Crust

After being waylaid for the past few days by this nasty cold/pestilence brought upon us by Sam and all the lovely germs she brings home from daycare, I decided I felt OK enough (although I sound terrible!) to get out for a short test run. I was undecided on where I would go, figuring I would try the trails if it looked like anyone had been out on them in their snowmobiles. If not, I'd stick to the roads, but honestly after navigating the heavy ice on our 1/4-mile-long "driveway" I was happy to see that at least one or two snowmobiles had been out along the powerlines, and I hit the trails to explore a bit.

The snowmobiles had packed the snow down just enough to make things runnable. There was one section - down the hill after Mt. Ararat, where the sleds had taken a cross-country route through the junipers -where I had to tromp through the untouched snow, and as the snow glistened with an icy sheen and the crust bit at my ankles, I was more than happy to jump back on the tracks. I ran down to Topsham Crossing and back, adding on the short loop at the edge of the Mt. Ararat trails, to get in 3.5 miles, enough to bring the week's mileage up to a rather feeble 25 miles. Not what I had been hoping for out of the week, but sometimes life just happens!

Saw a red-tail getting chased by two crows along the way. I've seen the crows chasing a red-tail a number of times in the same area, I wonder if it is the same hawk.