The End of the Ice

The last of the ice and snow is along the deepest shaded areas of the trail and off-trail on the vernal pools. What was under all that ice? Acorns, millions of acorns.

South of the trail, west of Route 128

Near Tophet Swamp

Trail Conditions: Wide Open

No full-width puddles, no ice-lined bottlenecks. Plenty of small debris.

East of Hartwell Avenue

 

Today: 8 miles. This year: 10.8 miles.

Just a dusting

Behind Trader Joe's

Ambitions

On or before June 24th, I will weigh 139 pounds. I will run 3.5 miles in 45 minutes or less. I will skate 407 miles.

Why these oddly specific ambitions?

Long-time readers know that I reached 139 pounds (BMI = 22) in my office weight-loss group in 2008. It's time to get back there. June 24th brings this year's Boston edition of the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. Unimpressive as it seems, a running time of 45 minutes puts me well ahead of the slowest runners from my company. And finally, 407 more miles of skating brings my lifetime recorded total to eleven thousand miles. Sometime in 2011 I'll hit 12,500 miles: half-way around the world.

Low Season

Skating west from Lexington Center today I made it past some spotty ice short of Merriam Street, but had to turn around short of the Lexington DPW. Eastbound was passable until I met widespread ice 60 or 70 yards east of Woburn Street. In each location the ice is thin but deeply shaded, so it'll melt when the air is warm. A cold, sunny day won't do it.

Today: 2.8 miles.

Clearing the trail

An article in Sunday's Globe (On winter’s path, beginning to see their way clear) surprised me -- I hadn't thought the trail was clear enough for skating, only for walkers and adventurous cyclists. But yesterday brought warm rain and now the trail is wide open for anyone who doesn't mind the chilly breeze.

What's it like?

Looking up and down the trail from Bow Street in Lexington today, I saw a surprising amount of pavement. Plenty of snow and ice, too. With a chance of snow forecast for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I don't expect to see much pavement on the trail for a while.

This week: 0 miles. This year: 0 miles.