Training Log Archive: Nadim

Lake Bernard Frank, MD. Starting from Sweetbirch Dr. on the east side of the park, I covered areas south to just beyond Sunfish Pond and the Sunfish Trail. A sign at Sweetbirch Dr. warned people of deer culling going from after 5:30pm till sunrise all the way through March. The population control is new to many areas of Montgomery County where it was not allowed earlier. While I think the park can sustain a population and reach equilibrium, there are large herds which have probably been losing habitat elswhere, like from the Inter-County Connector properties that are being constructed upon now. I guess that these have been seeking refuge in the park pushing the population to a bad state.

It was breezy and in the 20s F starting off but I wore enough to keep me plenty warm. The difficulty today was the coating of ice. The snow last week followed by freezing rain, then freezing and re-freezing has left a glazed sheet of ice coving the ground. In many place it was thin enough, especially on the sunny slopes, to crunch through it but in on trails or other areas, it wouldn't budge with weight. I only fell once and not too badly but it was enough to make my knee hurt a bit.

I covered some fair areas of nice woods along with other stuff. It was difficult to decide how to show an area which had patchy green areas with patchy clearings and other white and light green parts all intermixed. I found a lot more man made objects too. I still have areas of green to cover in getting the Lake Frank areas finished but the parts I started checking on the south side of stream near Sunfish Pond are more uniform and should be easier. I covered one hill there with fairly nice white woods and some scattered boulders.