Mansfield Hollow

Snowshoers:  Rick, Doug, Jill

Well we made tentative plans to snowshoe at the bike ride but I never heard back from anyone so I headed to Mansfield Hollow solo and was almost to the trailhead when Doug’s truck pulled in to the parking lot.  Cool!  Doug said Rick would be there in about 10 minutes so I headed back to the parking lot to wait.  Doug and Rick have been snowshoe racing so I got a chance to admire their cool racing/running snowshoes.  We started out but Rick was in agony from a blister so I headed back to my car again to find him some moleskin.  He put on the moleskin and switched from his sneakers to his boots and this time we started out for real.  They tried to get me to ditch my trekking poles but I refused.  Last Sunday I took 2 diggers with them so didn’t want to see how many I took without them.  We did the loop across from the parking lot which is about 3 miles and it took us about an hour.  There was a ton of snow and it was perfect for snowshoeing.  Last Sunday when I snow shoed I probably could have just hiked in boots but it was more fun with the snowshoes on.  Surprising we didn’t see any other people on the trail.  It was fairly warm and the sun was out making everything look stunning with the fresh snow cover.  The only picture I took was of Doug and his cast – a souvenir from our Thanksgiving Day mountain bike ride at Bluff.  So no mountain biking for Doug right now but snowshoeing works out perfectly.  Short but fun hike with good peeps.  – Jill

Bluff Point

Riders:  Rick, Mickey, Andy, Jill and Glenn for a minute      Pictures

Perfect conditions for riding in the snow I was pretty psyched to find.  Initially I was hesitant and leaning toward snowshoeing instead.  Also I just didn’t want to get my bike dirty!  But Glenn was in the parking lot all geared up when I got there and Andy was on his way with his bike too.  Rick was hoping for snowshoeing too because he didn’t want to fall and reinjure his shoulder (bad sledding accident!).  But we both bowed to peer pressure and got our bikes out.  Andy and Mickey pulled in and our crew was complete.  It was still snowing pretty hard but we saw 2 Mystic Velo riders cruise by and they didn’t seem to be having any traction problems so we headed out.  Oops, I forgot Glenn was having some bike issues, he thought he fixed them but didn’t get much further than the gate when he had to turn back.  The rest of us headed over to Haley’s and the riding was absolutely awesome.  Only a couple spots when I had to get off my bike and push, I’d say we were able to ride about 98% of the trails.  I thought I had the only crash (it was totally Ricks fault) but when we got back I found out that Rick did slam his shoulder into a tree.  Figures!  It was great having Andy out front with his fat tires, made it much easier for the rest of us to ride in his tracks.  Mickey scooted out about a half hour before we did and Rick, Andy, and I finished up at about 2 hours.  Mickey had some great stories from the New Years Day ride.  If you remember it was super cold and it had stormed the night before.  Thank you guys for coming out today – and for making me ride!  -Jill

Doug Enters Snowshoe Race

2009 DION Snowshoe Racing Series 1st ANNUAL TURNER TRAIL 4.3-MILE SNOWSHOE RACE January 10, 2009 Pittsfield State Forest Pittsfield, MA http://runwmac.com/snowshoes/default.html

Douglas McBournie Age: 50 Time: 1:13:19

We are officially giving Doug credit for first race of the year. If you follow the link above you can see a picture of Doug suffering in the last leg of the race. He’s on page 4, picture 130. I thought he looked serious, he said it was a look of pure suffering. Snowshoe racing is a great workout and if you want to try it the race organizer actually brings about 60 pairs of snowshoes to each race to outfit anyone who doesn’t have snowshoes. Good luck in the next race Doug! – Jill