the Way of the Turtle

HEY! WHERE ARE ALL THE RUNNERS?
2.4 Mile Snowshoe at Savoy Mountain State Forest
Saturday, January 23, 2010

I fell for the wildness of Savoy Mountain State Forest the first time I went there, back in August 1995. Last winter the usual snowshoe races there were cancelled due to trails being badly blocked by ice storm damage, and this year the location is being held in reserve as a backup in case one of the other races ends up with no snow. Since it was an absolutely beautiful sunny day, I decided a visit to Savoy was in order before heading back to Albany.

I actually ended up stopping at the Hairpin Turn on the way up the mountain to take photos of the mammoth icicles on the rocks alongside the road. Too bad some yahoo decided to shoot them with paintballs, but even with a few orange splotches they were still incredibly impressive. I stopped again on the way back down, for more icicle photos and a few shots of the view off into the valleys and over toward Greylock. Awesome!

There were only a couple of cars in the parking lot when I reached the North Pond picnic area - a definite change from every other time I've been there and the lots has been packed with runners' vehicles. Best of all, there was plenty of snow... now I just had to hope the trail was well-broken. After running the race this morning (and running for the past two evenings) I really didn't feel up to any significant trail breaking. I took it as a good sign that while I was getting ready a group from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts down in North Adams came back to their vehicle. At the very least the trail would be broken from them...

As it turned out, I had nothing to be concerned about. Other than the picnic area which was a bit churned up, the main trail was in fantastic shape, well-packed from snowshoes and XC skis. If anything, it was in better shape than some of the times I've raced on it. I started out on the North Pond trail, circling around the edge of the pond through evergreens and all the big rocks (just snowy lumps today.) The sun was filtering down through the trees and it was all absolutely gorgeous. Along the way I passed the 2nd of Savoy's Balanced Rocks - I visited the one in the eastern half of the forest back in 2005 and 2006, and I'm sure I've run past this one plenty of times and just never realized that it's also called Balance Rock. I decided to head out on the South Pond loop after about half a mile or so... the North Pond loop is a bit longer than I wanted to go for, and there's always a chance we'll be running it sometime in February.

My plan was to take the South Pond loop to the Tyler Swamp trails, walk/run around the swamp, and then head back on the rest of South Pond and finally back the way I came. Those trails are a muddy mess in the summer but there was enough snow today that it seemed like a good time to do them. Unfortunately, the Tyler Swamp loop was unbroken, and a few steps convinced me that I really didn't want to be breaking trail for 1.5 miles. So I just kept on the South Pond trail above the shore of South Pond. Followed some tracks down to the pond itself, and got to see South Pond up close for the first time. Fantastic!

Back at the intersection I made a short detour up the hill to the camp sites, but the road to the cabins had been plowed and apparently someone was in residence, so I headed back down to the North Pond trail and back to the picnic area. Walked over to the beach to get some photos of North Pond covered in snow, though the sun wasn't at the best angle and there were folks out on the ice at the far end of the pond. Still, altogether a nice end to a great short trek through Savoy State Forest... one of these days I need to get over there for a longer run in some parts of the forest we don't use for races.

JMH