Training Log Archive: bl

Map walk with Beth on Surebridge map from group camp on Arden Valley Rd. Not easy to park - contemplated entering open gate to camp as I did once before under similar circumstances - but found space for one car, reasonably safe appearing. Good thing, as gate was locked less than 2 hours later. Bit of rain but still really nice. Let Beth lead the way most of the time. Superb forest & map as expected. Part used was from the '07 meet, went to some of the control sites from different directions.

A version of the (rock) Garden of Eden

Zoe surveying


The enchanted forest


A forest denizen




After, went to Liberty Corner to visit CBE, an 'old 92' & an old friendship going back to '66. Then on to Rye & Harrsion & the usual return-visit suspects, incl. Three Ponds and in early May - just as 50 years ago! but the place is a specter of its former self & only 250 yards or so from Rte 95. That road was not present in the late 50s - 3 Ps was for turtles, fish & birds - now overgrown & with a moderate amount of detritus floating around. In fact, Zoe, standing on a bridge maybe 9" above surface of water, thought she was stepping onto something solid & went in, out of sight for a few long seconds, surfacing very surprised. Holed up at a Super 8 in Stamford. had considered Ward Pound Ridge but it rained hard last night, tent is very wet & 3 nights in it deserves a change.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #14:

Old man daydreaming, 1977; Duke, c. 12 years, on the Olympic seacoast.

A 'golden-age mile', pushing CBE around Fellowship Village perimeter walks & drives in her WC, the changing vistas keeping her entertained. One of the more symbolic miles I've covered, perhaps the last time I will see her alive.

Golden-age mile

CBE, a mile brigns a smile

Sunday Classic - hot was one theme. Nice map, good courses. About a B performance. #3 was maybe 110m long, lost nearly 3' to PG - I was 4:42, he was 1;51 as I recall. Didn't read map right & failed to note that control was on the high point in the area. Did not note fence crossings in time each & every time. From #7 to 8, got way off to left, not sure where I was or how I got there but was able to run up a reentrant I'd gone down earlier. Had good energy in spite of heat.

Took a peek at the campus after as, for once, did not have to drive home Sunday eve. Found the Highland Falls RR station at the brink of the Hudson, by the decrepit marina. Met a senior cadet, Paul Caston (team captain), from the O team as we were taking down our tent at Buckner, talked with him for 30' - 19 days to graduation, from east TN, glad to be done, seemed to be the quintessential young military gentleman. Went for a swim in Lake Pop, can't recall doing that but can't recall this degree of heat either.

Drove along mystical Seven Lakes Dr., the green foliage having just arrived at glorious maturity - and the whole place a veritable rock garden of Eden. Went to Beaver Pond campground for night. Sign said "no pets" emphatically. So we left but returned "can't hurt to try." Beth provided me with some decent one-liners " they're our fur children" - "you can come out and interview them" and she'd "swear on the bible (she a decent aetheist) that they had rabies vaccinations". Such machinations worked & we got a remote place in the campgound. Currently in the Bright Star diner in Central Valley. It'll do & has WiFi to make up for the lousy beer on tap.

Nice WP weekend indeed.

Okinawa Mess hall in morning still (seats c. 1400)

Morning moon on Popolopen's surface

Endless play

Barth Hall, thirty years of Saturday O dinners

"To The American Soldier", on the main campus

Green Y Long Distance - Splits

Event: USMA West Point A-Meet 2010
 

Middle, 3.5k, 110 climb 38:40. Reasonable run, messed up 2 controls on hillsides, rather bland ones at that - both small 1m rockfaces. On #4, was above so could not see & other features were hard to read for positive location - not much recourse in such a situation. On #9, there were some unmapped features that threw me off. Came to #118 & reasoned where that had to be & continued onto control but didn't like map feedback. Had to be more cautious than I was. Also, #6, went right to center of circle but was looking for barerock - a flat feature in my mind. Lynette & Bill Shannon also looking, L found first*. Control was really by a small rocky knoll to my mind - I'd have mapped it differently. Maybe 2.5' errors. Temp around 70F, really quite perfect with a 0911 start & short run. 2nd M60 after PG; 50 & 55s on X.

* later told me that was not her control

Surveying the damage (if any)

Sprint - hot at 1:40! Messed up 2nd & 3rd - looked second leg over later & boulder was mapped some 25 deg off & only 4' est higher than boulder I'd just run by (w/ control) - map indicated about 2 2.5m contours needed to get to correct height. Flubbed next, needed better sense of distance & was a bit "cloudy-visioned" in my desire to be lickety-spit. From #7, went to #10, noted the code & had a fairly long haul over to 7 (that mistake was a back breaker, weighed down with irrefutable stupidity) - & when I got on peninsula, ran straight to control I could see, not mine - there were 2, so 60m lost. Jeff S mp'd there - assuming one control & not looking at code. Rest ok.

Dinner at Okinawa Hall. more substantial than Barth. Silent auction - got a Silva compass for $16 - orig value prob $50. Beth's sweater that she knitted around '82 caught the attention of a few cadets & there was a taker for the only Lopi handknit O sweater extant:). Fun to introduce him to the knitter, point out that it was made before he was born - yet it was about as good as new.

Green Y Middle Distance - Splits

Or/Br/Gr Sprint - Splits

Very pleasant drive (285mi) with Beth & dogs via 9/202 to 91S, west on Mass pike to TSP to 84W & south on 9W thru ailing Newburgh. Temp at 7p was mid70s in downtown N'burgh, right out of a summer night. A lot more foliage here, sunset 8:02. TSP a rolling green jewel. Camping at Buckner in a new place. No bugs, lots of peepers. Good start.

C • no bugs 4

Bright, brisk DP. Picked up 4 controls in very SE, Beth got one. Had no compass or map which was generally ok but got mixed up after going thru thickish area & not emerging into anything recognizable...flat, swampy, mt laurel. Panic was setting in, sun had let me down...how stupid could I look, to dogs at least, who were having a fine time running in circles. Finally went right, saw contours & then familiarity. Had I used the same routes as previously, it should have been straightforward.

Cat-eyes Mocha by the first control

C • Mocha 2

Fisk, CCW, NW windy! Gust to 45 kts @ IOS. First half upwind, more or less uphill, then the opposite.

3 controls in very west, farthest at base of Great Hill. No dogs, kept home by the dog nurse so they can nurse their stiffness. Flakes coming out of what looked like a blue sky, quickly gray & more flakes - nothing sticking to speak of but strange with all the burgeoning green. Stopped to appreciate the view from the Gt. Hill spur - rolling gray weather over rolling green terrain. Came down right next to Berman's house & neighbor's - good that neither apparently has dogs as the 2 houses are about 120m apart with a patch of woods between.

Noon SloGo with Diane - light rain turned steady. First time Diane has run in rain with me...washes off the makeup. Bit chilly. Up to Water Tower. A pm break from control gathering.

4 control DP. A few newish routes, refreshing views of forest. No people, squirrels etc. Still trying to rain.

Short noon loop, spitting a bit. Only interesting part was brief departure from road onto/across field. Track group but by 4:30 there was a cold rain.

Beth went to fetch 2 controls from Sunday which is most helpful. Zoe will have to be scraped off the floor until the am when she'll demand more.

Ferns & hostas coming up. Will make an effort to keep deer from eating latter.