I love the icy unibrow.
I planned to lead a snowshoe running training group at Bradbury this morning for people interested in participating in the Pineland Farms Winter Triathlon but I think the blizzard put people off. So it was just me, I don't mind doing winter sports in winter conditions.
I set off on the east side trails the way I intended if others had been with me, I figured I'd start out easy and then hit the mountain. The Knight Woods trail had received a fair amount of ski and snowshoe traffic before the 3 inches of fluffy snow that had already fallen this morning so running was pretty easy for the first 0.75 miles. I then hit the Snowmobile Trail which had received a lot of snowmobile traffic (go figure) before today so that was even easier to run on. As I approached the Link Trail and the way back to the parking lot I decided that I'd try a little back country running and follow the Bradbury Scuffle course. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to follow the single track trails of Fox and Ginn but thought I'd at least get a good workout in while I tried.
It appeared that maybe one person had skied out here a while ago but their tracks were quickly disappearing under the new falling snow so I was pretty much on my own. I'm sure I went off trail a few times, no matter how well I know these trails there are places that are hard to follow under a foot of snow. This 3 mile stretch of single-track was pretty hard work, my Atlas DT snowshoes are great on semi-packed snow but in loose fluff they sink in quite a lot.
By 4 miles I was back on the Snowmobile Trail and was able to pick the pace up again. Now on wider trails I felt a little more exposed to the elements and snow started to accumulate on my face and everywhere else. By the time I reached my outgoing tracks near the end of the Scuffle course my footprints were getting covered by the fast falling snow and even on previously packed trails it was becoming hard work.I decided to call it a day after finishing the 6+ mile course.
time: 1:18:37
distance: 6.3 miles
pace: 12:29
weather: 14 degrees, blizzard
conditions: light, fluffy snow 3-4 inches deep over old snow
gear: Altas DT Snowshoes, Inov-8 Roclite 295, wool socks, OR gaiters, tights, 2x long sleeve tops, t-shirt, gloves, mittens, buff
4 comments:
Great day for snowshoeing! I don't know if people stayed home because they didn't want to run in the snow or because they didn't want to drive in the snow. If the latter, they were smart.
I suspect it was because of the driving, which was very bad, and even worse on the way home.
I did go snowshoing in the afternoon but on virgin snow that had accumulated all day, so running was totally out of the question as I too sunk in the deep powder.
Buff, buff, buff, who could survive without their Buff.
Great job out there. Now when is the epic winter tri?
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