Sunshine and warm (for February) weather greeted 54 snowshoers at the Wilton Wildlife Preserve Camp Saratoga Parcel on Saturday morning, 2/18. Another surprise for many who’d been there before – a brand new building with men’s and women’s restrooms complete with heat and running water, thanks to a major investment on the part of the Town of Wilton.
The race moved back to its traditional start up the trail from the HQ cabin, which provided a gentle downhill introduction to the course and the many hills, some smaller and some larger, that followed. While there was plenty of snow, the consistency varied – the wide groomed XC ski trails tended to be pretty hard-packed, while the less-used singletrack was a little softer. Any spot in the sunshine tended to have the consistency of mashed potatoes and an annoying tendency to build up temporary snowballs in snowshoe cleats.
J Matthew Medeiros and Megan Boyak won the mens’ & womens’ races, respectively. Full results can be found here.
A huge THANK YOU goes out to RD Laura Clark and the Saratoga Stryders who spent many hours making this race happen, including marking and double-checking the course multiple times this week – and then running in the the race today to boot!