music on a portable speaker.

C • Middlesex summits 20

Back down, In The Dark (headlamp), not the way I intended, but I was paying more attention to the bad footing than to the map. It's hard to imagine that there were once ski slopes here (I skied here in high school).

Walking around a neighborhood in Tyngsborough, In The Dim (pretty dark by the time we were done), while Nancy looked up the house valuations on Zillow.