Making Maple Syrup, March of '04.  Pop and Paul.  I believe 2017 was my dad's 52nd year of making the delicious liquid.

Cheating a bit with the days, but with leap years and what not I can make my own rules.  On March 25th, 2005 (close to exactly 12 wonderful years ago), Paul, Tippi and I continued a tour on snowshoes with a trip to Tannery Falls.

 

 

Just a day off, 12-years ago.  Pop, Paul, Tips and I figured it was too nice a day not to climb Greylock.  Bright sunny day and lots of smiles from all four of us.

The picture below is one of my favorites of all time.  Those three plus Greylock are really important to me, always have been and always will be.

Over to McLean Reservation for an enjoyable 4.3-miles, and a bump into a local inhabitant.

Still snowy, icy and muddy on the trail.  Visited Metacomet from Route 20 for 3.6-miles.

A day prior to March 24th, 2005, Paul, Tippi and I took on Greylock.  Adams and Greylock will always hold some sway.  Any suggestion of climbing it, regardless of season, is always met with a "yes".  It is one of my magical places.

Pretty special day, we charged up the Cheshire Harbor and then took the road to the Tower.  My notes mention 1:20:10 up including pictuers, and only 31:16 down, over 7.5-miles.

 

 

 

 

 

Back on this day, 2002, we held an impromptu  Hawley Kiln.  Part of the event was a follow up at South Face Farm....  My Mom finished the event on this day!

Back in 2005, on this day March 22nd, my friend Paul and I took Tippi to Savoy Mountain State Forest to climb Spruce Hill.

Tippi and I from 2005

 

This was an incredible winter for Paul and I.  During the winter season I managed just over 400-miles on snowshoes, which only was bested by my 2003 total of 502-miles.  Paul would have had at least that if not more.

Paul and Tips, on top of Spruce

A long, long  while ago, Poncho M. mentioned that "... Spruce Hill is where Farmer Ed converses with GOD."  The thing is, right before I was going under for removal of a brain tumor in October of 2015, my last thoughts were of Spruce Hill.  I was on-top, looking west towards Greylock.  The sky was an incredible blue with big puffy white clouds scattered about.  Greylock was so close I felt as though I could reach out and touch it.  I was feeling a tremendous peace.  This was my last thought and vision before I woke 4 hours later.

Pretty much my vision prior to surgery 

A view from Bannis Road in Savoy Mountain State Forest, March 21st, 2003.

March 20th, 2004, K2 and Mike L climbing towards the top of Greylock.

Still on the road due to the rapidly melting snow, managed a 5-miler.

Late day jog along Main Street for a short 3.1-miles.

Made my way to Shelbourne Falls today for the annual Mahican Mohawk partnership council.  I imagine these have been going on for a good bit longer than the three-years I've been attending.  It is enjoyable seeing many of the same people each year, and the collective desire and enthusiasm is excellent.

Afterward, rode over to DAR State Forest to do a short run along snowmobile covered roads.  3.2-miles total, map provided.

And, on this day in 2002 (15 years prior), Wuzzam and DL joined me in Dubuque and a follow up at South Face Farm.  Fifteen years ago doesn't seems that long ago...

Another addition of music for 2017...

Here is effort #6, Horn.

MISSING AN OPPORTUNITY
(from the archives, 2000)

I once kept a fairly detailed running log, but have drifted away from it during the last couple years.  It was never used as a dangling carrot, forcing me to catch up to my "goal" mileage.  Instead I would use it to track events in my life, easy enough to pull out to refresh my memory over some happening from the previous years.

As my running become less and less disciplined (and less and less often), I began to show less attention to the log.  I realize now that this was a mistake, and I hope to start being a little more orderly.  Recently I had an experience that could have been avoided if I had continued to keep an accurate journal or log.  I believe I would have seen this coming, an experience that I do not wish to duplicate.

It didn’t strike me until this week, as I have finally recovered from close to three weeks of flu and bronchitis, that I realized that I should have been able to see myself getting run down and my resistance being lowered.  As I put together the final touches of the WMAC Snowshoe Series results and stories, reading over the articles, I was suddenly aware that I pushed myself too much without resting adequately.  While reading my race report for the Hawley Kiln Klassic and filling in the gaps mentally there it was looking me right in the face…..

In a period of 11 days I had snowshoed around the 7 mile Kiln course three times, marking the course and cutting away blowdowns; snowshoed and readied the 9 mile Moody Spring Course once; and ran the Moby Dick 16 miler.  While this may seem like nothing out of the ordinary for many experienced trail runners, combined with all the travel from Connecticut and a full work and home commitment it was just too much for me.

The real trouble was I had lost track of what I was doing each day, and didn’t allow for proper rest.  It wasn’t the time in the woods so much as the early starts and all the driving.  I didn’t space things out very well, basically because I had no reference point.

If I had kept a running log or journal, I think I may have been able to look back over those weeks and realize that I was burning the candle at both ends.  I had used a logbook in the past for just that purpose while getting myself ready for events.  It makes sense that I could have seen trouble coming.

So my suggestion to everyone is to start a journal if you don’t currently have one.  It doesn’t have to make you a slave to mileage; there is no reason to use it that way if you don’t want to.  But when things go right or wrong, at least you will have a reference point to go back to, checking what happened during that time in question.  It is important to fill it up with not only the running parts of your life, but the real stuff as well.  You never know when it might come in handy.

March 15, 2000