Summer vacation 2010

Thanks to this whole graduate school thing being pushed back, to an unspecified date in August, I've been enjoying my second summer vacation in a row. I could get used to this! While some might spend free time on a beach or otherwise relaxing, I am incapable of doing something as normal as that, and it seems that I'm even busier than when I also had a job. Its all fun, though, and I've come to realize that I get all jazzed up about projects when I have the time, but I have to be realistic and cut back before I start work again, or I'll just disappoint myself by not getting stuff done.

First off, Ed "re-hired" me as his sales manager. He'd been trying to do it all himself, but I have the coaching contacts, so we're collaborating again. He pays me in sushi (but on commission), so its definitely a win-win situation! Running your own business is no joke, but Ed runs a tight ship, I'm impressed with his operations. His rollerski ferules came in last week, so we're trying to get those out to the right people and all that good stuff.

I also managed to put together the contours and aerial photos for basemaps for a couple maps that I've been wanting to make for orienteering. The first is the Boston College Law School/Edmands Park, which happens to be a five-minute walk from our door, hence the desire. Its not a huge area, but it would be sweet for a sprint or two and to train on a map. OCAD (orienteering mapping software) has its issues, but I'm starting to figure it out. Next up is Boston Common, for which we have a map, but it isn't in OCAD. So, its a matter of digitizing/transferring the data over to an actual computer file, with accurate contours and all that good stuff. This is really Ed's project, but I'm helping out. And the next map is the UMass Amherst campus - the place is huge! It would be perfect for a campus sprint, and if all goes according to plan (this is what I mean by biting off more than I can chew), I'd like to set up a campus-O series at some point this year at Amherst.

And along those lines, I nominated myself as meet director for the big east-coast ski orienteering weekend this winter. We don't have a snazzy name yet, so help me out and suggest me something. So far what I've got is "NH Ski-O Weekend"... doesn't quite cut it. We're thinking of using two whole new maps, so it involves lots of permission-getting and speculation about maps in places where you can't go field-check, and pushing and shoving and herding these cats to get all the information together soon enough to put it on the NENSA calendar before it goes out. Which happens soon.

So as though that weren't quite enough to keep me busy, I've been coaching my usual mid-week specific strength workouts, my friday core-from-hell workouts, a couple extra rollerski technique sessions for people who ask nicely, and trying to keep on top of the kids who still need to send in training logs and answer the questions of the ones who are always on time but can never hear enough about skiing (hey, I understand that position - I was there), and this weekend I'm thinking of setting up a scavenger hunt somewhere on an orienteering map. Wheeeeeeeeee momentum!

So in all my spare time, I'm reading up on some freshwater ecology stuff so that I'm not caught out cold when I start doing work, if that ever does happen, although I hope there is at least a little review at the beginning of the classes... the grad student handbook was fairly intimidating, but I think I have everything ironed out, I at least got the classes picked.

What can I say, life is more interesting when its packed full of things you love to do. And its nice to be in Boston with no dayjob, at least until about noon each day, when the heat gets unbearable. Although today, I was out setting streamers for an orienteering training session later in the week at noon. That was fairly unbearable too, although the nail in the coffin was the track workout later that night... I think its time for bed...

Thompson Island Orienteering

NEOC held an event on Thompson Island last weekend, the home of the Outward Bound program here in Boston. I didn't realize that the Boston Harbor islands were anything more than glorified trash heaps, but I guess I thought wrong. Thompson Island is actually fairly large, with enough terrain for a 4km orienteering race. It was billed as a sprint, but any course that takes me 30 minutes is not exactly a sprint, in my mind. My scanner is broken, and I've lost my camera, otherwise I would share the map - it was hardly a technical course, due to a lack of forest, but it was certainly interesting enough, with a mix of open fields, park/buildings, and salt marsh. Since we were running around low tide, it was possible to cut straight through some of the salt marshes, although the mud was squishy and slimy enough that running through it was slow and mucky. And now my shoes smell like some sea creature died in there.

The results were up quickly, and I ended up 5th for the day, first woman. Most importantly, ahead of Ed! It was definitely a runner's sort of course, although still possible to make mistakes, and with the hot sun and lack of wind, I was just not running fast enough to pick off Bill or Giovanni - I can't come close to John or Ross. The far side of the island was the sheltered side, and there was a long, straight, sunny stretch of running between control 6 and 7 where I really thought I was going to melt. Or have my head explode. And to think that it was actually cooler out there than on the mainland... I'm ready for this heat wave to break.

In completely unrelated news, I attempted to start work on the masters stuff at Amherst this week, and it looks like we're pushing stuff back even further, until we can get a meeting of the right people to talk about my thesis, before I start work on it. This gives me another week or two or three of vacation, so I'd best use my time wisely and go back outside to play!

Bald Mountain

Ok, one more photo dump - from Bald mountain, a 3k footer in Willoughby state forest. We took up the little beagle, and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy the rock hopping, although mostly when going downhill. She likes to run downhill, reminds me of someone else I know...

We found him a place to live for next year! Nice little abode, good views, a little drafty at times...
Willoughby from the top of the fire tower on Bald Mt.



And some last photos from Kingdom Trails...
Pretty red barns. So Vermont.
Too. much. climbing.
Woooo!




Our nighttime activities are pretty good, too.


I'm winning. Ed has one word.

Last days in paradise

I could get used to this house on Lake Willoughby, aside from the whole dark-as-hell kitchen and lack of light switches. I know it was built a long time ago, but you'd think that by now, they would have gotten around to light switches... anyway, Ed joined us on Wednesday, and we did much more biking and hiking and running and playing in the water.

"How does this thing work?" "I dunno, you tell me!"

It turns out that my family just isn't good at doing water stuff. My mom and Christophe and I headed out to find an alleged rope swing on the far side of the lake under the cliffs one night, after an abortive attempt to find said swing that morning, when the waves were just too large for comfort in our little rowboat with the engine. We found the rope swing, and had to figure out how to make the boat not float away. We could have tied the boat's rope (that normally ties it to the dock) to a tree, but then the boat might run into the shore because of the waves, so we decided to lower the anchor. My mom picked up the anchor and said something to the effect of "Sweetie, this is really heavy. Are you sure?" and Chris and I both agreed that we should just toss it overboard. Splash.

After a good time playing on the rope swing, it was time to go home, as the sun was starting to set. I attempted to pull up the anchor, reasoning that if Mama could have thrown it in, I should be able to pull it out. It wouldn't budge, so I called over Christophe, who attempted to pull it out, still nothing. We both hauled on the chain for a bit, but no luck. After trying various stupid attempts to do something with an oar and a cable, Christophe decided that he had no choice but to dive down and see if it was stuck. I held the chain taut and watched him get smaller and smaller as he went down; I'm terrified of going underwater and fairly claustrophobic, so I was getting pretty nervous watching him shrink underwater. Eventually he came back up, turns out the anchor is stuck under a rock. Well, how big is the rock? So, he went back down. The rock is huge! And his ears really hurt, the anchor must have been 25 feet underwater, and he was making that descent and ascent quickly. After some debate, a little panicking and a lot of tugging on the chain, we determined that the only thing to do was to detach the anchor and just buy Sam a new one. Of course, then we hit the second problem, that the chain seemed to be rusted on to its attachment thingy. Luckily, Christophe got us free, otherwise, we'd probably still be floating there, cursing water and swimming and boat stuff and all things related to water.

Shooting into the sun. I still haven't located my camera, but was able to steal photos off my mom's camera all week.

Legs!



Eventually, Ed and my dad decided to come rescue us in the canoe.


And then they wanted a tow home. The nerve!

Then, the sun went down. Home just in time.

More photos from the Kingdom

Its not all biking, but its mostly biking...

Northeast Kingdom of VT

I'm currently up in the Northeast Kingdom of VT, attempting to ride myself senseless on the Kingdom Trails. My parents decided that we needed to have a family vacation, and chose northern VT as a meeting place, in a house on Lake Willoughby. Unknowingly, they'd picked a place within 15min of East Burke, home to Kingdom Trails, so I'm pretty happy. I brought Christophe with me the first day; he is pretty out of bike shape, but suffered along with me halfway up Burke Mt so come down Dead Moose Alley, and then was pretty trashed for the rest of the riding we did that day. My dad was the next victim, and we stuck to some of the lower trails, but he was pretty impressed that we'd ridden for three hours without repeating a single trail, and there was still more!

But, this vacation isn't just about mountain biking. There is also hiking, road biking, canoeing, and trail running to do here, and of course lots of eating and reading and game playing. I got crushed so badly in Monopoly last night it stopped being fun. Now that's a whupping.



The following photos are from the hike I took with my mom and Tira up Eagle Cliffs (we were calling them beagle Cliffs), on the other side of the lake. Tira may be getting very old, but she can still scramble up rocks with the best of them. We were on some serious rocks, too.

Wapack trail run

The Wapack trail run is becoming a staple at the CSU ski camp. We did it last year, and the fast girls' group was just Cate and Hannah. This year, it was Cate, Hannah, Katie, Olivia, Charlotte, and Zoe, and we were in high spirits for the whole run. We started at the north end, and the boys started at the south end. Olga and Sue LaChance led the slower girls' group, and didn't finish that much behind us, despite our flying down the hills working on quick feet.


The excitement of the day came when the girls went to get their dry clothes out of the van - the boys had taken all their clothes out of their bags, turned the bags inside out, and put the clothes back in. Outraged that the boys would rifle through their stuff, the girls plotted their revenge all the way to the bbq at Jim Rodrigues' house - he and his wife had invited us all over, since they live near Windblown, and they gave us a delicious lunch, complete with s'mores.

Cleaning up afterwards, apparently Julia is something that needs cleaning up, too.
Fire + boys = fascination. All six of them, watching cardboard burn on the grill.

A NENSA-sponsored cookout!

Max figures out how to trap smoke in a water bottle.

The real excitement of the day, of course, came in the form of the girls' prank on the boys. They soaked some tampons in cranberry juice, and trashed some of the boys' rooms, with the tampons, toilet paper, and shaving cream. They went a little overboard, but the reaction on those boys' faces was absolutely priceless.

"There are instructions on how to use a tampon stuck to my mirror! I have VIVID IMAGES imprinted on my brain!! AAAAH!!!" (from a first-year J2).

We had to cut it off at that point, because the boys were threatening flaming turds. We were about to have Northern Ireland on our hands. Rob managed to get everyone calmed down enough to watch blazing saddles, and now its off to bed before the skate time trial in the morning. If we fail to teach them anything about skiing, we'll at least send them home tired...