1/11/2012

Bond Brook was gawgiss this afternoon. The footing was fantastic with a bit of snow but less ice, and the breeze was more welcoming than tempestuous. It was in the low 20s, still chilly, and quite sunny.

TorTILLah (pictured) showed up for a third session of hilly torture and the trails were all glad to oblige. We started off in a different direction than usual, down the massive Kale Hill and onto some dirt roads that I'd never been on before.

After a mile or so, we were back in the woods and were soon onto yet another trail that I'd never even knew existed. It was barely a trail, marked just by little orange flags stuck in the ground, and it followed a wacky ridge for a little bit before dropping down off the side. We ended up having to walk most of this as it was steep and full of branch litter.

The area was wild and I completely liked it, but I am still wondering why the Augusta Trails people leave so much detritus on the forest floor. I haven't seen calls for volunteers lately (at all?) so I am not sure if the issue is not enough hands. I don't get it. So much fabulous work has been done there that it seems strange to me that no one would care about finishing the job all the way. (Also, the trails are still in progress, so maybe they just haven't gotten this far yet. Who knows?)

As we all know, a good running buddy can make or break a run. Tortilla aka Bob is a great running buddy because he'll go anywhere with a mellow smile. Also he is a rotten little bastard because even the steepest bitches of hills cause him no apparent effort. We tackled many of those and eventually headed onto a reverse snowshoe trail route, which is usually where we start our runs. It's a perfect warmup because it's a gentle, winding, downhill in the normal direction, so it was a great rump-swat today in reverse. We followed the extension up to the Gnome Quarry and then hit the Summit before a rather extensive cemetery excursion.

In said cemetery, we became inspired to discuss lots of Important Things such as environmentally friendly ways to die and be disposed of, and if you must have a gravestone, whether having a massive motion-sensored phallus as a gravestone is okay, and why it is essential to choose your friends based on whether they are the sort of people who can be trusted not to put weird non-biodegradable shit on your own gravestone, should you happen to die first.

My favorite Bob quote of the day was something like, "You can't make not-cool people turn cool. You just can't." Ding!

We ended with one last descent/ascent of Kale Hill for a total of just over 6 miles. The same shin and left hip were both being cranky so 6 felt like enough. Plus, I had to save time to go find a power shower before heading to a yoga thing. Practice today was damn incredible, as is instructor Audrey. This time I especially appreciated when she said "there is nothing you need to do right now" at the end during shavasana, after an intense hour-plus of pushing a variety of muscles to the point of quiver and quake.

I am wondering what sort of winter is going to arrive tomorrow. Was today my last real run? Is it all going to be snowshoes for the next few months? Murp. Hmm. Speaking of which, registration for the Bradbury Snow Series (thank you Trail Monsters) appears to be open...

The final thought for the night is that it rocks to have, yet again, found some new-to-me trails, and to have had the pleasure of good company to explore them with. Soon I shall go curl up with my Rushdie tome (which is totally dope, by the way) and then eventually become too drowsy to read.

And then I will say to myself, "there is nothing you need to do right now" over and over until sunrise.

~ 93 minutes
~6.08 miles
Two long sleeved shirts, vest, long pants
Sunny, mid 20s, breezey
Insane hills
Had to slow down/walk a little due to terrain havoc

---

Yep - trying new format - old one had become troublesome. Please bear with me as I slowly fix the funky mess it has created within the archived posts. Oy vey.
Peace!