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Downtown Temple,NH

Monday, January 18, 2010

Feel Good Farm Snowshoe Race

Last year I was a spectator at Feel Good Farm. I don't remember why, but I didn't race that day (I guess I was smarter then). I instead opted for taking pictures of the 12 folks who raced. I remember a couple of things about that race: the snow was DEEP and the climb was pretty tough. The course was still two loops but they were generally two clockwise loops.

Fast forward to this past weekend for the 2010 version (results) and lots of things had changed.
First, only a handful from last year returned (including a carload of Tuesday Night Turtles) but the popularity of the Granite State Snowshoe Series brought out a bunch of new folks, 104 finishers to be exact.
Second, the conditions were night and day. A week of unseasonably warm temps (including mid 40's on race day) melted away a lot of the snow on the exposed slopes of Moose Mt. Some sections (including some steep downhills) were borderline unshoeable (I think I just made up a word). Lots of rocks, exposed ledge, iced dirt, tree branches. In fact, everything except the preferred snow.