Adventure XIX

Date of Adventure: Sun. 28 Dec. 2008

Type of Adventure: Snow shoe hike

Place of Adventure: Plymsbury Wildlife Management Area aka Shrewsbury

Length of Adventure, miles: about 3

Length of Adventure, hours: 2

Companions: Colyn and Mom

Weather: Temps in the low 30's, sunny at first but clouding up quickly. The wind came up towards the end and it started to rain right after we got back to the car. About 10" of snow on the ground.

Other Adventurers Encountered: A snowmobiler arrived just as we were leaving. There were tracks from another snow shoer, and some cross country skiiers, and someone had been up fairly recently to cut up a tree that fell across the trail.

Points of Interest: 1. The two old stone foundations along the first part of the trail. There is a very large foundation on the right and a smaller one on the left. It makes me want to read up on the history of Shrewsbury. It's never been highly populated, but these foundations are pretty far out in the woods. 2. This is a non-motorized vehicle trail. I'm so glad mom convinced me to try this trail. I've always avoided it because it is so close to the houses, but it veers away from the houses. Now I can hike Shrewsbury in the winter and not have to worry about snowmobiles. 3. What we actually hiked was in a "newly acquired" parcel called the Besseneyey Parcel. We found a sort of map at the trailhead. We're still not 100% sure where we were on the trail but when we came to the first intersection we went right and at the second intersection we went left. We never reached any other intersections. We think we hiked about 1 mile out the trail, maybe a little more. It took 1 hour to hike out, but only 30 minutes to hike back. And it was fairly steep most of the way. When we turned around to come back, I marked a tree on the side of the trail so that we have a reference next time we go up.


This is the mark I left. It is clearly visible from the trail and about 6 feet up the trunk. There is no meaning to the mark, I just got tired of carving and didn't finish the +.



This is the sort of map. We were hiking the red trail, and we started at the southern point of the trail, right where it leaves TH#20.

Adventure XVIII

Date of Adventure: Sat. 27 Dec. 2008

Type of Adventure: Snow shoe hike

Place of Adventure: Moosalamoo

Length of Adventure, miles: about 3.5

Length of Adventure, hours: 2

Companion(s): Colyn

Weather: Temps in upper 30's. Foggy, raining. About 8" of snow on the ground.

Other Adventurers Encountered: 2 cross country skiers, 4 hikers

Points of Interest: 1. No snowmobile trails. According to the map, there shouldn't be any snowmobiles in Moosalamoo.

Adventure XVII

Date of Adventure: Sat. 20 Dec. 2008

Type of Adventure: Hike, sort of.

Place of Adventure: Town Farm Trail

Length of Adventure, miles: <1

Length of Adventure, hours: 1

Companion(s): Colyn

Weather: 12" of snow on the ground and still snowing, temps in the low 20's.

Other Adventurers Encountered: 1 guy with his 3 dogs.

Points of Interest: 1. Snow! Snow! and more Snow! 2. This was my first use of the snow shoes so far this winter, not that they helped much.

Caveat: We were unable to actually reach the trail due to the washout of the planks providing access across the stream. But, we had fun playing fetch in the field.

Adventure XVI

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Wed. 17 Dec. 2008

Place of Adventure: Pine Hill Park

Length of Adventure, miles: approximately 2

Length of Adventure, hours: 1

Companions: Colyn

Weather: Light clouds, temps in the 20's. About 6" of snow on the ground.

Other Adventurists Encountered: 2 hikers, 1 dog

Points of Interest: 1. We got first tracks on Freefall.

Adventure XV

Type of Adventure: Walk

Date of Adventure: Sun. 14 Dec 2008

Place of Adventure: Rugby Field/Swamp

Length of Adventure, miles: 1.5

Length of Adventure, hours: 1.5

Companions: Colyn

Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Weather: Sunny, light wind, upper 20's, about 5" of crusted snow on the ground.

Points of interest: 1. Snow! This was the first snow accumulation of the season for us, so it was very exciting. 2. Icicles. The snow came as part of an ice storm, so everything was coated with about 1/2" of ice. The trees were gorgeous in the sunlight. Everything glistened and glinted and shone.

A random iced over branch. I told you there was glistening.


More random iced over branches.



Iced over tree bud.



Iced over crab apples on a flowering crabapple tree.


You know, sometimes being tenacious and hanging on for all you're worth through the worst that life can throw at you isn't the greatest idea. You could end up like these leaves.

Adventure XIV

Type of Adventure: Walk

Date of Adventure: Tues. 9 Dec. 2008

Place of Adventure: Rugby Field/Swamp

Length of Adventure, miles: approximately 1.5

Length of Adventure, hours: 1

Companions: Colyn



Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Weather: Cloudy, mid 30's

Points of Interest: 1. Still lots of tree branches. Colyn killed them all. 2. In a non-positive way, garbage. Last time I found 1 soda bottle in the middle of the trails around the Rugby Field. This week I found 2 soda bottles in the trails, two beer cans along the road, and countless other paper cups, bags, and other garbage alone the road. And the torn apart carcass of a deer dumped in the swamp along the edge of the road. It appears to have been cut up by a human; I would imagine someone who took it illegally.

The Returnable bottles that I found and picked up.

Adventure XIII

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Tues. 9 Dec. 2008

Place of Adventure: Pittsford Trails

Length of Adventure, miles: 2.4

Length of Adventure, hours: 1

Companions: RCHS Adoptee, Reno




Weather: Sunny; high, wispy clouds; low 30's

Other Adventurers Encountered: None

Point of Interest: 1. The river is freezing up along the debris dam. Some of the submerged logs are gathering a nice coating of ice. It's visible through the water. 2. A new sign post was put up a few months ago in one of the meadows. The post has a very interesting pattern chewed into it. I assume a worm, or bug was working on the log before it became a post. 3. At the end of the trail, where the trail splits from the river, the river is starting to freeze. Right in the middle, was a strange circle almost as wide as the river itself. Even the snow was blown along the edge of the circle.


The Debris Dam




This is the tree that fell down most recently, probably last spring. It stretches almost all the way across the river.




The submerged logs putting on ice coats. They are the dark objects under the water.



The bug chewed sign post.



The strange circle in the ice.

Adventure XII

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Wed. 3 Dec. 2008

Place of Adventure: Pittsford Trails

Length of Adventure, miles: 2.4

Length of Adventure, hours: 1.25

Companion(s): Reno

Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Weather: Sunny! Temps in the low 40's.

Points of Interest: 1. Water. Apparently dogs don't care if it is only 40 degrees. If there is open water, dogs want to go swimming. 2. Water again. The debris damn is really getting interesting. It's blocking most of the river. I can't wait to see what happens in the spring when all the snow melts, and the river rises. 3. The drive home. This wasn't really part of the hike, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it if I hadn't been hiking. On the drive home I witnessed several crows or ravens or blackbirds (I'm not exactly sure which they were) chase off a very large hawk. The hawk was probably 50% bigger than the other birds. I was looking into the sun, so I didn't get a really good look at the hawk. I know it was brownish, and had a white chest. And it was big. It flew really low right in front of my car, and then over my car. I was driving up the middle of the road trying to watch it. I was able to watch it land in a tree on the side of the road, and then I was able to turn around in a side road and go back. I parked in a nearby driveway and walked across the yard to try and get a better look at the hawk. I even had my camera with me. Unfortunately, the hawk must have flown off in the time it took me to park and get out of the car. It was still really awesome to see, though. Then I took a picture of the other birds, because I had to take a picture of something.

Reno:



The Other Birds:

Adventure XI

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Tues. Dec. 2 2008

Place of Adventure: Pine Hill Park

Length of Adventure, miles: approximately 2

Length of Adventure, hours: 1

Companions: Colyn

Other Adventurists Encountered: 1 cyclist, 1 hiker, 1 dog

Weather: Overcast, low 40's, light snow towards the end.

Points of Interest: 1. It would seem that Pine Hill Park has a mascot. There's a tree at the beginning of the bridge to the main trailhead. Today, that tree was wearing someone's lost and broken sunglasses.

Monthly Recap

Month: Nov. 2008

Total Adventures: 8

Total Miles Adventured: approximately 19

Total Hours Adventured: approximately 10

Adventure Destinations Visited: Pine Hill Park, Rugby Field, Pittsfield, The Mall Nature Trail

Adventure Companions: Mom, Colyn, Manny, Chelsea, Blazer

Thoughts: This seems like a slow adventuring month. I'm pretty sure that is because of the weather (cold, rainy, generally not conducive to adventuring), the holidays (lots of crafting, shopping and cleaning taking up free time), and the current big game hunting season (I'd rather not challenge the men with guns for access to the woods).

Adventure X

Type of Adventure: Walk

Date of Adventure: Sun. 30 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: Rugby Field/Swamp

Length of Adventure, miles: <2

Length of Adventure, hours: 1

Companions: Colyn

Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Weather: Chilly, overcast, wet precipitation (snow/rain/sleet)

Points of Interest: 1. Tree branches. Lots of pulled down tree branches to attack and shred.

Adventure IX

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Tues. 25 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: Pittsford Trails, Pittsford, Vermont

Length of Adventure, miles: approximately 2.4

Length of Adventure, hours: 1

Companions: Blazer, RCHS adoptee

Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Weather: Cool, temps in the upper 30s. Overcast with light rain.

Points of Interest: The bog is starting to freeze up, and there was just a little bit of ice build up around the fallen tree dam.

Map of Trail:


RCHS Adoptee, Blazer:

Adventure VIII: The Fake Adventure

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Sun. 16 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: The Mall Nature Trail

Length of Adventure, miles: <1

Length of Adventure, hours: <1

Companions: Mom, Colyn

Points of Interest: 1. According to the sign, bears have been sighted along the trail. We did not see any bears. 2. Mom picked dried weeds to use in a fall table arrangement.

The sign warning us about bears:

Adventure VII

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Tues. 11 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: Town Farm Trail

Length of Adventure, Miles: approximately 2

Length of Adventure, Hours: 1

Companion(s): Colyn

Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Weather: Overcast and dreary. Temps in upper 30's. The sun did break through splendidly once, and then it went down behind the mountains.

Points of Interest: Before you reach the trailhead, there is a nice open field that is great for bird sightings. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything today.

Adventure VI

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Tues. 11 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: Cadwell Trail, Pittsford, Vermont

Length of Adventure, Miles: 2.4

Length of Adventure, Hours: 1 hour

Weather: Overcast, dreary, temps in the upper 30's.

Companions: RCHS adoptee, Chelsea

Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Points of Interest: Someone is clearing trees along the Otter Creek section of the trail. Also, the debris dam on Furnace Brook near the beginning of the trail is changing. I'm pretty sure another chunk of the river bank, along with a large tree, fell in recently. I could be wrong, but I don't think it was like that last time. The high water a couple weeks ago seems to have pushed the old debris dam further along, but the new tree that fell in the water is still blocking it up. It is very interesting to watch this debris dam develop.

Map of the Trail:



RCHS Adoptee, Chelsea

Adventure V

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Sun. 2 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont

Length of Adventure, Miles: approximately 3.5

Length of Adventure, Hours: 2

Weather: bright and sunny. Temps in the upper 40s.

Companion(s): Mom and Colyn

Other Adventurists Encountered: Quite a few hikers, several bikers, and a couple dogs.

Points of Interest: 1. The old rock crusher building, which you can reach by going up Crusher Road, or going up the Middle or Upper Georgetti trail and then onto Crusher Road. It's a totally random seeming falling apart cement building. I think some homeless people live there, judging by all the garbage. Also, it would seem that some high school kids have found it and practice graffiti on the walls. Some of it is quite artistic. 2. The Backstairs Trail, which takes you behind the Rock Crusher building and below the Tim's Vista overlook. It's a short little dog leg of a trail, but it's full of beautiful Birch trees. It's a pocket of peacefulness and I think it would be the perfect place to pitch a tent, except that camping isn't allowed at Pine Hill Park.

Comments: For whatever reason, this wasn't a particularly enjoyable hike for me. Partly it was because I trusted the thermometer at home, which read 36* and I was way overdressed, and partly it was because the sun was in my face the whole time. Colyn also seemed inordinately prone to wrapping the rope leash around trees and then being unable to unwrap himself.

Map of the Adventure:

Adventure IV

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Sat. 1 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont

Length of Adventure, Miles: approximately 3.5

Length of Adventure, Hours: 1.75

Weather: Bright and sunny. Temps in the 40s.

Companion(s): Colyn

Other Adventurists Encountered: 16 hikers, 19 mountain bikers, 5 dogs, and 1 puppy.

Points of Interest: 1. The view from the power lines. Most of the trails that are farthest out cross the power lines, and the views north or south are very nice. 2. The view from Tim's Vista. It provides a very nice view towards the north side of the city. 3. The memorial posted on the back side of a tree on Overlook trail right at the Overlook of the pond.

Comments: Colyn was totally gung ho for this hike. He had way too much energy and couldn't remember to not pull on the leash. The trails were really crowded, evidenced by the number of other people I encountered. Colyn did pretty well, though, and we didn't have any incidents.


Map of the Adventure:



View from the power lines looking north:


The Memorial:

Adventure III

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adventure: Sat. 1 Nov. 2008

Place of Adventure: Cadwell Trail, Pittsford, Vermont

Length of Adventure, Miles: 2.4

Length of Adventure, Hours: 1.25

Weather: Bright and sunny. Temps in the 40's. Light wind.

Companion(s): RCHS adoptee, Manny

Other Adventurists Encountered: None

Points of Interest: None

Comments: This was my "morning" hike today, we started around 11am. The trail was really wet today, although it hasn't rained since Tuesday. This trail is perpetually wet. The river was 2-3 feet higher than normal. I didn't see the Blue Heron, which has been there every time I visited this summer, so I think it has migrated south. Manny was pretty well behaved, except for a couple incidents of pure psychotic puppiness.

The Trail Map:




RCHS Adoptee, Manny

Adventure II

Type of Adventure: Biking to work

Date of Adventure: Friday, 31 Oct. 2008

Place of Adventure: Rutland area

Length of Adventure, Miles: 6 miles one way, 12 miles round trip

Length of Adventure, Hours: 45 minutes one way, 1.5 hours round trip

Companion(s): None

Points of Interest: There are a lot of little hills between my house and work. I had no idea how many. Also, to whoever threw the Mountain Dew can at me on Rt 4A near the marble wall, thanks I really enjoy being used as a moving target.

Adventure I

Type of Adventure: Hike

Date of Adenture: Sun. 19 Oct 2008

Place of Adventure: Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont

Length of Adventure, Miles: approximately 4

Length of Adventure, Hours: 2.5

Companion(s): Mom and Colyn

Points of Interest: 1. Lunch Rock. A nice place for a picnic, with a nice view. Can be reached via a short, dead end trail at intersection 30, Doorknob Trail and Droopy Muffin Trail. 2. Rocky Pond Overlook. A beautiful view of Rocky Pond. Can be reached from Overlook Trail. 3. Suspension Bridge. It was finished and "opened" last weekend, and is impressive. It is on the Overlook Trail.

Map of the adventure:


The Suspension Bridge:




Maybe the weirdest thing we noticed was a section of the trail where quite a few trees had these pieces of burlap wired around the trunk of the tree. They were at roughly the same height on each tree, maybe 4 feet from the ground. They seemed to be only on Oak Trees. We had no idea what the purpose is, but it seems if they are left there for very long the wire is going to kill the tree.

Greetings and Salutations

In this, my initial post, I'd like to offer a simple explanation for my need for yet another blog. I've toyed with the idea of keeping track of my outdoor adventures several times. I already do, in a very casual and unofficial manner by letting Colyn blog about the more memorable adventures. However, Colyn doesn't choose to blog about each and every adventure, and he has little sense of distance or time. The catalyst for finally creating this space occurred on Sunday, while I was adventuring at Pine Hill Park.

My hiking shoes are wearing out. I've noticed this during my last few hikes because my feet are sore and my shoes don't seem to be providing enough support. I'm a little surprised and disappointed that these shoes are already failing; I only just bought them earlier this year. The first pair of these same shoes last me almost a year. It occurred to me, though, that I've probably put more miles in a shorter time on the new pair than I did on the old pair. Hiking a couple days a week, almost every week since the spring weather broke put a lot of miles on these shoes. I found myself wondering just how many miles I covered this summer. Knowing there was no way I could go back and remember each and every adventure this summer, I decided to begin tracking this information.

Each subsequent entry will be devoted to one adventure, and each adventure will be logged. I will note where I adventured, when I adventured, how far I adventured, and how long it took me. I will also note any companions, be they four legged or two legged, any notable views or experiences, and I'll include any pictures I might take. If possible, I'll even include a map of the adventure.