Killington Recap

I drove up late Friday night to crash at my uncle's house in anticipation of mountain biking at Killington Ski Resort on Saturday. There was a big group on hand to spend the day bombing down the mountain and trying not to crash... at least trying not to crash too badly.





A few cousins, a second cousin, my dentist and a few other friends were all ready to go at 10 when the lift opened.



We did spend a bit of time before leaving the house lubing the bikes and lowering our seats. It's much easier to stay way back and not go over the handle bars if your seat as low and since we didn't foresee a lot of pedaling we decided it would be the best way to go. It was a beautiful day, so pretty much no matter how much riding we were going to get in it was going to be a great time.

Headed up the lift, and trying to plan our route. The first run was great, but we got a bit separated and turned around so that we had to do a bit of uphill backtracking. We decided on a bit tougher trail for the second run and ended up staying in the black diamond area for the rest of the day.



The trail was steep and twisty, mostly all single-track and a blast!












This was the play area... we spent a few minutes there in between runs while we were waiting for another group. It was kind of fun, hitting the seesaw and log ride in the middle... especially when Kevin wiped out waiting for the see saw to come down on the other side :)





Yeah... did I mention it was a beautiful day?? Most of the trails where in the woods, but you would occasionally head across the ski trails.
It was perfect shorts weather... although having some pants on would probably have protected my legs a bit better later in the day!

My cousin Kevin crossing one of the many bridges... this one he made it across. Later in the day he would skid off a bridge and end up covered in leaves and mud :)
Here's my crash site... I caught the pedal of my bike on a tree root while hauling down the trail. The root stopped my bike, but not me! If you look closely, you can see the root behind Bruce's shoulder (the guy standing in blue). I'm sitting about where I landed, so you can get an idea of how far I flew through the air.



I lay there for a while, pretty convinced I had broken my leg, but fortunately no permanent damage occurred, to me anyway. My knee swelled up pretty bad and I'm banged and scraped up on my left side. I also snapped the front derailleur off of my bike... oh well, more maintenance to learn :)



Overall, a fantastic time and beautiful day! I can't wait to do it again, unfortunately it will have to wait until next year as Killington is closed to bikes now as they get ready for ski season.

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Long Trail Trip Report - Day 2 - Oct 28

Day 2 – Saturday

Unfortunately, Saturday morning started much too early probably just after midnight, as I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. I really needed a pillow, and just couldn’t get too comfortable. Finally, things started to get a bit lighter and although it was drizzling and chilly, it was nice to get the day started. I’d been looking forward to making coffee for a while, so I jumped at the chance to get started. Unfortunately, it didn’t work so well and became a comedy of errors. First, I added the coffee to the water before boiling which caused it to go from quietly bubbling to exploding all over the place, including the hiker next to me. For my second attempt, I left the coffee out but then the fuel emptied mid process and I had to switch out canisters with my uncle. I finally got a cup done which my uncle started but then pulled the top off midway through and mixed the grounds in the cup, so that was a partial washout as well. The last cup I made turned out great and I got to enjoy a nice cup of coffee!! I’m thinking my trail name is ultimately going to be related to coffee in some way.

After packing, we set out for a day in the rain. It really wasn’t too bad for the most part as it was a light rain, and my raincoat kept me mostly dry. There were a couple really interesting and beautiful spots on the days agenda, the first being a “beaver-challenged puncheon” Even after discussing this with Steve, I could come up with no theories about what this was, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it. A puncheon is actually a boardwalk road (I discovered this via wikipedia after the fact), in this case, one which was partially below water just below a beaver dam. It was a very interesting sight standing three feet below a beaver dam that looked like it could collapse any minute and send us cascading away in a deluge of water.

Later in the day we came to a beautiful stream that was the biggest we had seen so far and just gorgeous. It was close to the shelter that I was really looking forward to seeing. At this point we were pretty wet, and my feet weren’t feeling too great. It felt like I had partially torn a toenail on my foot and I was looking forward to changing my socks. We took a short break in the shelter to eat lunch and dry out a bit. I changed my socks and although I couldn’t see any obvious issues with my toenail, it still hurt pretty good. (It’s since turned black and I’m apparently going to lose it soon… not sure exactly what happened)

We started out for the last stretch, hoping to meet my wife at 4pm where she was supposed to pick us up. The last part of the trail includes a pretty steep section that has “extensive stone staircases”, and my uncle was a bit nervous about this section coming. Of course, it was here that the rain all of a sudden came down the hardest, and it just poured. It was actually quite treacherous as we picked our way down the steep trail from rock to rock. They were covered with leaves and the rain was coming down like crazy, we had to stop and laugh out loud at one point about how crazy it was. My uncle took a short fall, but otherwise we made it okay. I was getting a bit worried, it was definitely a broken leg waiting to happen. Once we got to the bottom we started wondering how late my wife would be, she isn’t known for her promptness. It was quite cold, and we were soaked, not a good combination. Cell phone service was unfortunately nonexistent, so we had no idea what her eta would be. It turns out she was early, missed the trailhead and I managed to flag her down on her way back east.

Ultimately, it was a great start, we both learned quite a bit about our pace, conditioning and what sort of supplies we needed. We had considered this a “get our feet wet” kind of trip, and it certainly fit that bill. I’ve managed to compile a list of items to bring the next time, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be much more prepared…

Until next time on the trail…

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Long Trail Trip Report - Day 1 - Oct 27

Well.. the journey has started. My quest to finish the entire Long Trail in Vermont, stretching from the Massachusetts border to Canada, began this past weekend as we hiked in from MA.

Friday Morning

Steve and I were dropped off in Williamstown, MA for the start of the trip. There's no direct road to the southern terminus of the Long Trail, it starts in the middle of the woods. Thus, we had to hike in to the beginning, a 3.6 mile trip over the Pine Cobble trail. The guide promised views of Mt Greylock in MA, and an up and down walk. The cobble was there as promised (lots of rocks) but we didn't see many pines at all. Friday was a beautiful day and we had a really nice hike. The pack didn't feel that uncomfortable, and I got into a nice steady pace pretty much right away. I experienced a little leg burn on the first uphill, but that was it, and I felt great for the rest of the walk.

There were a couple spots where you could see out, and the scenery was very nice as we progressed uphill. There were a couple folks, dayhikers, out for a walk on a beautiful fall afternoon, and I was a bit surprised since I figured most would have packed it in this late in the season.

We soon joined up with the Appalachian Trail which ultimately runs along with the Long Trail for over 90 miles before splitting off and heading to NH and ME. The next landmark was the Vermont border, 3.6 miles from the start of our day. There’s a signin log there, and we took a short break for lunch/snack at about 3 pm. It was starting to cool off a bit, so I added a long sleeve shirt on top of my t-shirt and we headed back out North, excited about the start of the trail.

It’s fairly rugged country, there’s not a lot of civilization that you can see or hear, although you are probably not that far from roads and houses at this point. It’s a pretty peaceful feeling walking through the woods and I really enjoyed just looking around and noticing the trees and little brooks. I’ve always loved playing in the woods since I was a little kid, and really felt relaxed all afternoon. Steve and I chatted here and there, but most of the time was spent lost in thought and focused on picking my footsteps and breathing. I could really get into a zone, even on the uphills where I would shorten my steps but try to keep them regular and even. It’s interesting to me how the overlap of my training has come into even this activity. I could modulate my breathing and stay in an aerobic zone by keeping my cadence steady and smooth with shorter steps to counter the steepness of the trail. I could almost predict my heart rate the whole time even though I didn’t have my monitor with me.

We had planned to stay at the Seth Warner shelter Friday evening, and arrived there shortly after 5 pm. Anticipating that we would be the only inhabitants, (there was a note in the log saying no hikers had been seen for 48 hours by the last one through) we spread out our stuff and started to make dinner. After a somewhat filling Chicken Alfredo in a bag, we cleaned up and headed down to the nearby stream to get water. My uncle has a water filter which we used to purify the water and fill a few containers, a pretty cool toy.

On the way back to the shelter we met another hiker who was planning to stay at the shelter with us as well. This was my first experience with “Trail Names”. Apparently it’s a tradition that allows you to be anonymous on the trail and use something interesting as a name. My uncle goes by “Great White”, something I didn’t know of before, and we ended up with Pale Rider and Bigfoot in the shelter with us that night. It was an interesting evening, both of those guys were veterans of the AT and the LT, and had a lot of insight on backpacking. It started to rain shortly lightly as I was climbing into my sleeping bag, but otherwise a very enjoyable day to start.

A great start to the adventure...

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