Training Log Archive: danfoster

Went for a family lockdown hike in the morning, and explored the trails I found while out on the Cutthroat earlier in the week. Sat by a flooded beaver pond and Jess made friends with some gooses.

Since it was still a balmy 45 out, I headed out on the Cutty in mid-afternoon for a mostly-dirt exploration of the trails and hill climbs leading over to Vaughn Hills and Bower Springs. Found some really steep climbs - perhaps the "North Peak Trail" name should have tipped me off...

Really enjoying the challenge of riding a rigid bike on MTB and hiking trails. Came home very tuckered out, yet completely invigorated. One final hurrah before a week of cold and rain.

Got a Kokopelli Rogue-Lite packraft last night. Took it out in the pond this morning with a handful of paddles and experimented. Glad to find that my normal sea kayaking paddle length works well for this boat.

Next up: adding a dog. Brought Jess down to the pond and she readily jumped in, but quivered for the first few minutes as she realized the tubes and floor were moving underneath her paws. Did a few laps and spins and then we grabbed a leash and carried everything down the street to Delaney.

Paddled up along the shoreline toward the north basin. Two swans let us get surprisingly close, which Jess enjoyed. Couldn't get up the quickwater pouring over a washed-out beaver dam in the marshy section, so Jess jumped out and I pulled the boat over and removed a few pointy sticks for the downstream run later. We tried paddling up and through the new culvert. I had to hop out in waist-deep water to pull the boat over the upper spillway, and then we were able to keep going north.

Stopped on a low rock "goose island" for a break, and then headed a bit further to see all the waterfowl. The herons are back and have started rebuilding their nests. The way back was into the building wind, and I dug in and paddled hard, while Jess adopted several more uncomfortable positions across the bow and my legs. We ran into one of her best friends back at the boat launch, and had a good romp before walking the boat home.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the packraft. It tracks reasonably well (for a fancy pool toy) and the material was unscathed after two hours of nervous dog nails and frequent encounters with shallow-water stumps and sticks. I was very happy to be wearing a drysuit - mostly for protection from the wet pet! I really wish I'd taken a GPS to get an idea of flatwater speed, but we certainly weren't winning any races. But I'm psyched to take this exploring - it should open up all sorts of adventures.

Took advantage of the nice weather ahead of tomorrow's rain, and played hooky from work. I modified the 30+ mi road ride from earlier in the week, kept all the paved hill climbs, and then detoured onto as much dirt and singletrack as I could. Almost all of this was new riding to me, and the typical dirt session went:

first 75% - this is awesome!
next 15% - this trail really isn't suited for a rigid bike, but we're getting through it!
final 10% - this is unrideable, even on my trail bike.

Sometimes that final 10% was deep mud, sometimes it was 10 bridges in the span of 100 yards, sometimes it was a jumble of boulders at the bottom of a hill.

In any case, this was one of the best adventure rides I've done, and with a few tweaks or some more exploring of alternate trails, should make for an excellent AR training circuit.

Tagged along with my neighbor DH on one of his early-season conditioning rides. I have a new appreciation for hills now. We rode a token 50 ft of trail to make this a mixed terrain ride. Got screamed at by a little kid for complimenting him on his monster jacket. (Apparently it was a monster hoodie, not a jacket, you dodo!)