snow on the ground

here in the northeast, saturday was forecasted to be snowy. over the past month, i had gotten in a couple days of trail work on cardigan but wanted to do some final chainsawing on the ski trail before the seasonal freeze up--which hopefully comes, soon. as i parked at the winter trailhead, it was starting to spit snow.

by the time i got up to the first mess of blow downs, it was snowing good. i dropped my pack by a tree and donned chaps, helmet, and ear muffs. i cut a bunch, moved a bunch, hiked a bit, cut some more, moved some more, hiked a bit--more. it went on like that until i got halfway along the second section where i called it good. 

the snow was coming down harder and i was plenty wet, so "good" was good. as i walked back through one particular 'mess' i was impressed with the clear line that was now snowing up.

if this keeps up, stays for the season, and continues to gets deeper and deeper over the next few months, you many not even notice those downed, big ol' trees. that will make me very happy. 

speaking of trail work, last thursday, olivia--back from oregon and off the recommended travel quarantine--joined me on the 2nd half of raking drains on cardigan's west ridge trail. the 1.75" of rain i had in my gauge at home on monday, looked to be at least that much on the mountain. the clear sign of a torrent ran strait down the trail where water had been running. as we got higher and higher, the drains were freezing harder and harder.

at a certain point, we parked the rake and shovel leaning on a tree and just hiked. it was an rare blue sky day and we wanted to see it from the top. surprise, surprise we had a elizabeth siting. elizabeth was a former student, friend of sadie's, and is now coaching cross country and track with tom, her father. she is an active woman recovering from wearing the 'boot' all fall to heal a broken bone in her foot. i snapped a picture of her running by. and another of olivia taking a panorama up at the tower. it was cold enough that we didn't stay long.

the thursday before that was thanksgiving, which means on friday MOC does its annual 'after turkey trot' from goose pond road to holt's ledge along the AT. i didn't advertise anything this year due to covid, but i thought skip & linda or maybe even andrew might show up.

nada. it was pam and i. though we did see some fresh gnawing activity, even the beavers were tucked into their den in the lodge at the damn. there were plenty of wet, slippery leaves to slide around on. footing going up at least, wasn't too bad and the path was rather beautiful in the grey mist.

at the top, overlooking holt's ledge, it was pretty well socked in. you could see enough not to step off the edge, but no further.

after hot tea and a snack and we started back knowing those leaves going down would be trickier. i heard at least one "f*^k" from behind when pam went down as we descended. all i could hope for was that the next time i was on this trail, it would be in knee deep snow, with skis doing all the sliding.

speaking of sliding and hitting the deck, the weekend before we had made the hour~ish drive over to one of our favorite hikes, welch-dickey loop in the waterville valley. it can be really crowded, so with covid and social distancing in mind, we went early on a cloudy, cooler friday morning. that was a good choice, but there were several icy spots--one with my butt print on it. 

we had gone up there years ago with the buffum family and got the idea to recreate a couple of the pictures that i remember taking of iona. pam let me pose under the stone, as my butt was already wet. 

we took a few artsy shots without any shenanigans as well...the one of the cairne reminded us of a goldsworthy sculpture--thank you palmer.

all in all, it was a grand day out. it would have been way cool to have the buffums along again. iona--now in college over in scotland--is even home for the holidays. still, any day we get to 'go outside and play!' is one that puts a smile on our faces.

more adventure riding through the woods scoping out possible fom-ftt routes.

if you haven't ridden a woods road in 10, 15, maybe 20 years, things will probably have changed. if you've never ridden something, things could also have changed over that amount of time, but you won't notice the difference. profound...

saturday, i made a plan to ride the lary pond section and check see if the way through to river road was still passable. i called skip and he accepted the invitation to join in the fun. he had not been through that way in just as long, so it was guaranteed to be an adventure. 

i rode over to his house and offered clockwise or counter clockwise--he chose counter- and we took off toward stevens road. as we passed a friend david's house, he was outside and stopped us to look at his cool new, little workshop with an arched roof. 

back on steven's we flew downhill and turned onto the lary pond road. skip was already planning to stop. i got out my camera as he was playing with his.

there was a small raft of ducks way out, with silhouettes like buffleheads, but not close enough for a positive id. i was thinking the last time i was here, skip and i were on a mission to skate all the bigger ponds in canaan and enfield. that was many winters ago.

back on the road, we climbed steadily to the left hand turn that would take us into dorchester before doubling back into canaan along the headwaters of the mascoma. at one point we crossed the river and stopped on the bridge for pictures--upstream & down.

not too long after that we came to a right hand turn climbing a big hill with snowmobile signs pointing up. i found a 'dead end' sign on a stick buried in the grass on the road following the river. skip seemed to recognize the hill so why not. as we pushed, we were both thinking this would be a great ski with good snow. we kept on pushing and making plans to come back in the winter, early enough after a storm to beat the snow machines.

as the steep fell off, we got back on the saddles and pedaled. after a while the down hill started and as the light was fading we let go the brakes more. maybe more than we should of not being able to see all the rocks. i thunked one solid with my front wheel and even in all the leaves saw within ten yards or so, it was flat.

as i stopped i thought, crap, i never patched that tube that went flat last month. skip to the rescue. as he pulled up behind he announced that he had a spare tube and CO2--score! i didn't even have to take the tire lever out...in nascar pit speed, the tire was under pressure and the wheel back on. we were lucky it was the front one.

a little more down hill and we turned left onto what would become the gore road, headed toward river road and home. skip turned his light on blinking mode, incase anybody needed to see us. i think we made it all the way to the turnpike without any traffic passing in either direction. at the bottom of his hill he offered to gift me a lift if i pedaled up to the house. it was getting dark enough that i took the offer.

it's always great to have skip along, but he was going to be circumnavigating grafton pond the next day, so i didn't even ask him if he wanted to try to find a route down to clark pond from the gore road. i checked both of the leaky tubes but they were too far gone to patch, so i just stuck all the pump and patches in my frame bag and left around noon to give me plenty of light to explore some more.

this time i passed by the pond end of the gore road and followed river road along the mascoma. a mile or more in, i passed another gate and was back in the woods. after what seemed like another mile, up a really gentle grade, i saw the dead end sign i had pulled out of the grass. it was back down again. skip had tried to pound it in with a rotten piece of wood and didn't get it in very far.

i turned up the hill again and tried riding as much as i could--that wasn't far. the steep and wet leaves were brutal. more pushing was involved for a second day, but it gave me plenty of time to think about skiing it. 

back on the saddle, i was a bit more prepared to miss any sharp rocks on the down slope. very soon the path ahead looked wide open and inviting. in the improved light, i figured it would be safe enough to let off the brake and have a bit of fun in the leaves. what the heck, i had patches and a pump!

that got me to the gore road fairly quickly and fortunately, the air in the tires at the top, was still there at the bottom. onto the gore road, i found a road to the right heading toward clark pond. skip had mentioned it saturday so i turned downhill, again. in a quick minute, i came to another intersection surrounded by old stone walls.

off to the left, there were several old cellar holes with foundation stones still laid up. i got off the bike and wandered around trying to imagine the structures that used to sit atop them. i was guessing the house was the smaller one with a walk in cellar. and the barn was bigger with what looked to be a root cellar. i was pretty impressed.

i was also still in the woods and didn't know how far the pond was. i took off. the trail got steep and rocky after just a short bit, but i found an alternative path--with dirt bike tracks--off to one side and took that. it came out just a couple hundred yards shy of the boat launch at the pond. sweet!

the sugar house road that pam and i came down here on last weekend was just around the corner--and up a big hill. so i kept riding. when i got into the woods again--i.e. the deep, slippery leaves--things got even more slippery as sleet started coming down. i tried to take a quick picture, but... 

the sugar house road that pam and i came down here on last weekend was just around the corner--and up a big hill. so i kept riding. when i got into the woods again--i.e. the deep, slippery leaves--things got even more slippery as sleet started coming down. i tried to take a quick picture, but... 

it didn't get any worse although anytime i was going downhill, it was almost cold. when i got back to the house, i realized i had put my hat in my pocket and pulled my thinner neck gaiter up onto my head and my gloves were in my frame bag.

cold or hot, sleet or sun, it always is fun to go outside and play!

neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these adventures

after such a beautiful day sunday the 25th of october, the weather turned a bit wet--actually it got a bit cold and very wet. by the end of the week, when i took the pumpkins to the town green, there was 2-3 inches of snow on their heads and lack of shoulders. half of them were still smiling though.

we--olivia and i--carved all these on wednesday and thursday. yes, it rained and yes our hands got cold, but it was for a good cause. when we fixed on our patterns, we realized that they would be perfect harbingers of 'the day after' the election. it turned out the day after, stretched into four, but who's counting.

i was planning on scooting up cardigan for sunrise-moonset saturday, but clouds were still scudding through and it was only 10°F, so i switched to going up later for sunset-moonrise. i called skip in case he wanted to join me. 

when i got up to the park, i waited for a few minutes but didn't see skip so i started up. about half way up, i had stopped to give out some info when i heard some heavy breathing down the trail. it was skip. we got up to the top shortly there after, just as the sun set.

i had the camera out and ready which was probably a good thing as the sun doesn't hang there for too long. we bundled up and huddled against the east side of the tower, almost out of the wind. there were six other hikers there mostly on the north side completely out of the wind, all waiting now for the moon to show itself. including the group of about a dozen costumed hikers a hundred yards shy of the summit, there were a surprising number of folks up for the celestial show.

don't ask me why skip didn't get me to move my finger just a little, but working his new phone was awkward and he was probably cold and ready to start down. it wouldn't take long for dark to close in.

as we headed into the after glow of sunset, i snapped a picture that looked better in the real, but i am still using a point and shoot camera. i told skip that pam and i would be going back up the next day. having hiked up in the whites that morning with simon, he had school work to get at. i had an idea to get a picture of pam in the same place--and i actually remembered, though my angle was off.

we made it down safe and sound though when he clicked his lock on the key and his lights came on, i jumped. he was a real sport for making the extra effort to join me--i don't get to see him much these days.

pam and i went up the next day under a very cloudy sky. she managed a smile despite some 'trail expert' got her blood boiling when he advised her that the bare rocks would ruin her micro-spikes. as you can see in the picture--the rocks were pretty well covered.

it was much colder and quite a bit windier than saturday, so we didn't stay long. dropping below treeline blocked all the wind and things got relatively comfortable--hence the casual stance on craig's new 'EAST AMC' sign.

pam was not buying the message though i assured her it was to warn hikers headed down to the lodge, they should go ⬅ that way. i have met a few hikers on the orange side in the parking lot totally confused--and not happy that they would have to hike back up and over.

over the week things really warmed up. by thursday, it was getting up into the 60s and the skies were clear, bright blue. i woke early on saturday and got up to cardigan by 6:00~ish. there were already a couple of cars in the winter parking spot as the state had closed the gate. i had heard that news so i brought my bike and rode up to the old state forest shed. 

i had a rake slid between my back and pack which probably looked funny, but would help me on my mission to clean drains. when i opened the shed to stow the bike, i found a shovel and took that along. october rains wash the fallen leaves into the little ditches we build to shed water from the trail. we usually get a crew to clean them toward november, but this year the gate got closed early. i don't mind doing it solo, though it is a heck of a lot slower.

about 20-30 drains and a large blowdown later, i headed down to the bike. four hours felt like enough--especially without breakfast or my morning tea! that and the truck was loaded with recycling to drop off at the transfer station. i couldn't remember when they closed and didn't want to miss that opportunity.

after my late breakfast and pam's early lunch, we both got on our bikes and set out again. she was going to the boat launch on goose pond and i wanted to hit another woodsy section of the fom-ftt, friends of mascoma-five town tour. i never took the camera out of the bag as i was busy clearing trail--i don't think that path gets used much except on the one end where mccallister's have their sap lines. pam got a nice picture though of somebodies little sit spot looking out over the pond.

it's been dry enough this summer that they are already letting water out, not for controlling ice damage to shoreline, but for lebanon to meet it's water needs.

the trail i took through the woods got me so excited that the 10 or so miles home from the bottom flew by. i started right in on convincing pam that she would love it and that we should go on sunday. she took the bait.

on sunday as i left to drop the bikes off at the 'top' of the ride, pam asked "am i getting sandbagged?" she met me in canaan center and we drove out towards clark pond to park the truck at the 'bottom'. back up to the sugar house and on our bikes we got a couple hundred yards into the mccallister junk yard--an iconic new england collection if i've ever seen one--before we had to push up a leafy, slippery slope to the woods road.

several muddy patches, a couple of dirt mounds, and more than a few errant sticks that i had missed the day before dampened pam's spirits significantly--and that was just on 'the flats'. when we got to the downhill, i heard her announce, "that's it. no more." she got off bike and hiked. 

i have to hand it to her for sticking with it and not swearing too much. for proof of her 'trooper'-ness, i got a picture of her smiling when she passed the stone wall i was waiting at. it was nice enough that she even gave me a kiss!

we made it to the road with a lone camp on it, a mile or so above clark pond. the same fire pit i saw smoke from was going again today. the road is fairly steep, but pam was singing as she rolled down. we met the cabin owner at a sharp bend--he told us he was coming back from taking a bath as his place had no running water or electricity. he was smiling when he said that and chucled when we told him we came over the hill. "that road's pretty rocky, no!?"

the hiking and biking has been pretty good these last couple weeks. i am anxious for enough snow to get the skis out, but for now i will settle for just being outside and playing! it's this much fun...

late autumn, outdoors in new england--playing in the leaves

after our saturday zoom-yoga session with the kids, i went out to harvest a late crop. it was raining, but not all that hard. by the time i got a bucket full of leeks into the house, it had gotten wetter. i decided to postpone until sun-day, my exploratory ride of a section on the 'five town tour'. 

i was dressed and out to the shop before pam even got out of bed, only to be met with a flat front tire on the addict. when i was going to patch it, i accidently got some paper stuck on a weird blobby patch made for my air mattress. so it wouldn't go to waste i used it on the bike tube all the while wondering how long it would last...the answer to that came in less than a mile. i ended up changing it out in front of harris rebar.

all pumped up, i got back on rt4 heading east. at some point i jumped on the rail trail and just after going by the town of canaan, i met up with a fellow teacher1 out for a run. we chatted as we went along. after that i was looking for the little connector i discovered, winding through the woods from rail trail to rt4. i stopped and rolled a large rock in place to mark the faint path on the trail side.

next stop was a stone foundation remnant where i took a picture.

after that i headed up riddle hill--the one sawyer and i came down in the last goap!--to the ruggle's mine turn. my plan was to find the old road back over to height of land road that drops down to rt4 right by tewksbury. my idea was to offer up a more woodsy less paved alternative to the north end of riddle hill. of course that would include a big ass hill. little did i know that even past the gate up to the mine, there is still quite a bit of climbing--big, big ass hill. looking up with the sun at the back and looking down into the sun.

all the climbing was worth it though. the woods were sublime and 97.9% rideable--for me. the leaves were again slippery enough to have me seriously thinking about a pair of rock n' road tires. i looked them up and ran into frame builder bruce gordon's death announcement as well as a SOPWAMTOS parade picture! sawyer mentioned something about gordon dieing when we were riding sunday, but then stopped. my hope is 43mm will fit on the addict.

meanwhile coming out of the woods onto height of land road, a grand 'new england-y' view got me off the bike walking around for the iconic postcard picture. the first one is right at the junction. 

not sure if this next one is the best vantage point but it was good--i think that is moose mtn in the distance.

on the downhill to rt4 i stopped twice to talk to folks about the road i just took coming over from ruggles mine. the first was a local graftonite, and an avid pro-class 6, 'open' roader. the second person was another local character--and one i knew--definitely a pro-private 'closed' roader. both thought it might be called glass road.

at rt4, snug harbor road is exactly opposite height of land and leads up to orange pond rd. that would start the 'long half' of the five town tour. i had the thought today, that fom-ftt might more accurately describe the ride than friends of mascoma gravel grinder.

today--to get back for a hike over town hill with pam--i turned left onto rt4 and went west until i found a quick link back to the rail trail. in a couple of miles or so, at canaan's eastern culvert, i met two grandparents riding with their little grandkids.

just past the tunnel, the father was waiting on his bike and when i went by, i got an enthusiastic "hi koby". enthusiastic enough that i stopped and chatted a while before riding along with him after the rest of the group went by. it was a classmate of sawyer's, travis. definitely a warm & fuzzy moment hearing all his good news.

i road fairly hard toward home and got there in time to stretch while pam ate lunch and got ready to hike. we both put on jackets as it was cooling down with the sun sinking. the woods, again--this time on foot and with a friend--were sublime. we made it over to the marsh you may have seen before if you follow goap!

the log bridge i set in the dry time a month ago, was now actually crossing water. i didn't use it though as now it only gets you to more wet. 

it was a really great day! the only regret i have is sadie and i didn't get to carve pumpkins. vt has restricted travel into and out of grafton county. despite that little setback, going outside and playing, always generates a big smile!

a wonderful couple of weeks, with plenty of play

two goap! posts in one month barely cover all the playing outdoors going on, but i am trying to stay ahead of it--well ok, not fall as far behind as i did over the summer into the fall. 

a week ago last friday it was raining hard at olivia's and my usual 6:00a meet up to bike/hike somewhere for sunrise--she begged off. it rained an inch and a half that day and into the night. saturday morning, i woke early to the ground covered in snow. 

that got me excited. by the time pam woke and had breakfast, the snow had melted. she had a hike up firescrew from the north on the mowgli trail planned. i was going to bring my chain saw and go at the dozen or so blowdowns we had to step over or walk around in august. the cardigan mtn highlanders volunteer trail crew i am on, has been extremely busy on the popular trails with the pandemic increase in hiking. they haven't gotten out on any of the less hiked trails so i thought this would help.

on the way up to the parking area, the snow reappeared an inch or more at the pull off. as we hiked up the logging road, it got deeper. at least a couple of inches covered the road wherever it didn't have water running down it. by the time we got to the pond, there was four or more.

at the height of land above the pond, where the mowgli trail intersects the road, my boot prints look downright deep. that was where pam mentioned she should have worn gaiters.

in under the trees, even with most of the leaves off, the snow wasn't that deep, but the trail was always covered. the blowdowns started early and donned my safety gear and fired up the saw. most of the time i would just clear the cut out sections off the trail. a couple of times i used a segment to make a water bar. 

pam was hiking ahead and i didn't catch up to her until i stopped cutting, dropped off the saw and gear. that was just above crag camp, below where it gets steep. the first look to the north is right above that. by that point it was cold enough that snow was deep again and looking very fresh.

it was also getting late enough that we called that the high point and turned back down. it was pretty slippery and much slower going in that direction. surprisingly, when we got back to the road, a subaru wagon was up at the height of land. closer to the bottom, i ran into an former student going up with his two dogs. it was a good day to be out.

on sunday, sawyer came over for a bike ride. i was interested in riding the 'short half' of the friends of mascoma gravel ride laura and i were planning. our hope was to ride through each of the five towns making up the mascoma valley regional school district. soy had a phone, loaded stava on it, and we pedaled off. starting from the high school, the route went south and into the woods on the old, closed mud pond road. 

we came out of the woods and got on a big hill--soy's first big hill in long while since most of his riding is now on the cape. after a couple turns and a couple of miles, we turned back into the woods to climb up, over to another high point above grafton pond. from there we would drop down route 4 and join the rail trail about fifteen miles into the ride. before we started losing all the altitude we climbed, i found a patch of snow on the shady side of the road and snapped a picture of soy, snapping a photo of me. 

sawyer was riding in a t-shirt, which had prompted me to strip down to just a short sleeve and a thin windbreaker. in and out of the sun, up and down the hills, i was comfortable. 

at the bottom of the gravel we got onto pavement which took us to rt4. an obscure little path took us to the rail trail and we turned west, head back to the school.

about five miles along, the track passes through a slot of blasted ledge. twenty to thirty feet walls rise up on either side of the trail. it is a very cool section.

the rail trail goes along the edge of tewksbury pond just before this. we stopped for water and a snack at a grafton tiny library box set right at the view. i didn't take a picture this day but had one from two years back.

after the rest stop, we made it back to the school fairly quickly. after sawyer turned off strava, we biked around the cross country trail i built over the past two years. the team was running races on the trail again. they had even named it after me--'koby's way'. 

that was a surprise honor. they made a sign to put up where the trail turns out of a field and into the brush. while i am biased, it is a wonderful trail.

i am happy to report, runners and coaches from the other teams agree. they might even be a bit jealous--one told me, "i can't believe you get to run this everyday."

this friday, the rain was much reduced and olivia and i met up to bike in the shaker wildlife management area. even though we both forgot our headlamps, we set out in the dark, shortly after six. the trail was open enough that we managed to miss any major obstacle. we were headed up to the 'potato field' to catch the sunrise. it was foggy enough that we sort of knew that was highly unlikely, but the downhill to follow would be worth the climb.

if you scroll down through last week's post, note that even without the sun, a picture of olivia at the 'top' is becoming de rigueur. 

the down was indeed worth the up that morning, with only one stop to push, pull, and roll a very large, heavy wet blowdown, that fortunately broke in two, giving us a chance to move it. while we were working at that, i described 'the spine', a secret trail off the main one that we would turn onto just ahead. olivia was a little skeptical, or maybe more worried that she would run into a tree.

sure enough we got onto the little ridge and i heard an "ahhh..." behind me when i stopped to clear some of the larger branches in the path. when olivia came along, she mentioned that she had indeed hit a tree. off my own bike, i took the opportunity to take a video of her dropping down the last steep section--this time avoiding the trees.

my advice is to go outside and play!--have yourself some fun...take a video...of you, of a friend...maybe even throw a snowball. that should put a smile on your face.