Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Fractal Trails at Four Corners. This was in part to test out the new $50 video camera that I bought (Akaso EK7000), which worked well enough, though being mounted on top of my helmet made for pretty jerky video as every bump was magnified. This was 99% on trails, there's a lot of trail there in a small area, and it looks like I hit almost everything shown on OpenTopoMap, though my GPS watch didn't capture all of the subtleties.

I'll post some video once I shrink it down to a size that will fit on YouTube (and that isn't endlessly boring).

Baldwin Hill, BYOM training, Long, 6.0. Chilly afternoon, right around freezing, I wore two shirts, a jacket, and a hat, and then on the way to the first control I decided to put on my gloves, and they stayed on the whole time. This was my first time using UsynligO, and it basically went fine. I had it set to maximum leniency (35m/200m), and it would play the little melody roughly around the same time that I would have spotted a control had there been one, then I'd go to the feature, so it made for a pretty good simulation of having a course out there. I didn't ask it for any hints, the one time I took it out of my pocket was to check that I was still supposed to be looking the control I thought I was looking for (my phone was also beeping for other reasons during this).

Sloppy on #5 (too far right and got hoodwinked by some unmapped seasonal marshes) and #6 (a bit left, then I circled around to make sure of my position). On #14 I was to far right (it's obvious in retrospect exactly what I was looking at) and had to go a ways south to get to the control. #18 was the only one where I got to the middle of the circle and had to mill around a little to get the phone to register it.

This tie of year, this place isn't so bad, though there was a fair bit of thwipthwipthwip from little branches in the face. Once all those branches have leaves on them, it will be a very different story.

(AP thought this was hiking? Sheesh...)

3/11, mostly water bottles, though I included a couple of tennis ball cans. These are strange times we live in, there was a high school football game going on when I finished. In April.

Around the little block, with Nancy, In The Dark. Kind of cold and breezy. I was mistaken about the snow, my neighbors on both sides still have the remnants of piles left by the plow at the ends of their driveways, and a few graupely flakes fell this afternoon as well.

6/3 (I think)

Willard Brook. Not the kind of disaster that "multisport adventure" usually means, this was just a trip out to get some publicity photos of the terrain for this fall's meet (just over six months away). So largely on foot, but I used my bike to save some time getting out to the part of the terrain I was interested in.

7/1 + 1 mylar balloon, with Bud Light dominating tonight.

Willard Brook, In The Dim, taking a second look at a couple of spots that I asked Jon to take a second look at.

There was one tiny pile of snow next to where I parked. That maybe the last gasp for snow in these parts, but you never know.

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Arosss the street, a little figure-8. There's always interesting stuff to discover if you're willing to look around. Today I took a trail that I'd been down a few times that's a dead end, but this time I pushed past the end through a little vegetation and found a pretty good expanse of previously unexplored woods with intricate topography that's mostly open, with just a little laurel here and there. Nice!

3/4, and I passed up plenty more because I didn't bring a bag and my hands were full.

Quick fun mystery quiz, which should be easy for some people, one of those "can you guess what this is a picture of?" puzzles:

C • Pic? 11

Morse, Longley Farm, and Lyon conservation areas in Shirley. Most of the time on trails of varying levels of detectability. Got this in before the rain came.

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