1,000 miles of fun

I planned on visiting my parents (like I did last year) in Florida to help them file their taxes, so of course I had to add on some side trips.

I headed out early on Thursday, flying from Manchester to Huntsville. A quick 91 mile drive got me at my first goal at 11:15 am. I stood on the unimpressive summit of Woodall Mountain, the highest point in Mississippi. There was a view off of one side of the mountain, but mostly there was just trees and radio towers. There was a benchmark showing the elevation but no register to sign. I lingered just long enough to take a picture. With this summit I’d reached my 100th county high point (and 26th state high point).

I settled in for the long drive from Iuka MS to Cheaha State Park in Alabama. The driving went by quickly with some good tunes and only a few areas where the speed limit was less than 70. I covered the 240 miles in less than four hours. It was eerily quiet on top, except for the hum of cell towers. At 3:30 on a Thursday I had the place to myself. The stone tower was pretty neat, but there was no view from the top due to a lot of rain clouds. I found a witness marker but couldn’t find the benchmark on the summit; I also never saw a register. Next up I drove down to the Pinhoti trailhead and headed out for a nice relaxing run. It was a bit rocky in spots but mostly very run-able. I bagged the summit of Hernandez peak (Clay County High Point – 2,344’) and continued on to McDill point (2,188’). On the way back I picked out the National forest boundary which was blazed in red, and bushwhacked around a bit to make sure I got the NF high point. On the way back I picked up the jeep trail that is on the topo map but for some reason not on the state park map. It turned out to be a nicer run with better footing. The round trip was a little more than 5 miles. I made one more stop on my way out of the park doing a quick 1 mile round trip run up/down Abel peak. The summit had one of the tallest firetowers I’ve ever seen. It was also the most rickety I’ve ever attempted to climb. The first flight of stairs and one rail had been removed. I negotiated that and the first landing had ½ the boards still in place. I started climbing higher and the entire tower seemed to be shaking. That was enough for me. Back to the car and off for a 256 mile drive to Andalusia AL for the night.

Pics from Cheaha state park

Day two of the trip was another early rise as I hit the treadmill at 5am and was on the road by 6. It was only a 40 mile drive to Paxton Florida and I arrived about 10 minutes prior to sunrise. I stopped briefly at “the second highest hill in Florida” then continued on to Britton hill. There is a really nice park on Britton Hill (345’) with trails and maps and High Point information. I had a few minutes to read the register and noted that only about one person per day had visited the site over the last week (including a couple of New Englanders). Too bad more people don’t go here, they’ve done a nice job to make it worth visiting. I got some sunrise pictures and hit the road.

Next up was the Washington County high point on Barden hill (331’). I arrived around 9am and walked up the long dirt driveway. Trip reports noted that the owners were receptive to high pointers so I knocked on the door. No one answered so I kicked around in the woods a bit to pick out the top then headed for the car. I had about 300 miles to go to get to Tampa. It didn’t take long thanks to the 70 mph speed limit. I turned in the rental car with just under 1,000 miles on it in just over 29 hours. In all everything went smoothly and I picked up – 3 state high points, 5 county high points, a state park high point, the second highest hill in Florida, a fire tower, and a couple of other random hills.

I spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with my parents and enjoying my birthday. Mom also joined me on a couple of runs (she on the bike) which was a lot of fun.

State high points - 28 done

Week ending 03-28-10

M - 5 @ 5am with Petey 45:01, PM: 4 with Dan at Winn 32:00
T - 3 @ 5am on treadmill 23:48, PM: lunch loops in the park 3m 22:08
W - 4am Industrial Park 4 - 30:53, PM Winni 5m with Dan 38:15
Th - 3am Industrial Park 4 - 30:44, PM 6m on trails in Alabama (Cheaha state park)
F - 5am 3m on treadmill 22:53, PM 3+ on roads in Zephyrhills FL (with Mom biking along)
S - 8am loops in the complex 5+m - 37:42, Noon same thing 37:26
S -3am 4m loop in the complex 29:09, PM 7 miles.

Birthday with my folks
Totals -
61 miles running
1,000 miles driving in AL, MS, FL

Final snowshoe rankings

Final Open snowshoe rankings


It really is a tough call…double-j or Mountain Goat? I bet that if they raced head to head every weekend it would come down to who was “on” that day. Kevin Tilton is stronger in sloppy footing and grueling climbs, Jim Johnson has pure speed and can descend like no ones business. The course last week at Great Glen was the perfect mix of conditions that ended in the closest finish of the year (a dead-heat). I would love to have a couple of guys like Kevin and Jim on my team…oh yeah, I do!

Having said that:

1. Kevin Tilton (CMS) – He only raced five times but one of those was a seventh place finish at the snowshoe nationals. I’ve got to give extra-credit for performing at (arguably) the biggest race of the season. He also won at the Sidehiller qualifier which was the best field in WMAC or Granite State series this year. Kevin finished second in the GS series.

2. Jim Johnson (CMS) – His biggest disappointment of the year was finishing 14th at Nationals. That says a lot, 14th is pretty damn good and he beat a lot of good people that day. In twelve races he managed to finish first an amazing 10 times. No one has done that in the history of snowshoe racing in New England. Jim started the season beating Tim Van Orden by a step and closed it in a virtual tie with Kevin Tilton, in-between he was a dominant force. Jim won the WMAC series and the GS series.

Kevin and Jim kicking for the line at the NH championships - Photo by Scott Mason

3. Geoff Cunningham (Acidotic) – Finished off the year with a third at the NH championships. He had an excellent 17th place finish at Nationals. He ran five races, and all but the Nationals, were top three performances.

4. Ben Nephew (CMS) – Too bad the SS nationals were on the same day as the 50 km road championships (and the snowshoe marathon in VT). Ben is one of the best trail Ultra runners in the country and certainly no slouch when it comes to roads either. He ran five snowshoe races this season and improved throughout the season. If WMAC or GS has a race longer than 10Km, Ben will be among the favorites.

5 Tim Van Orden (CMS) – Tim ran twelve snowshoe races this year and except for Nationals he finished in the top four in all of them, including three victories. Tim dominated the master’s field throughout the year and amassed 1,183.56 points in the WMAC series. No one scored more points than Tim. He finished second overall and top master in the WMAC series with 596.78 out of a possible 600 points.

CT/MA/NY

I woke up on Sunday morning a bit sore from Snowshoe racing (up and down Catamount) and running up Alander Mountain the previous day. Eric and I fortified ourselves with some Dunkin’s and then re-fortified with some Day’s Inn “lobby coffee” and were off to the Mt Washington State forest headquarters. We met up with my High School teammate, and great friend, Jim Sullivan. I hadn’t seen Jim since my 100,000 mile run back in 2007 but we keep in touch at least monthly.
Jim rolled in a couple of minutes late after getting turned around and nearly stuck on East road (dirt and mud). We gathered up our gear and piled into Eric’s car for the bouncy 3 mile drive south to the CT/MA state line. The road was barricaded at that point, which was fine as that is where we were planning on parking for our hike to the CT state high point (and beyond). Eric and I went with shorts and long sleeve shirts and Jim opted for running pants. We all went with running shoes, although I opted for my END stumptown high topped runners.

The first part of the Mt Frissell trail was wet, VERY wet. It was basically a stream where the trail should be. At one point it was mid-calf deep and with the Mountain laurel all around it would be difficult to avoid. Jim and I bushwhacked, but Eric plowed on through. Soon we began climbing and Eric rued his choice as Jim and I would have dry feet for the entire hike. We hit the top of Round Mountain (2,293’) in just over 20 minutes. There wasn’t much of a view but we could see our next goal (Frissell right in front of us). A quick dip down into the snowy coll and nice climb up the rocky and dry east side of Frissell had us on top in another 20+ minutes. We signed in at the log took a few pictures then headed down the south and slightly west flank to pick up the Connecticut state line. It was a quick 10 minutes later that we were standing at Jim’s first state high point and Eric’s 8th. This was my second time standing at the highest point in CT but it had been nearly 10 years and I had very little memory of the trail.

After some picture taking we were off again, now heading pretty much west to the coll between Frissell and Brace. We hit the CT/NY/MA tri-state marker in another 11 minutes (total time 1:06) and again stopped for some pictures. I’ll have to check on my tri-state list to see how many of those I’ve got (I know it is the third one that involves MA that I’ve been to). Next up we climbed up out of the coll to the top of North Brace and the connection with the Taconic Crest Trail. There was a fair amount of snow in some sections on top, especially where snowmobiles and 4-wheelers had been to pack it down. The view from this 2,200’ peak was great we could see the NY farmlands that seemed to be right at our feet. We could also see the peaks we’d climbed earlier and off in the distance Mt Everett that we planned to hit later in the day. We did a little running on the ridge and ascended to the big open summit of Brace which also had a huge cairn on top. This was my 99th county high point. We took a couple of pictures and zoomed south to pick up South Brace.

This is where I messed up…I was planning on heading back part of the way then making our way southeast to the Mt Washington road. I was thinking clearly and we continued south off of South Brace for 5 minutes before I realized we needed to retrace our steps all the way back to the tri-state marker before heading for the road. So at 2:20:57 we were standing back on the summit of Brace (we only lost a little less than 15 minutes with my boo boo). It took us 20 minutes to drop back down (and climb a bit) to the tri-state marker. There was a trail heading in the direction we wanted to go but it died out about 10 minutes into our descent. I was a bit disappointed but we’d have to back-track and head out the way we’d come in. It took us 10 minutes to get back to the State HP and another 15 and we were on top of Frissell again. The rocky drop to the cull between Round mountain was slow going but we were back on the top of Round in 15 minutes and from there it was an easy 18 minutes back to the car.

The entire trek took us 3:25 and it was a perfect day to spend three hours out in the woods!

We drove back to the Mt W headquarters and Jim headed for home. Eric and I headed over to the base of Mt Everett to get in a run. We climbed a little over 900’ (1,700’ to 2,608’) over 2.5 miles at a reasonable clip. The footing wasn’t bad, mostly packed snow and even some bare ground. Temps were in the upper 50’s so it was very comfortable for running. We hit the top in 27 minutes then spent just a couple of minutes taking in the view (not much from the summit but there were a couple of rock faces to climb on and check out the scene). Eric noted that the view was probably pretty excellent when the fire tower was there (we stood on the tower footings but couldn’t see much). The run down was uneventful except for one good posthole by me (knee deep) on the Appalachian trail section of the run. We were down in 23 minutes for a round trip of a little over 50 minutes. It was a nice way to close out the week and I was pleased to not feel too beat up (I guess I’d feel that on Monday).

Peaks in order:
Round – 2,293’
Frissell – 2,451’
Frissell east slope (CT state high point/Litchfield COHP) – 2,372’
North Brace – 2,224’
Brace (Dutchess County NY High point) – 2,323’
South Brace – 2,303’
South Brace – 2,303’
Brace – 2,323’
North Brace – 2,224’
Frissell east slope – 2,372’
Frissell – 2,451’
Round – 2,293’
Mt Everett – 2,608’ (#12 on the MA 100 highest)

Masters Snowshoe rankings - Final

Final 40+ rankings of the season (just the top six)


1. Tim Van Orden – finished as top master in 11 of the 13 races he ran this year including two overall victories. Tim had one second place master finish (Turner trail) and finished fourth at snowshoe nationals.

2. Sean Snow – Got better as the season went on. Capped off the year with an impressive second place finish at the snowshoe nationals. Ran six races this season.  Finished 3rd master in the GS series.

3. Dave Dunham – Injured from Sidehiller on, but still managed to run some snowshoe races. Gave Tim VO his only loss in WMAC action at Turner trail and managed a top masters spot at the NH championship. Ran 10 races this season.  Finished second master in the WMAC series.

4. Steve Wolfe (pictured below) – Was competitive in both the WMAC and NH series. Ran 11 races this season.  Top master in the Granite state series.

5. David Principe – Had a solid season capped off with a second place masters finish at the NH championships and a fine fifth place at nationals.  Finished 2nd master in the GS series.

6. Chris Dunn – Not only ran well all season, finishing six races, but also directed several races and was the head honcho behind the Granite State Series. 

Catamount snowshoe race

The final chance to race on snowshoes was the Catamount 2.6 mile race last Saturday.  The third year race is unusual in being held at a ski area after it closes for the day, so an strange 4:30 PM start set the scene for the day.

With a late start (4:30 PM) for the final snowshoe race of the season, I took my time heading out to Western Mass. I started the day with a 30 minute bike and a 10 minute row, and then headed to Georgetown for a massage. I’m still having plantar fascia woes and was hoping to loosen up before the race. With plenty of time in the bank I stopped in Upton to check out the Merrimack-Blackstone-Charles triple divide which turned out to be a big office park on a hill. There wasn’t much of a view but it did give me a couple of minutes to stretch my legs before driving another 100 miles on the Mass pike.

I rolled into Great Barrington with some time to spare so I headed to the Mt Washington state forest to check out road conditions. Eric Morse and I were planning on doing some hike after the race then bagging a bunch of peaks on Sunday morning. I wanted to see how East Road (dirt) was and where it might be blocked. That would have a big affect on the hiking plans. The road turned out to be muddy but passable and it was blocked right at the state line which was fine for us.


I headed over to the race site at Catamount ski area and was the fourth person in line to sign up. I had a feeling this would be a small race. Last year it drew 31 finishers and with the warm temps it would be a struggle to get that many people thinking “snowshoe race”. I felt lousy doing a two mile warm-up with Eric. My sinuses were still stuffed up from the head-cold I’d had for over a week and the 70 degree temperatures felt way too warm for late March. After running two miles I switched into my singlet and headed over to the start. We had to wait a bit as the groomer was still out going over the course. This would be important as the grooming was the only way the course was marked!

The snow was very mushy, but there was ample coverage for a snowshoe race. This was the first time I’d done a snowshoe race in shorts/singlet but I was not in the minority dressed that way. We started a bit after 4:30 and it seemed like everyone just shot out at the start. I rolled up into second place on the first little down-hill, then the climbing commenced. We’d climb for 950’ in the first 1.2 miles then zip down over about 1.4 miles. By two minutes into the race I was in a group of four and Ross Krause was pushing at the front. He began to pull away and I attempted to go but was already wheezing and feeling awful.

I was able to slowly pull away from Kurt Gustafson and James Boeding. Boeding is a high school student who did his first snowshoe race last year at Catamount (and finished in third place). He told me at the start that he had forgotten about the race and had been snowboarding all day. When he heard about the race he signed up immediately. As Ross pulled away I could hear the footfalls behind me also fade away. By about 2/3rds of the way up the mountain I knew my chances of winning were gone. I figured that I’d need to beat Ross to the top to have any chance of beating him (he out descended me at Northfield by a couple of minutes).

I hit the top in 15:14 and was 29 seconds back at that point. For the most part I tried to just stay on my feet and hold second place on the descent. It took me all of 8:41 to cover the 1.4 miles back to the base. I was pleased with the effort (I really had nothing more to give), but finished 1:11 slower than last year and 1:07 behind Ross. I definitely felt that the lack of training is catching up to me. Not a good indicator for the spring. Ross got his first snowshoe win (just missing my CR from last year) and his wife (Ashley) also scored her first win with an impressive 7th place overall finish.

Eric and I did a two mile warm-down then headed out. Our plan was to do a run/hike up Alander mountain and bag the county high point on the west slope. We reached the trailhead at 6 PM and quickly trotted off. At first we tried to avoid the wet spots in the trail but some sections were all water and eventually we just stomped on through. The trail was in great shape for the first day of Spring, there was a mix of bare ground, wet ground (a lot), and packed snow. We ran it in our regular running shoes and had no problems with traction. A couple of hikers called us “hardcore” as we ran by on a particularly wet and snow section. We passed some guys camping along the way, man they picked an excellent night to be out in the woods. At 6 PM it was still in the upper 60’s.

We hit the hut below the summit in 42 minutes then continued on the summit and quickly over to the county high point. We were back on the summit in time to catch the final rays of the day then made our way back down the trail. It was a pretty uneventful run down, but the few uphills were tough as I was running out of gas. We had a quick stop about ½ way down to put on our headlamps, but it really wasn’t too bad except in some of the darker piney woods. We were back at the car by 7:40 and headed for Great Barrington for food and rest. It was a pretty cool day with a little bit of racing and some fun time on the trails in the woods.  Alander was my 98th county high point.

Race results
01. Ross Krause 0:22:48 100.00 pictured with me below

02. Dave Dunham 0:23:55 96.00
03. James Boeding 0:25:56 92.00
04. Kurt Gustafson 0:25:59 88.00
05. Ken Clark 0:27:29 84.00
06. Ned James 0:30:00 80.00
07. Ashley Krause 0:30:31 76.00
08. Ian Rasweiler 0:30:59 72.00
09. Edward Alibozek 0:31:55 68.00 The Man!  Also pictured below finishing in the top 10.
10. Bob Dion 0:32:54 64.00
11. Mike Howard 0:32:55 60.00
12. Vince Kirby 0:35:19 56.00
13. Michael Tiskus 0:38:03 52.00
14. Denise Dion 0:39:53 48.00
15. Laura Clark 0:40:25 44.00
16. Dave Boles 0:40:48 40.00
17. Barbara Sorrell 0:44:27 36.00
18. Rob Woodrow 0:45:32 32.00
19. Laurel Shortell 0:47:24 28.00
20. Pat Hogelin 0:49:13 24.00
21. Rich Busa 0:49:38 20.00
22. Jamie Howard 0:49:49 16.00
23. Greg Taylor 0:52:36 12.00
24. Konrad Karolczuk 0:52:37 8.00
25. William Hogelin 0:53:30 4.00

Week ending 03-21-10

Not a great week (foot was about the same so I kept my mileage low), but I was able to run so that is worth someting.

M - 5:20 AM - 4m at Peteys 35:42.  PM bike 30 & Row 10
T - AM Bike 30 & row 10, Lunch 3m o/b run 21:59, PM PT
W - AM Bike 30 & row 10, Lunch 3m o/b run 20:58, PM 4 at the River with Dan 30:20
Th - AM bike 30 & row 10, Lunch 3m o/b run 20:46, PM PT
F - AM bike 30 & row 10, Lunch 3m o/b run 20:17, PM industrial park 4 alone 27:57
Sat - AM bike 30 & row 10, 4:30 PM snowshoe race (2 wup & wdwn with Eric), then 6pm run up down/Alander mountain 6m
Sun - AM hike Round Mtn, Frissell, Brace, S Brace (3:14) then run up/down Mt Everett with Eric 50:27

Totals:
Row - 1:00
Bike - 3:00

Run - 43 miles


Sunset run up/down Alander Mtn

Snowshoe ranking

			Last week	# Raced	Notes	This weekend
1	Kevin	Tilton	1	5	three 1st, one 4th, and one 7th	Tied for 1st @ NH champs
2	Jim	Johnson	2	12	Ten 1st place finishes, one 3rd, one 14th	Tied for 1st @ NH champs
3	Josh	Ferenc	3	3	one 1st, one 2nd, and one 7th	Idle
4	Ben	Nephew	4	5	one 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, one 5th, and one 6th	Idle
5	Geoff	Cunningham	5	5	one 1st, two 2nd, one 3rd, and one 17th	3rd @ NH champs
6	Tim	Van Orden	6	12	Three 1st, five 2nd, one 3rd, three 4th, one 31st	Idle
7	Jeremy	Drowne	7	3	one 2nd, one 10th, one 16th	Idle
8	Charles	Theriault	8	3	one 3rd, one 4th, and one 5th	Idle
9	Tim	Cox	9	3	one 2nd, one 7th, and one 8th	Idle
10	Ross	Krause	10	7	one 2nd, two 3rd, one 4th, one 5th, one 6th, one 26th	Idle

Only one week left...

Snowshoe rankings - 40+

	Last wk	# raced	Name		Age	Team	This week
1	1	13	Tim	Van Orden	41	CMS	Idle
2	2	6	Sean	Snow	43		Idle
3	3	9	Dave	Dunham	45	CMS	1st at NH champs
4	4	11	Steve	Wolfe	45	Acidotic	3rd at NH champs
5	5	6	David	Pincipe	43	TNT	2nd at NH champs
6	6	6	Chris	Dunn	41	Acidotic	4th at NH champs
7	7	3	John	Pajer	47	CMS	Idle
8	8	4	Jeremiah	Fitzgibbon	53	Acidotic	Idle
9	9	3	Mike	O'Connor	45	Acidotic	Idle
10	10	3	Christopher	Smith	43	Dungeon Rock	Idle

Week Ending 03-14-10

Continued physical therapy and easy running trying to get back to running “normally”. Eased off the biking and rowing but mostly due to having a lousy cold and feeling awful.

M – 3m @ lunch 21:53, PT in the afternoon

T – Am bike 30 & row 10, PM 4m on the River trail with Dan 30:35

W – Am bike 30 & row 10, PM 4m on the River trail with Dan 29:45

Th – PM 4m on treadmill at Pinnacle 27:55 (last mile in 6:00 with 5% grade)

F – AM 4m 35:36, PM bike 30 & row 10

Sat – AM 5m+ with Dan and the Quintals, PM bike 30 & row 10

Sun – 10min w-up, 10km snowshoe race – 51:38

Totals
Run – 31 miles
Bike – 2:00
Row - :40

NH state snowshoe championships

I headed up for the final race in the NH series in the pouring rain. It didn’t look like there was much snow on the ground as I made my way north. The precipitation turned to snow just after I passed Jackson and the countryside was also a lot snowier as I gained altitude. It was a bit slow going down to Great Glen but I’d left so early I was still among the first to arrive.

After registering and chatting with RD Chris Dunn and timer/racer Richie Blake I settled in on the window couch and napped for a bit. I felt totally beat from lack of sleep, my head cold had me stuffed up whenever my head hit the pillow so I was missing out on any decent sleep. I couldn’t decide whether to walk around for a warm-up or do a run. JJ and Kevin both seemed to be running late and not all that interested in a warm-up. When they mentioned a 10 minute run I was surprised. That seemed pretty much ideal. We headed out and did part of the course. The track was firm and groomed but there was 2-4” of fresh snow and it was still snowing pretty heavily.

We cut things pretty close and everyone was heading to the line as we headed back to the building to get into race gear. I was already dressed to race so I headed right back down after ditching my sweatshirt. I felt pretty beat heading to the start and was kind of dreading 6.2 miles of snowshoe racing with my “long” run over the last couple of weeks being only 5 miles. My plan was to be conservative the first “flat” 5km then hope that my strength on the climb would move me up in the second 5km.

The field was pretty small (34) probably because of the nasty weather, but conditions were great for racing. JJ and Kevin took off quickly to the front with Geoff Cunningham in tow for the early going. I hoped to keep Chris Dunn in site and focused on him in the early going. I was in 15th place by the mile and working harder than I had hoped. The flat 5km was actually pretty rolling and I didn’t feel very strong on the climbs. It took me nearly a mile to get past Amber Ferreira. By two miles I’d caught up to Chris and was sitting in 11th place. Fourth and fifth place (David Principe & Kurt Gustafson) weren’t too far ahead and Steve Wolfe was right behind them. I caught and ran with Danny Ferriera before three miles and we ran side by side for a while and it seemed like we were gaining on the guys in front of us.

I checked my watch at the tunnel under Route 16, which was approximately 5km into the race, and was 23:33. I had guessed it would take about 60 minutes to cover this 10km and it looked like I wouldn’t be that far off. The climbing started with a vengeance. I caught Wolfie just as he stepped on his own snowshoe and did a face plant. I tried to pat him on the back (to encourage him) but I may have been a bit forceful and pushed him down further (I hope not). I was definitely feeling better as we shifted into low gear and started climbing. I knew we had a good 400’ of climb in the next 2Km and wanted to work it. I don’t have any speed right now (and not great endurance) but I still love to climb.

I passed Principe and Gustafson soon after passing Wolfie. The climb was tough but the footing wasn’t bad and on the long straights I could see Geoff Cunningham up ahead. I was surprised when 10:47 seconds into the climb a gent on the trail noted “you’re at the top”. I couldn’t believe we were done climbing, had I studied the map a little better I would have know that the big climb was over but there would be a couple of “little” climbs to do before we were done. It was fun bombing down the hill and watching where the tracks went. It seemed that the leaders were zigging and zagging, every once in a while I’d see that Geoff went straight (it was a very wide trail). Even in snowshoe racing tangents can be important.

The last couple of Kilometers were tough with some short climbs, even when you got back to route 16 you had a big climb back up to the stage building. I was pretty beat on that last climb. I could see Geoff up ahead but was now looking back to make sure I wouldn’t get caught. It wasn’t pretty but I ran as hard as I could and was pretty exhausted when I cross the line in fourth in 51:38. Kevin and JJ finished in a dead heat with both of them not giving an inch to the other and actually diving across the line in 46:14. Pretty cool way to end the NH series for this year!

1 Kevin Tilton 46:14 CMS
2 Jim Johnson 46:14 CMS
3 Geoff Cunningham 50:49 Acidotic
4 DD 51:38 CMS 40+
5 David Pricipe 52:12 TNT 40+
6 Kurt Gustafson 52:17 Nordica
7 Steve Wolfe 52:53 Acidotic 40+
8 Danny Ferriera 53:06 Acidotic
9 Chris Dunn 53:56 Acidotic 40+
10 Brendan Sullivan 55:23 40+

Pictures by Scott Mason .  Thanks Scott!

County High points

With the seven county high points I bagged last weekend I'm now at 97.  Only about 3,000 to go!

40+ snowshoe ranking

Rank	Last wk	# raced	Name		Age	Club	This week
1	1	13	Tim	Van Orden	41	CMS	1st at Hawley, 4th at Nationals
2	6	6	Sean	Snow	43		2nd at Nationals
3	2	8	Dave	Dunham	45	CMS	2nd at Hawley
4	3	10	Steve	Wolfe	45	Acidotic	Idle
5	7	5	David	Pincipe	43	TNT	5th at Nationals
6	4	5	Chris	Dunn	41	Acidotic	6th at Nationals
7	5	3	John	Pajer	47	CMS	Idle
8	8	4	Jeremiah	Fitzgibbon	53	Acidotic	Idle
9	9	3	Mike	O'Connor	45	Acidotic	Idle
10	10	3	Christopher	Smith	43	Dungeon Rock	Idle

Open snowhoe rankings

	name		Last week	# Raced	Notes	This weekend
1	Kevin	Tilton	2	4	two 1st, one 4th, and one 7th	7th at Nationals
2	Jim	Johnson	1	11	Nine 1st place finishes, one 3rd, one 14th	14th at Nationals
3	Josh	Ferenc	3	3	one 1st, one 2nd, and one 7th	Idle
4	Ben	Nephew	4	5	one 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, one 5th, and one 6th	Idle
5	Geoff	Cunningham	6	4	one 1st, two 2nd, and one 17th	17th at Nationals
6	Tim	Van Orden	5	12	Three 1st, five 2nd, one 3rd, three 4th, one 31st	31st at Nationals, 1st at Hawley Kiln
7	Jeremy	Drowne	N/R	3	one 2nd, one 10th, one 16th	16th at Nationals
8	Charles	Theriault	7	3	one 3rd, one 4th, and one 5th	Idle
9	Tim	Cox	8	3	one 2nd, one 7th, and one 8th	Idle
10	Ross	Krause	9	7	one 2nd, two 3rd, one 4th, one 5th, one 6th, and one 26th	26th at Nationals

Week ending 03-07-10

Monday – AM: Bike 60 & Row 10, PM: PT


Tuesday – AM: Bike 60 & Row 10, PM: PT & 3m run on treadmill (21:53)

Wednesday – AM: Bike 60 & Row 10, Lunch: Run 3m 21:56, PM: Bike 30 & Row 10

Thursday – AM: Bike 45 & Row 10, PM: PT and Run 3m on treadmill (21:56)

Friday – From 7:00AM to 4:00 PM a total of just under 13 miles of running while bagging 7 county high points.

Saturday – AM: Bike 60, 3m easy with the guys warming up, 2m during the race, 3m warmdown

Sunday – Hawley Kiln 4.6 mile snowshoe race (41:48) 2nd place. No warm-up or down.

Totals:
Bike 5:15
Row 0:50
Run 35

The weekend

Here is a short account of a long weekend

Friday
I got up at 3:00 AM on Friday morning and was out the door at 3:30. I drove 225 miles (non-stop) to Duanesburg, NY for the first of what I hoped would be 7 County High points. Al had mentioned that there might be some difficulty getting where I wanted to go due to seasonal roads not being plowed. The first road I wanted to take was in fact unplowed so I took a slightly longer way around and ended up where I wanted to be. The Schenectady county high point was located on a nice ridge with some views of the surrounding farm land. The house closest to the HP looked pretty quite as I walked up their driveway. I didn’t want to wake anyone up (it was only a little after 7:00 am), so I quickly made my way into the woods and stomped around to the highest point and checked out another area before jogging back out to the car. Total was about 600m and 15’ of climb.

Back to the car and forty miles later I was in the little town of Salt Springville. The road I wanted to go up was another seasonal unplowed road that basically ended at a farmhouse. I parked on the side of the road and knocked on the homestead door but got no response. It looked like a nice climb to the top so I put on my snowshoe and slowly ran up to the summit then bushwhacked a bit to get the county line and ran down it to make sure I hit the high point in Montgomery county. Total for this was about 2 miles round trip with 600’ of climb.

Next up was a 35 mile drive to Sangerfield. I was again blocked by a seasonal road but found my way to within about 1.8 miles of the high point. I parked at the beginning of Tassel hill road (Oneida County). The road sign had a “No trespassing” sign right under it so I stopped into the nearby farm to make sure it would be okay to head up the road (it was). I was the first one up the road since the last snowstorm, but the snow had a solid crust that could be run on. I made my way up with a couple of stops for pictures and came down pretty quickly. The day was very sunny and warming up nicely, a great day to be outside. Total for this was 3.5 miles with 500’ of climb. At 10:30 am I was off to my next destination.

It was only 10 miles to my next stop, the very scenic Crow Hills. There were a bunch of windmills on top and the view was most excellent. This was the only climb of the day that would not be a county high point (this was a “Triple Divide”). Total was ½ mile with 60’ of climb.

Fifteen miles later I was back to county high pointing. I parked at the base of Morrow Mountain the county HP for Madison NY. This was a short run up the auto road that was firmly packed from snowmobile traffic. Total for this was 2 miles with 300’ of climb.

Next up was a 20 mile drive to Fabius for the Onondaga County HP (Morgan Hill). I asked for some advice from a local homeowner as I wasn’t sure where to enter the woods and didn’t want to trespass. I found the intersection of Morgan hill road with the road I was on and headed in. The first ¼ mile was groomed snowmobile then it was all bushwhack as I headed up the hill. The woods were very open and the snow was still pretty firm so it wasn’t that bad. Total for this HP was 2 miles with 515’ of climb. I was starting to feel a little tired, it was now almost 1:00 PM and the driving and running was starting to add up.

The trip to Tioga County was a bit tough with the road I wanted to hit being another seasonal one, but I found another way to the place I wanted to be and parked at the entrance to yet another seasonal road. This HP is privately owned (and for sale), I had sent an email to the owners and hadn’t heard back so I assumed it would be okay to hike it. The road had about 2’ of snow on it but the crust was holding up and I was able to easily run up to the top and back. Total 1m with 100’ of climb.

The final climb of the day was Virgil mountain (Cortland county). I didn’t take the direct approach at the ski area assuming that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near the hill if there was skiing going on (I found out after that I could have easily gone up a powerline next to the ski area, it would have been a lot more climb but saved me over an hour of driving). I was stymied at every turn trying to get close to the top of the mountain. Most roads were seasonal or unplowed. I finally navigated to within a little over a mile of the top and headed up the road. I was definitely tired on this one and the climb was not easy. The woods were pretty open for bushwhacking but there were a lot of thorns to deal with. By the time I was back at the car I was pretty bloody, but reached all of my goals for the day. Total for this one was 2+ miles with 400’ of climb.

I headed for Syracuse and made it to the hotel by 5:00 PM.



Totals for the day 12.5 miles of running with 2,500 of climbing along with 425 miles driving.

Saturday
I took about 300 pictures while watching the US Snowshoe championships. It was kind of fun but also depressing to not be able to race. I did get in 8 miles of running including 3 miles warming up and warming down with the team.



Sunday
I was up at 4:00 AM and out of the hotel by 4:30. I headed out to help out at the Hawley Kiln snowshoe race and wanted to get in few hikes first. I reached Windsor MA by 8:00 AM and hiked up the 53rd highest peak in MA (Forbes Hill – 2,110’). The hike was nice, out in the open and afforded some great views of Mt Greylock during the 130’ climb. I hiked up and jogged down and was back in the car heading for my second “triple divide” of the weekend.

The Hudson-Connecticut-Housatanic Triple Divide is located on a 2,100’ hill in Windsor, MA. The tricky part was locating a way to the top. The area seemed to be mostly posted and the top appears to be privately owned. I approached from the west and was able to quickly bag this without seeing any trespassing signs or signs of life. Sometimes the early morning hours are the best time to bag. I was able to get this done and make it to Hawley by 9:00.

I checked in with Ed, but they really didn’t need any help. Ken Clark (who won the race at Constitution hill the day before) suggested that I run the race. I figured I could handle 4.6 miles if I didn’t do a warm-up (other than walking). I walked over to the kiln to take in the mystical healing powers, I drank the last of my Moody Spring water that Ed had sent me (double dose of healing) and headed back to get ready. I didn’t bring any light gear or any racing flats as I hadn’t planned on racing so I ended up being way overdressed for this.

Tim Mahoney and Tim Van Orden took off like they were shot out of a canon. I settled into 5th place and tried to stay relaxed. Just before the single-track I moved up into fourth and started to feel pretty good (maybe it took the first .7 to warm-up?). I moved into third just after the mile mark but could not see the Tim’s ahead. TiMA was coming off of a DNF at DH Jones with a ligament problem and TiVO was a day removed from racing in tough conditions at the Nationals. At about 2.5 miles I saw Tim, but I wasn’t sure which one it was. I caught TiMA just before we exited the single-track and got back on the snowmobile trail. I began to regret going ahead of him as I was running out of gas. I looked back at 3.5 miles and he seemed to be closing. The last long climb was brutal, I felt like I was barely moving, I was definitely happy to hit the top and exit onto the final .7 miles. Most of the last downhill into the finish I spent looking back to see if Tim was going to kick and catch me. I hit the line pretty tired but pretty happy to make it through. My foot felt pretty decent (no worse at least) and it was fun to be back out in the woods competing. Despite being the day after Nationals (and the snowshoe marathon in Vermont) the race got over 60 finishers. I decided to skip the final peaks of the day and quit while I was ahead.

½ mile splits from Hawley kiln:

443/430(9:13) 456/334 (8:30) 457/414 (9:11) 501/528 (10:29) 422 (.6 downhill)

Peak bagging

I bagged a bunch of peaks this weekend most before and a couple after the US snowshoe championships in NY.  I also took pictures of the race which double-j will be posting.

Pics are posted here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=ec493629de2cf8cc

US Snowshoe championships

NY county high points

I hit 7 county high points and one "triple divide" while on my way out to Syracuse.  Story to follow.  Here are a couple of the better pictures.

USATF NE exchange zone

CMS runners were featured throughout this months Exchange Zone magazine.

Open snowshoe rankings

Rank	Name		Last week	# Raced	Notes	This weekend
1	Jim	Johnson	1	10	Nine 1st place finishes, one 3rd	Idle
2	Kevin	Tilton	2	3	two 1st, and one 4th	Idle
3	Josh	Ferenc	3	3	one 1st, one 2nd, and one 7th	Idle
4	Ben	Nephew	4	5	one 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, one 5th, and one 6th	Idle
5	Tim	Van Orden	5	11	two 1st, five 2nd, one 3rd, and three 4th	1st at Moody Springs
6	Geoff	Cunningham	N/R	3	one 1st, two 2nd	Idle
7	Charles	Theriault	8	3	one 3rd, one 4th, and one 5th	Idle
8	Tim	Cox	9	3	one 2nd, one 7th, and one 8th	Idle
9	Ross	Krause	10	6	one 2nd, two 3rd, one 4th, one 5th, and one 6th	2nd at Moody Springs
10	Brian	Rusiecki	N/R	3	one 1st, two 3rd

Definitely top 10 material but haven’t raced enough…

Justin Fyffe - one 1st place finish
C Fred Joslyn - one 1st
Mark Miller – one second place finish
Corey Watts – one second place finish
Peter Mallett - one fourth place finish
Jeremy Drowne - one 2nd and one 10th
Greg Hammett - one second and one third

Snowshoe rankings - 40+

	Last wk	Total pts	Avg	# raced	Name		Age	Team	This week
1	1	1097.21	99.75	11	Tim	Van Orden	41	CMS	1st at Moody
2	2	687.39	98.20	7	Dave	Dunham	45	CMS	Idle
3	3	959.69	95.97	10	Steve	Wolfe	45	Acidotic	Idel
4	4	388.89	97.22	4	Chris	Dunn	41	Acidotic	Idle
5	7	383.73	95.93	4	David	Pincipe	43	TNT	Idle
6	5	290.70	96.90	3	John	Pajer	47	CMS	Idle
7	6	478.78	95.76	5	Sean	Snow	43		Idle
8	8	367.09	91.77	4	Jeremiah	Fitzgibbon	53	Acidotic	Idle
9	9	270.58	90.19	3	Mike	O'Connor	45	Acidotic	Idle
10	10	272.20	90.73	3	Christopher	Smith	43	Dungeon Rock	Idle

Week ending 02-28-10

Week ending 02-28-10


M – AM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00, PM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00

T – AM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00, PM PT

W – AM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00, PM Bike 30:00 & Row 10:00

Th – AM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00, PM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00

F – AM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00, PM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00

Sat – AM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00, PM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00

Sun – AM Bike 60:00 & Row 10:00, PM Bike 30:00 & Row 10:00

Totals for the week:
Bike: 12 hours
Row: 2:20

Me and Larry Sayers at the DH Jones 10m