Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I hiked the dogs around the new trail loop, skipping the part that crosses our neighbour's field so we could investigate a parallel bushwhacking route through the forest. Turns out the first section is quite rocky - I think DGL would call it limestone pavement? We'll have to explore to find the best way through. If we go too far south, we'll hit one of the only patches of poison ivy we've seen in the Kolapore area. Sadly, we own it.

'Bent and I met Mr. and Mrs. Gally for a fun, crazy ride around Pretty River Provincial Park. Mrs. Gally ran 28 km at Limberlost yesterday and won her age category then taught hot yoga all morning today. She was only planning on an hour at a moderate pace. Mr. Gally rode up the Osler Hill from Collingwood and was going to ride with us a bit longer.

Well, *that* all went out the window. 'Bent really wanted to ride to the bottom of the park and apparently there was a beautiful, easy trail to ride back to the top - a rumour confirmed by the Gallys. None of us really knows these bike trails well but somehow we made it down to Pretty River Road. Unfortunately, the trail we planned to ride up had a "Trail Closed: Natural Regeneration" sign.

So it turned into an adventure race. A little pavement riding, a little bushwhacking, some bike pushing up a steep hill, some bike lifting over fallen trees, a few walks through creeks, a few painful hill climbs and a ton of laughs. :)

I'm only including this so we can have a record of the new trail routes. We went back to help our neighbour improve their new trail and also flagged a forest route that links to a trail on our property and could make a nice connector. Elapsed time about an hour.

Fun tour of Kolapore with Coach LD, Goose and Mr. Gally (for the first hour). We tried to choose less bone-rattling trails and mostly succeeded although there is no smooth way to climb from the creek toward the Grey Rd. 2 parking lot. It was great to have company and we only saw a handful of other riders and hikers including Adam Burnett, former Bruce Trail FKT holder.

The only negative was the wasp nest at our planned stop on the big bridge to admire the creek. 'Bent was only stung once but over the day, his sore hand ballooned up to the point that he wouldn't be able to do dentistry. Goose was stung twice but didn't swell up as much. A few years ago, 'Bent was tested for an allergy after he got multiple wasp stings from a BBQ nest and swelled up. Supposedly he's fine but it looks like he still needs to steer clear of wasps.

'Bent and I helped our neighbours scout a new trail route on their property followed by the first few passes of brush clearing with their help. There is now half a kilometre of trail passable to a grassy fence line corridor on Crown Land that leads to a trail built by their other neighbour, which connects to the Bruce Trail. Combined with the Bruce and the trails we've built on our land and adjacent Crown Land, this makes a nice, mostly flat loop suited to the patriarch of our neighbour's family, who is active but has knee problems.

Our neighbours are so pleased to have hiking trails. We forget sometimes that orienteering and adventure racing have given us uncommon route planning skills and comfort in bashing through forest to specific locations. We could see that for people who had never done something like this before, there was a lot of learning by doing and a nice feeling of accomplishment.

Logged @50%

Sports-Tracker congratulated me on my 2nd fastest time on this morning's bike route. Woo hoo! The problem is, I've *never* ridden that route before. I know because there's a relatively new trail in the northeast part of Palgrave Forest that I've only ridden a few times - always in the same direction. I purposely rode it in the opposite direction today to see how that went. (Fine except for the big drop-off that I approached from the bottom and haven't even attempted from the top yet.) So I'm declaring it my fastest time on the route. Yay.

Morning ride around the Palgrave single track before it gets too warm. The trails are in fantastic shape although there are long stretches lined with poison ivy where there is no room for error. I love this kind of riding - rolling, twisty, rooty dirt trails with occasional logs and rocks. I'm getting better at riding super rocky trails but I'd still rather ride Palgrave or Albion Hills than Kolapore or 3 Stage. Some of our Collingwood friends commute to Mansfield or Horseshoe Valley to ride trails that rattle their bones a bit less. If we lived there full time - which we might some day - I could see doing that.

I'm supposed to take it easy for a day after some periodontal work so I took BazingaDog for a hike. It's such a treat being able to walk him off-leash after all these years. He made me jog for the first 5 minutes then settled down and became his usual adorable self.



Then he rolled in some old coyote poop. The End.

Today is the 3-month anniversary of my hand surgery so it's probably safe to post a photo without worrying about making Hammer feel faint. :) The scar will fade more over time but my hand has recovered well.