the Way of the Turtle

RAIN AND ICE
8-9 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Sunday, January 14, 2007

Stepped outside to find everything covered with a layer of ice, with more rain coming down on top of it. So for the first time this season I broke out my Yaktraks, just in case.

The parking area was pretty icy, but the trails themselves were fine... most of where I ran was somewhat under tree cover, and in the spots that weren't the soil is sandy enough that the thin layer of ice broke up pretty readily. The three bridges I crossed were downright dangerous - I inched my way across them and even chose to step off one and slog through the mush alongside it instead.

My 180s were great for keeping my ears warm... too great, as it turned out. I ended up packing them away because my ears were getting too hot. But then, until the last 45 minutes or so, I was generating enough heat that I basically ran with my head uncovered. For the last part of the run I started to get chilly, and then I pulled out one of my fleece caps and used it for the rest of the time.

The bulk of the work in the "habitat restoration" area seems to be done. They have a pile of logs and a mammoth pile of wood chips down in what used to be the old field, along with enough heavy equipment to suggest that they're still working on them. The trail markers are back up, and in time I imagine we'll manage to pack the sand back down. As I've said before, I understand why they stripped the area pretty much bare, and the importance of restoring the Pine Bush habitat... but it's still sad to run through a desolate area that used to be all woods.

Found one area during my wanderings where some riders have set up some jumps, including one ramped jump that looks totally insane to me - it seems to drop down into a clump of trees. Maybe natural selection will work its wonder on those guys... hopefully the Pine Bush folks and rangers won't end up back there, since that sort of thing would probably lead them to crack down on public use of the Preserve.

If nothing else, the trees were very pretty with the droplets of ice and water hanging off of them. Hopefully the additional ice we're supposed to get tonight and tomorrow morning won't push them past their limits and snap limbs. I'll also be interested to see if the trails collect enough ice to make them essentially un-runnable, like they were for a while last year.

JMH