Sunday, November 25, 2007

My Dam Run

The rest has appeared to do the knees some good, so I set out for a trail run today behind the house. About half a mile in, I couldn't help but notice the stream I normally hop across was much, much wider. I looked over and noticed the small pool of water that collects before dumping into the stream was now a small pond. Looking a hundred yards further, I saw a new beaver den. Cool. If this keeps up, I'll have a new fly fishing spot this spring.

A few miles later along the fire road I reached the lake, which is starting to freeze over. I tested the thickness by first throwing a large stick, which slid a dozen feet and didn't break the ice. Did the same with a bigger stick with the same result. Now a small log. When it impacted the ice, it only left a small hole before sliding across and colliding with the other two sticks as if they were bowling pins.

Headed back and and added an extension towards the end which crosses the aforementioned bog. The water level has just about submerged the snowmobile bridge, which made the crossing tricky. When I was just about across, my foot broke through the ice and submerged in icy water. Great.

Reached a pond where I sometimes go fishing at, and noticed the beaver dams here were still intact. Could the beaver have moved down the brook into the bog? Was it an offspring from this family? Another beaver altogether? Guess I'll never know, but stuff like this makes trail running fun.

Ran 8.0 miles @ 8:20/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 152/173
Trails and fire roads.
Very hilly.
Mid 30s, partly to mostly cloudy.
Long pants, fleece jacket over short sleeved tech shirt, beanie.

On a side note, I exported my GPS data to Google earth. It shows the route as being 11 miles, which is three too long. It also shows some roads which don't exist (Jellerson Road dead ends long before and CC Road is a fire road through protected woodland).


2 comments:

Blaine Moore said...

I did my second run with my garmin today, and explored a few trails near my house. Better than I expected, but nothing worth traveling to.

No beaver dams, either, although there were a lot of frozen over puddles.

Olga said...

Man, what's up with your knee again? And why are you not getting it checked out more carefully?

I really liked the video of that x-country girl, whatever media says. And as you, I'll be fine if don't get to WS - although I do intend to go there to pace, I'll race another 100(s) just with as much anthusiasm:)