Month: February 2019

by Snow Fahl

For anyone with a sense of humor, Bob Dion’s pre-race directions are a highlight of any snowshoe race.  He didn’t fail us at the Hoot Toot and Whistle on Saturday.  As the name implies, it is run on an old rail trail, adjacent to the West Branch of the Deerfield River, a lovely run through the trees with the river in sight next to you.   Tranquil it may be, but if you listen to Bob, there are numerous ways you can muck it up.

As we all stood at the starting line (after a benign ride in a school bus—nothing like the bus trips in years past) Bob observed that the course runs along the river, with a lot of crossings of feeder brooks for us to negotiate.  He points down the hill to the substantial looking river and intones, “See that? That’s your first water crossing…….”

OK, on to the more serious updates about the course ahead:

“There are a lot of brook crossings, as I said.  Usually you can figure it out, but sometimes we put pink flags or ribbons to tell you that there is only one way across a part.  If you don’t see them, get across any way you can. Hop, jump, run over someone’s back. Whatever it takes.”

After the above “water crossing directions” Tim Van Orden pointed out that one such crossing involved a single piece of wood across the brook.  He implored us all to be civil and patient in our attempts to cross.  This was a veiled request not to barrel up the trail, bottlenecking at the crossing, and to avoid human carnage.   Once the race started, we quickly crossed 3 ‘water hazards’, each time hearing racers saying, “this must be the brook he was talking about”, before we actually arrived at the true ‘water hazard.’  Now you could hear people’s fun comments….”Oh, so THIS is the crossing he was talking about. I thought it was the last one…’’ etc.

Back to Bob:

“The route is marked with flags, yellow pie plates, and sometimes, pink ribbons.  If you start to see a lot of pink ribbon, well that means things are really bad.”

“This is an old rail trail, but it’s not like the rail trails you are familiar with. It has trees growing in the middle of it. Pay attention.”

Completely deadpan delivery.  “At one point you will go off of the rail trail immediately climb about 8 feet. Then you will drop down a very steep 8 feet.  Then you will go up 8 feet again.  All in about ……. 8 feet”

On running back after the finish, via the paved road: “If you choose to run back from the finish line to the school, take off your snowshoes. I know that seems obvious, but every year I see people running back in their snowshoes. Usually ones that they’ve rented from me…….”

On opportunities for a snowshoe ultramarathon and possible international incident: “This trail, the Catamount Trail goes all the way to Canada. It’s well marked, but if you miss the flags at the turn around, you better be prepared with some documentation when you reach the Border.  And find an alternate route back home.”

Those are just a few of RD Bob’s very helpful pre-race instructions.

by Laura Clark

It was inevitable…this weekend we have progressed from double headers to triple plays…wonder what took us so long?  That is the good news—depending upon how obsessive you are.  The bad news is that no one succeeded in reaching this goal.  We were defeated, not by wimpiness, but by work schedules (Friday evening’s Nor’easter) and by a real Nor’easter on Sunday which made driving to Cockadoodle an epic battle.

The only event in this trifecta that most of us succeeded in attending was Bob Dion’s Hoot Toot & Whistle 3.5 miler in Readsboro, VT.  A mostly flat, but bumpy, route along a 350 mile rail trail, the name commemorates the nickname for the short line Hoot, Toot & Whistle Railroad which traversed the length of Vermont beginning at the southern Readsboro station.  Bob always jokes that if we miss the turnaround we will get to run all the way into Canada on the Catamount Rail Trail.  So far no one has taken him up on the offer.

Despite early week worries, the snow came through and deposited just enough so we could all enjoy the route without cringing at potential snowshoe damage.  This event attracts a goodly amount of hikers, more than normal, and it was great to see all of us out there. Bob claimed that overall winner Tim Van Orden had an advantage as he helped mark the course the day before and constructed numerous plank bridges across the streams. For most of us, all that work would have precluded a less than stellar race, but for Tim, after spending a full year constructing the Nationals course, it was simply a warmup.  Tim shared with me the secret of his success, which sounded like David and Megan Roche’s advice from The Happy Runner. He remains competitive into his fifties because he saves his hard efforts for weekend races and runs mostly easy during the week.

Post-race chatter centered on Cockadoodle Shoe Snowshoe in Saranac Lake the following day. Those who had room reservations were cancelling, and even Jim Tucker, Dean of Fun at Paul Smith’s College, was reluctant to travel there with his team—and they live in the same town!  Would the dirt road leading to the Land Trust be plowed?  I hardly thought that would have been a priority with the DPW during a blizzard, but apparently Race Director Jeremy Drowne had the necessary pull…I was sad I couldn’t be there, especially since this was one of the few events we have that offers tee shirts, but if I’d tried I would still be driving and not snugly at home writing.

Finally, what does all this have to do with eagles?  Sometimes the drive home can be just as exciting as the event itself and this is what happened to the Saratoga Springs carpool.  We have frequently spotted eagles along one particular backroads river stretch, but this time we scored three!  Apparently, they were as concerned about empty larders before the upcoming storm as were the humans who completely emptied Wegmans of their extensive stock of chips and dip.  For those of you who have never gotten lost in a Wegmans, know that it is more like a Museum of Food than an actual grocery store.  They have unlimited supplies of the ordinary stuff and every exotic delicacy you have never heard of.

OK—getting back to the eagles—not only did we see three but one of them, with the storm just hours away, figured time was running out and decided that my car, Sir Thomas, was a close-enough approximation of a fish.  He bore down at full speed for the windshield, talons extended, wings spread.  I ducked.  Luckily, he veered off at the last minute. I learned later that these talons could easily crush a human hand.  The thought of a windshield body slam and a gripping talon reaching in to secure prey is the stuff of Alfred Hitchcock….It was awesome!

—  Laura Clark is an avid snowshoer, trail runner, XC skier, race director, 2017 World Snowshoe Federation Championship 70-99 Female Age Group winner, and 2018 National Championship Half Marathon 70-99 Female Age Group winner.