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.
