Training Log Archive: bl

Event: UNO Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend
 

UNO camping weekend. Helped Pete B with registering entries, which helped put names to faces in quite a few instances. Then did brown around 3p. Didn’t see flags at 1 & 2 - or 3 but I may not have been in the right place. Saw flags at the other points. Good enough run. It was a sunny, pleasant day.

Night O, Jim Arsenault set it up, 12c, take in order but skip as many as one wished. I skipped 4, was still out 114' (missed #9 which was disappointing, not sure why since I felt I was in the right place but my light failed to illuminate the marker) - I might have been a few contours low. Perspective can be odd at night. My LED quit at 93’ - I didn’t think it would make 110’ tho fully charged. My spare was “a candle in the darkness” but got to 11 and 12 anyway & visually limped along the swamp to the road & finally finish. Time spent in those woods w/o the obligatory spare would be interesting. I saw virtually no one during the time I was in the woods: only the two who finished 1,2 (E Childs & a young Swede) and the light of another runner at #11.

Got stung 3 times at the first point. A sharp, “smallish-type" pain left knee, then right, then left again - that was when I saw what appeared to be a yellow jacket.

I was not pleased with what I considered a marginal capability to keep in contact with the map. A properly fitting head lamp whose beam reaches out sufficiently far w/o continual adjusting is essential. It's time to buy a few new ones - several because they are dirt cheap now.

Going to bed, the “loo” truck was hard at work emptying a toilet at the end of parking, 2230 on a Saturday night. Slept marginally due to cramps, hard floor with mats escaping 'assigned duty' and maybe the rain which finally did fall fairly hard - though sleeping in a tent in rain is generally a pleasant experience. Needed motrin, had none with me.

SPS wander from under 89 parking. Made it to the track, but more of a pensive time than anything else. Slept poorly as it rained hard & got up, finally, at 0400 to do some things I should have done beforehand. Encountered a young woman walking 3 great danes.

BBSP, cloudy, cool. Expected rain but didn't happen. Didn't see anyone there.
Drove to the boulder field end to partake of the admirable mapping work & technical aspect. 2.3 miles from gate to parking for 4H camp. Visited Bear Pond beach on the way. Camp is impressive, great home base for an O venue. Maybe somehow assoc with the next mapping project if there is one. QR

Early eve Nottingcook walk with Beth from BBG end of WH. Went to new places for her, almost 50% in woods, off trail. Nice lighting by open swamps.
No bugs. Once we got into the forest, away from discarded cans etc , it became almost magical in some places. No running water to speak of.

Beaver sculpting
End game

End of Labor Day weekend, 3 nights in a tent on cats' spur, Beth's idea. We hadn't slept out back for probably 3 years. Some owl sounds and distant coyotes Friday, otherwise only insect chorus. Went to Turee this eve for kayaking - really to just "be" on the pond. I was reminding myself of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - not sure what Beth's choice was. Proved a most satisfactory reading room. Had planned to run the last few miles home but 7:15 was too late for my mind & body.

Reading hour at Turee

Spiderman on the outside glass.

Hot day, ambled toward Y mid-Am, thinking I might get in a jog-run later but proved too hot for me.

Hopkinton green belt after NHH rounds. To 90F today - I started maybe 1115,
fine in the forest shade. A dip in Kimball Pond after was a finishing touch. In the interim, convertible was inundated with pine needles and 70 mph winds on way home didn't clean them out. Nice to have gone nowhere after Corn Maze - a quiet weekend; traffic on Rt 93 was demoralizing coming home this early pm.

Lots of human interest signs in the forest - had to stop to read most of them. Also a "poetry box"...read and/or add poems.