On this day, February 28th, in 2002, I spent the day snowshoing in Dubuque State Forest, Hawley.  More Old Photograph time....

The Kiln from 15-years ago.

 Tippi loved the winter.

Running on the Metacomet yesterday was so enjoyable, I went back today after work.  3.5-miles of bliss.

Head-Cold or not, I got to the Metacomet today for a 3-mile run.  It felt fantastic, even though it was about 30 or so degrees cooler than yesterday (but still pretty darn warm for February).

Another very warm February day, high 60's at least.  Still struggling with a head-cold, but I managed around 3.3-miles on the road.

We hit mid '60's temperature again today, we've had a run of them.  3-miles along Main Street.

February of 1997 was the 3rd Moby Dick event on Mount Greylock.  The Old Goat was a regular participant during this time frame.

The Old Goat climbing a very cold, frozen Greylock in 1997

Normally around this time in February, we would hold the Greylock Covered Bridge and Hoxie-Thunderbolt Snowshoe Races.  This was the Farmer, ten-years ago in 2007.

And, from old gps data, I snowshoed around the Moody Spring course on this day (February 22nd) in 2007 - ten-years ago, most likely getting the course ready for a race?

Way back twenty years, 1997, we took a walk at the Laurel Sanctuary on Hill Street in Suffield.  DLV and our old spaniel Dusty.

Jogged into work (Holiday for us);  it's been a really long time since I've done this.  Wasn't bad, actually....  5.5-miles.

Took a nice relaxing 5-mile run at noon-time, crossing Stony Brook a few times on bridges.

On this day in 1995, the 1st Moby Dick Marathons were held.  This was my 5th marathon, with the 28-miles completed in 5:01:00.

It seemed like a good idea, but there are reasons why the event didn't last, especially as a 28 or 30 miler.  Bitter cold, difficult, no aid,  February on Greylock....  seems like there would be many additional "whys".

This run was really special for me, it cemented my friendship with Paul.  We ran the entire event together, and began to dream up our snowshoe series.  Paul and I ended up roaming the woods together for a very long time, we see the same things in nature.

 

 

On this day in 1996 I completed my 9th marathon, the 2nd Annual Moby Dick.  It was a run on snow, and Georgie Hendricks and I wore snowshoes.  The event began at the Greylock Visitor Center in Lanseboro, Massachusetts, and ran up the snow covered road to the summit of Mt. Greylock, then down to North Adams, and back.  Covered the 28-mile version in 6:16:43.  

Another addition of music for 2017...

Here is effort #4, Three Little Birds.

Managed a 3-mile run along Main Street, before attending STCC this evening.

The Hawley Kiln

The kiln was built in 1870 by a man named Albert Dyer. Mr. Dyer was building the kiln for a man named William O. Bassett, who in 1870 was Hawley’s most successful farmer. I don’t think at the time that Mr. Dyer thought he was building the most historical site in the Hawley State Forest. The kiln is also the oldest known flagstone charcoal kiln in New England.

The question is “Why was it called the Charcoal Kiln?” The word “kiln” is related to the word kitchen and is, in fact, a large heated chamber or oven made of brick or stone. The purpose of a kiln is to bake or dry wood. This process is called charring. What then is charcoal? Written like char-coal, we understand that wood has been charred to resemble coal. We see this in a fireplace when the wood is not completely burned. Charring takes place when air, particularly oxygen necessary for combustion, is excluded.

The kiln has three dimensions that are easy to remember, 25’ high. 25’ in diameter, and holds 25 cords of wood. Wood was carried in through the lower door and stacked as high as a man could reach. Loading was completed through a second higher door located on an embankment at the back of the kiln. After the fire was lit, iron doors sealed the openings. Burning was controlled by means of draft holes around the base which were plugged with bricks. Enough oxygen was allowed to keep a low burning fire that would remove the moisture and combustible gases, but not to burn the wood completely. The color of the smoke would indicate if the fire was the right temperature. Yellow smoke meant that the fire was about to burst into flames and needed to be damped down. The fire had to be watched every few hours, day and night, for the two days that it took for the wood to burn.

A tar like substance called creosote, obtained by the distillation of wood tar, blackens the inside walls of the kiln. At the end of two days, the charcoal is so brittle it can easily be broken into small pieces and shoveled out of the kiln. It may then be used in a fireplace, by the blacksmith for his forge or used for smelting or like copper. Charcoal burns with a slow, intense heat so a farmer like Mr. Bassett, who may have had several fireplaces in his house, would like to heat with charcoal instead of wood.

Coal and oil became more available by the end of the century so the life of this kiln as a charcoal producer was a short one, only thirty years. The kiln them became home to pigs and other livestock. In 1957 it was bought by the DEM and was restored to its original condition.

Throughout the years with the help of nature and vandals, the kiln was in desperate need of repair. Funding by the DEM at the urging of the Hawley Historical Commission and the Sons and Daughters of Hawley, work to restore the kiln got underway. Mr. Steve Striebel, a contractor, handled the work. Sonam Lama, a Tibetan stone mason, and Tenzin Norbu, helped with the newly restored kiln in 1993.

Celebrating our Anniversary on this day, DL & I.

Another day in the swamp...  slight change at the turn-a-round to avoid water.  3.6-miles in 1:06:00.

More snow today, maybe 3" - 5".  Hit the swamp again, as I knew at least some was broken from yesterday.  Extended my run to 3.6-miles in about 72-minutes.  Slow going again.

1st visit through the swamp in Suffield, and I wore my snowshoes.  18" of snow last week, plus a bit more today, made for slow going.  When I am lucky, a snowmobile packs the trails,  but I wasn't lucky today!  Did the short loop of 2.8-miles.

From this day in 2002, Aunt Charity's Chair, Hawley.

Ten years ago today (February 10th, 2007) we rambled through a pretty little snowstorm at the 5th Annual Woodford State Park Snowshoe Race.

My Pop on his way to a 20th place finish

From this day in 2002, Breakneck Pond area in Bigelow Hollow State Park

Also, from the origins of WMAC Snowshoeing...  twenty-years ago today (1997) I completed a 16-mile version of the Moby Dick Event.

Twenty Years ago today, on this day in 1997, the Old Goat and I visited Moody Spring and the Hawley Kiln.  

I remember being on Gould Meadow Trail nearing South Road, and coming upon a group of snowmobilers.  I didn't realize it, as I was speaking with them, but the Old Goat mentioned watching the group stare us up and down, as we were pretty deep in the forest during a blizzard, on foot, and not all that bundled up.

I recall the leader showing me a map, and telling me the trails are not making sense, as he wanted to get to the Hilltop Grill.  I looked the map over, and softly mentioned to him that they were in Hawley (Dubuque) State Forest, and his map was for Savoy Mountain State Forest.  I followed up with good verbal directions to get from where we were to the Hilltop.

The Old Goat and I outside the Hawley Kiln in 1997

Another addition of music for 2017...

Here is effort #3, For the Love of Ivy, originally done by a long ago favorite of mine, The Gun Club. This is a taste of a long excursion taken by the guitar - drums combo of the Dark Heart Duo.  

"... Jawbone Eat and Jawbone Talk!"

APOCALYPSE WOW & HEARTS OF DARKNESS

Boston, MA -- Only weeks prior to the infamous R.R.A. Marathon. One time Olympic Trials Qualifier and 10Km great Martin Speed ponders alone in the Marriot Hotel...

" I’m here a week now, waiting for a mission, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker, and every minute the idiots run through the woods they get stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter...."

Images overwhelm of Kung Fu in a G-string, flames bursting around busted glass drunken with sin spinning ceiling fans and the same old Doors song blaring away non-stop in the background.

"...Everyone gets everything he wants...I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one, brought it up to me like room service..."

Two lean sub 30 minute 10km types from the Road Running Alliance pound on the door, pulling Speed out of this misery called non-running. They gave it too him full strength...

"You’re going to the worst place in the world and don’t even know it yet. Weeks away and hundreds of miles down a river and over mountains that snake through the passes like a main circuit cable, plugged straight into TRN."

An amber beverage was poured from a rusty brown bottle with Savoy Trail Ale ground into the label.

"I don’t know how you feel about home-brew, but if you’ll drink this you’ll never have to prove your courage again!"

Then the question Speed had been waiting for...

"You’ve heard of TRN?"

"The operations and special forces division out of the RRA monitored this out of the Berkshires, specifically a lost forsaken place called Savoy, and this has been verified as the voice of one called "Farmer", .TRN’s misfit self appointed head ram-rod."

And Speed heard for the first time the ramblings of this one time pseudo legend of trail running / writing...

"I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor, and I became that snail. Then the ridges of the Metacomet Range became the razor...that’s my dream...that’s my nightmare...crawling, slithering - along the edge of a straight razor - and surviving!!"

"The TRN group were some of the most outstanding trailrunners this area ever produced. They were brilliant, outstanding, in every way. Occasional top ten finishes, hard to the core, blasted up hills like they were running down. They began a newsletter though.... and soon after that their ideas, their methods, became...unsound."

"Now they have crossed into CT, an army of like-minded misfits. This bunch is bad for running, and for trail running in particular. They are all mixed up, their priorities are confused... the worse a run is, the more they enjoy it. They seem to take a perverted pleasure in running events where only a few others show up, and then spew on and on in their lame piece of dung newsletter about how fantastic it all was as they plodded along in swamps and glare ice at 20 minute per mile pace. They don’t even look like runners. One guy in particular, Old Goat, wears shorts in sub freezing temperatures and makes such a mockery out of distance running...he drives two or three hours to an event only to run the 5km race, where he goes out like a rabbit only to walk the center parts. Others write about flying moose, discovering water falls and boulders, women’s toenails, why they couldn’t complete a race or trilogy, post race food quality and quantity.... this can’t be healthy for running!! Where is the age old adage of win at all cost and any expense? These idiots could care less about winning, it will destroy running as we know it!!"

"In this sport, things get confused. Power, ideals, morality. But out there with these followers - it must be a temptation because there is a conflict in every human heart between the rational and irrational, between good and evil.

Every man has got a breaking point, you and I have them. TRN has reached their’s, it’s very obvious they’ve gone insane."

"Your mission is to travel to Western Mass, along the Mohawk Trail. Then proceed down river along the Metacomet Range, pick up the path in CT, follow it and learn what you can along the way. When you find them, infiltrate TRN by whatever means available and terminate the command."

"Terminate?" said Speed.

"They are out there operating without any decent restraint totally beyond the realm of any acceptable human conduct and they are still in the fields writing stories. Terminate with extreme prejudice. You understand that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist."

to be continued.....

{04/01/98}