Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Planned out a trip up into New Hampshire, thinking I might wimp out, and when I got outside into the predicted temperature (high 80s F), I modified it to be a little flatter and to not go quite so far. A good day for exercise that comes with a built-in breeze.

Table Rock. It's fun to go off into a new place and wander around without knowing exactly where you are, especially when it's so close to home. Started out with all easy big trails, but wound up with some fairly technical singletrack. More exploring to be done in here.

I found one of the exits, no surprise that I didn't spot it from the road, because there's a stone wall you have to go over. For future reference, it's right across the street from the house with the solarium. Finding it from the woods side wasn't that easy, either, because there were trail signs parallel to a serious fence on the right, then the trail got all manky but there was a shift to the left on a better parallel trail. But that took me to what looked like a back yard. The phone showed that I was in about the right spot, but as I skootched along the edge of the lawn, a couple of dogs came out, then a guy came out of the door of the house. I asked him if there was a paved road ahead, and he said yeah, look to your right, there's the trail. I gave him a thumbs up and said thanks, and went onto the very rough "pathway" that looks like it's probably going to get grown in pretty quickly. All the online resources that I see indicate that I was on public property the whole time, and that what looks like lawn associated with the house extends beyond the property line. (But to get out to the road without shifting to the rough trail would have required going out the guy's driveway.)

Down the street and back with Nancy during intermission of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

OK, I'm well enough to do this. Planned out a nice route, and it turned out well. Water levels are low, so I didn't have to deal with too much in the way of stream crossings or mud. The one exception was that the Friendly Trail (now with Private Property Keep Out signs) was flooded out in several places by the beaver pond, and I had to walk around those. Otherwise not much in the way of places where I needed to get off the bike.

C • At first glance, read this ... 1

Not far, not fast. Some pretty intense coughing today (not at all unusual for me on the tail end of a cold), and I'd say incrementally healthier. But not back in form yet.

A lap around the outside of Table Rock Conservation Area. Access to this piece of property is... interesting. On the Northfield Road side, there's a parking area, a nice big trailhead info sign, and access is via Old Stagecoach Road. But the people who live on Old Stagecoach have put up signs that I suspect are deliberately misleading, that appear to say that the road is private property, keep out. Then there are supposedly (according to AllTrails and OSM) access points on both New West Townsend Road and Howard Street, but I saw no sign of them. I think I did spot another trail off of Howard that links up with the trail network in there, but it's on private land (appears to be owned by some corporation based in Ohio, so I don't think trespassing would likely be a problem). So I didn't ride my bike in there today, though I did go off-road just a little bit on the way home. Got hit with a few drops of rain near the end, nothing like the thunderstorm that came tearing through later on.

Still not back to 100% on the health front, but I took my last bunch of pills tonight.

Decided to go out for some modest mountain biking, but I looked at the radar and saw that there was some rain in the offing so I had better do it before that stuff arrived. I got as far as the golf course, and I started feeling drops, so I checked the radar again and decided to turn around. On the way home I got drenched, then I got to the house and it appeared that there had been no rain at all. Pretty local shower. A little later it started raining here, though, and I decided I'd had enough anyway.

Headache came back in the afternoon, though not nearly as bad as yesterday. Still come congestion and coughing and fatigue, but I'm on the upswing.