Training Log Archive: Fanatic

Hike with Colette in Franklin State Forest while we were on our way to Falmouth for a short vacation.

Must say these trails sucked--ruined by a lot of trail motorcycles that have cut deep ruts into the trails, leading to erosion and tons of loose rocks. Some areas weren't so badly chewed up since they were flatter and wider, but still our take was that we wished that we hadn't stop there.

C • Better forests 1

Hike on The Finger Trail north of Reservoir Road. I had hoped to do the complete loop, but it got so dark that I was having a hard time staying on the trail after three hours, so I cut it short a bit. Not another soul on the trail and no animal sightings either.

Hike with Colette near Sykes Mountain to the north of New Lenox Road. We were also going to look for a geocache that hadn't been found since 2012. Either that cache is very well hidden, or it's just not there anymore. We'll ask some others for advice on that.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move310545261

After-dinner walk with Colette out to the black cows and back. Getting pretty dark by 6:30 now.

It was going to be a short hike out to a geocache, and after that perhaps a longer loop back to my car at the top of Reservoir Road. But the Lenox Fire & Rescue Squad showed up as I was about to start. They stopped right next to my car and were unloading some ATVs, so I asked if I was in their way. They suggested moving since there were other vehicles coming up the road soon, so I moved where they suggested. Before I left, they asked if I was the dog owner. Hmm, that seemed weird that they need this team to rescue a dog.

Well, after answering the question, I hiked off to the geocache which is near an overlook on the top of some small cliffs with a great view of Parson's Marsh down below. As I was working on the puzzle cache, I heard some whimpering and realized it must be the dog. So I finished with the cache, successfully, and headed down to see if I could find the dog. While the cliffs are small, they are on a steep hillside.

As I was honing in on the dog, one of the rescue guys came on the scene, too. He asked if I had heard the dog, and I told him yes, and it's just a bit lower down. He suggested that I should go back up the hill and alert his fellow rescuers as to where to come, so I did that.

Still, after the others showed up, they seemed to have a lot of gear to unload and drag up the hill to the actual overlook, so I headed back down to the dog. It was doing fine, the rescuer could find no broken bones, just a tired, dazed Lab.

To make a long story short, they eventually hauled both the dog and the rescuer up with fixed ropes and a pulley system. By that time, I'd been there over an hour, so I just walked back to my car and called it a day.


Rescuers and the owner (in bike shorts), arrive at the overlook.


Rescuers and dog being pulled up the steeper section of the cliff.


You never know when you're going to need a ladder truck to pull a dog up a cliff a half-mile into the woods.

Hike on the dirt roads from Woods Pond. Put a little effort into this after the first warm-up mile; a bit easier to do when the terrain is fairly flat.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move310140044

Short hike on the trails at Bard College. Fortunately, the heavy rains of the morning blew by and it was nice and sunny.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move310026604