Training Log Archive: bl

Beaver Brook, UNO green from 12/1. Went back today, temp was 50F, mostly cloudy and parking was completely empty. 2 weeks ago at the very same time, there were almost no spaces when I got there just before noon. Christmas impact today no doubt but what a day for a walk etc. Three people came just before I left. And still only that car 2 hours later.

The green course had 4 different first points - the rest were identical to brown. Couldn't be too careful going to 2, 5,6,7, 8. I'd already been to most of the hardest. Still had trouble with brown 4-green 8. It's probably OK mapped but the visibility is so low and contours so hidden by fir, it makes so much for a bingo point. I found it this time on a lone, nearby boulder, walking slowly, deliberately. The final point on the west side for both courses has some ups & downs not well mapped and the ride(s) seem(s) off too but I didn't stop to really figure out what exactly was going on. Chose different routes where it made sense. No snow on the ground. I'm impressed this was done in 60' by an unfamiliar name. There was a time when <10'/k was a given for me. This particular terrain challenges 'best laid plans'.

Map

Can't get the 310 to show splits on the gpx file try as I may.

Mostly back on 122 and 13, again thru Mt. Vernon, New Boston, Goffstown & Dunbarton...lots of NH charm.

Green - Splits

After work, had no energy.

Local loop on a still, gray December afternoon. Good to get outside. Day started cold but it was fine by mid-afternoon. December bleakness strikes a minor chord. Mocha & I used to go to the SB bog regularly. Haven't been by in months. Always a contemplative moment to be had there, even when green.

Y after work. Have a good (bad?) case of lumbago - bothering me for past 4-5 days. Hard to stand up straight most of the time. Don't know where it came from.

At Bear Brook. Had two maps that assumed I'd get into the park (one course began near Bear Hill Pond) but the road above Podunk lot was mostly ice. Probably negotiable but I couldn't bring myself to really try, after a half-hearted start. So no map and turned it into a good walk. When I eventually hit a path, I decided I liked paths today. Made my way to Hayes Field and around the field loop and back.

Met a young couple from Boston area looking at the park map in Podunk parking. They had never been to BB, wondered if there was another entrance. I was able to point out some fun possibilities but harder today for first time visitors who were not really dressed for it.

Went to the Y after work, in part with the expectation of changing for a run outside on a blue dome 30F pm but didn't find running pants amongst my warmth riches. Backtracked to being indoor & did 3 x 20' on the treadmill with virtual screen choices of Pacific NW rainforest to alpine vantage, Auckland Domain & Beagle Channel walk-jog for distraction and/or inspiration.

An evening visit with Per Stensby (and his son Per Olla) at Granite Ledges in Concord. I visited Per in June. Today’s occasion was in part to pick up 72 WOC ’93 mugs that Per had for a quarter century at various homes, the last being New London. And Sara Mae Berman had asked that they be made available for fund raising. I am a go between. Per’s son is back and forth between NH and mid-coast Maine and we arranged this rendezvous. ONA had a timely WOC article that I took with me, along with a still-sealed WOC men’s classic course and a compass. Per’s memory has failed. I knew that in June. I wondered if these orienteering memorabilia might strike a chord.

Sitting in the lobby of the assisted living facility, about to enter the memory-loss unit, and looking at the WOC course and ONA article with Christmas music in the background was indeed a step into the past. Per, 87, was fairly good about some details. We had a nice visit & it was fun to meet his son, too.

A mug in hand (that hadn't seen the light of day for many years).