Drove out to visit the folks, and take Dusty up the climb to High Bridge along the Tophet Brook.

It was tough going, we managed 5.5-miles in 2 hrs.

Morning snowshoe with the Old Goat in Bigelow Hollow to snowshoe 5-miles in 1:18:49.

Later on, some additional snowshoeing with Dusty in the Lewis Farm Bird Sanctuary for 2.5-miles, roughly 38-minutes.

5-miles of snowshoeing with the Bandit on Metacomet, Phelps Road North (1:05:03).

Snowshoe day in Dubuque State Forest with Dusty.  

We parked at King Corner Maintenance Area, and pushed uphill to the Hawley Pass crossing.  

Enjoyed our way down to Basin Brook and turned north downstream for a bit before making the turn and long climb up Hitchcock Meadow Trail.

Once Hitchcock Meadow emptied onto Moody Spring Road, we broke our way over to Gould Meadow before taking Hallockville Road back to King Corner Road, and our finish.

We completed a worthy 7-miles in 1:56:03.

Another outing along the Metacomet, from our normal parking spot along Phelps Road.  

Dusty and I pushed through the snow totaling 6-miles in 1:20:04.

Stuck close to home, bringing Dusty out to the Lewis Bird Sanctuary on Hill Street for a 3.5-mile snowshoe adventure.  Completed our run in 47:10.

Moody Spring Snowshoe Ramble II
January 17th, 1998 - Hawley, Massachusetts

 LACK OF LOST MOUNTAIN

Well, despite Wuzzam insisting that we would “find that lost mountain”, Mt. Riga would have to wait for the ice to leave before any of us ventured out that way to search. Instead, a quick call to Farmer Tom in Ashfield put us in the direction of Hawley for the second time in two weeks. There was plenty of fresh light fluffy snow within its confines!

We ended up breaking trail no matter where we went, and the conditions were as perfect as one could hope for. Our stop at Moody Spring had us in tears (due to laughter) as Wuzzam rambled on and on about how he had imagined it to be a huge tourist attraction with signs and all. The pipe shooting out of the stone with the tasty mineral filled water exiting it wasn’t exactly what he had expected, but he did admit to its power of “regeneration”. When I let him know that it took me 9 years to find the thing, he could understand why. Up until last February when the Old Goat, Uphill and I finally made it to the water, it was “Lost Spring” along with “Lost Mountain” we were searching for.

Several of the trails we explored are not on maps, and are not exactly “trails” either. Blasting down the slope to Moody Spring had someone mentioning that it “wasn’t much of a trail”, to which Karl laughed and said “who needs a trail??” That about sums it up for snowshoeing... you really don’t need a trail, just snow.

MOODY SPRINGS SNOWSHOE RAMBLE II
JANUARY 17, 1998 HAWLEY, MA

Keen-Eye           20km         3:21:00

Old Goat            20km         3:22:00

Bandit                20km         3:23:00

Wuzzam             20km         3:24:00

Farmer               20km         3:25:00

Drove to Savoy Mountain State Forest to check the conditions for the South Pond Shuffle Snowshoe Event scheduled for this year.  Dusty joined me for 3-miles of effort around the ponds.

Moody Spring Snowshoe Ramble I
January 3rd, 1998 - Hawley, Massachusetts

M. SPRINGS & SMILING SNOWMEN

Seeing as we missed out on BD’s FA50 and also TW’s Gruba Dupa, a few leftover wannabees considered multiple loops around the forest of Hawley, specifically Moody Springs. Although we wouldn’t come close to the holiday achievement of 50Km, we did spend a wonderfully long time sampling the unseasonable warm temperatures and deep wet snow that Hawley State Forest had to offer. And oh yes, drink from the spring we did...

The Basin Brook Trail is a particularly beautiful section of this forest during the winter months, so much so we ran it in both directions. There is something wonderfully relaxing and peaceful about running in snow along side a frozen snow covered brook rolling along slowly not in any hurry. Infrequent blast of hot blowing air contrasted sharply with the cold wet pocket of air within the bottom of the steep banks of the brook, causing us to wonder and laugh each time we felt the change of temperature. This was a real charge for us, for at this point of the day each of us was feeling tiredness creep in and our judgment may have been a bit cloudy. As each of us admitted feeling the difference, all became sane again. Well, sort of.

We actually circled Moody Springs twice, filling our bottles and drinking long and deep both times. The shelter had a huge snowman perched on it’s roof, looking out for approaching visitors and greeting them with a welcoming hand raised in salute. None of us could figure out how anyone managed to raise the big balls of snow up onto the roof, but the frosty thing sure did look happy sitting there alone at the magical place known as Moody Springs. Come to think of it, so did we.

MOODY SPRINGS SNOWSHOE RAMBLE I

JANUARY 3, 1998 HAWLEY, MA

K2               12km             5:45

JT                15km             3:05

Keen-Eye    13 miles        3:59

Bandit         13 miles        4:05

Farmer        13 miles        4:05

Took Dusty out to the Metacomet, parking on Phelps Road.  Journey south through the snow for 4.4-miles in about 1:11:00.

3-miles of snowshoeing in Suffield Academy, with Dusty, 36:52.

3-miles in Suffield Academy, with Dusty.  37:33 of snowshoe adventure.

5-miles in Sunrise Park with Dusty, snowshoe total of 1:03:24.

3-miles in Suffield Academy with Dusty, 34:57.

Bigelow Hollow in Union, Connecticut to snowshoe 11-miles with the Old Goat, 2:50:11.