Now, About Those NH 4000 Footers

had to go to littleton on an errand today.  the sun was shining so i brought jake and spanky and did a quick toodle up to the top of Cannon via the Lonesome Lake and Kinsman Ridge trails (up the back of Cannon).

it's a great little quick hike.  including lunch, photographs, checking out the vistas from that lower trail that has the stone 'bench' things, chatting w/ folks who were riding up the lift for foliage tours, etc. it only took 2:50 total round-trip.

we pushed pretty hard (about 80% max) on the ascent.  rough times were:
car to lonesome lake:  under 30 minutes
lonesome lake to kinsman ridge trail:  about 15minutes
kinsman ridge trail to summit:  about 20 minutes

pwning the mountain

i think to get from the car to the top of the observation tower was about 1:15.

it's a great route for dogs.  plenty of water (the trail up the back of the summit has a lot of water running down it).  on the way up, hit a spot where i had to lift jake.  spanky scrambled it after decided to try it on her own (she was getting ready for me to lift her, then decided she had a plan).  i had to push her butt for it to work, but it did.  on the way down, had to lift jake off boulders in about 5 spots.

Dogs, Man & DogMan!

DogMan:  Hey mutha, want to go for a quick trot in the woods?  I'm feeling a little off today, so it won't be much.  I want to get Trudy out too.

Mutha:  Yeah, Jake & Spanky could use some trail time.  Sounds great.  I'm still in recovery from Friday so let's do a little trot.  I'll pick you up at 2:30.

Three and a half hours later I walk in the door and Sue says:  Hey, glad you're back.  We ate - I was beginning to wonder where you were.

Yeah, DogMan, where the hell were we?  We hit Little Deer Mtn, Big Deer Mtn, Osmore Pond, Up, Down, All Around.  Holy hell.  And DogMan was freaking possessed.  It was like chasing a Przewalski’s Gazelle (not to be confused w/ a Przewalski's Wild Horse, also named after the Russian colonel Nikolai Przhevalsky (1839–1888) - Przewalski being the Polish spelling).

What a great run. 

[Disclaimer:  the map below is where I kind of think we were.  Close enough, man.]

Ewell Pond/Oneida Loop

I put the old leggy-weggies to work just now and tried running my 12.3 mile loop from my house.  it's about 5 miles or so on pavement and the rest on dirt.  It's not too hilly - the profile shown is a little deceptive because of the vertical exaggeration, but it's got a few steep sections that I bike in my smallest gear.  The total elevation gain is about 1200'.  I wasn't out to break any records but I did break my PR accidentally, hitting the driveway at 1:41 (beating my previous PR of 1:45).  The goal was actually to see if I could run for that many miles.  Even though I've been running and/or biking pretty regularly, I haven't been pushing things and haven't really run very far.  DogMan and I did a few big outings (I think we did a 16 miler a week ago) but we haven't been breaking any speed records.

Anyway, I've been whining about quite a few physical aches and pains and wasn't even sure I could run the loop.  In fact I was pretty aggravated for the first half of the run until I realized I was making good time and pushed a little harder at the end.  If I'd pushed harder from the start I could've knocked another minute or two off.

Of course the thought of tMail running all these Ironman races and the trail marathon and it's a little embarrassing to be chatting up this much for a freaking 12 mile run, but hey - we can't all be superman.

This was really the test for the VT50.  I can confirm that my left hamstring is screaming at me, so it's probably going to be a no-go for that monster, but I feel pretty good otherwise.