Hallockville Orchard 3.7M Snowshoe Race

Part II of my weekend would take me (and DoubleJ) out west to Hawley MA for the Hallockville Orchard 3.7M Snowshoe Race (results). Only the stubbornness of both of us made this one happen. We both had sub-par experiences at Horse Hill the day before. I was hoping that was an aberration and not a trend. The general plan was if one of us went the other would go. If one bailed, the other most likely would skip the race. Well I wasn't going to be the one to say no. The outcome of this battle was no surprise to those who know us. Give the 'W' to stubbornness.

Northfield Mt Snowshoe Race

30" of snow...in Washington DC? Too bad it didn't come during the week. It could have kept those folks from spending money for a couple of days. Oh, well, maybe next time. In the Northeast we continue with our snow drought, which forced the postponement of the 5th race in the Granite State Snowshoe Series (Exeter Hullabaloo Snowshoe Race). What to do, what to do? Thankfully the WMAC also has a full slate of snowshoe races and luckily one was scheduled for today. Sweet!
So I headed down to the Northfield Mountain Recreation Center in Northfield, MA with my WMAC driver Bill Morse, hoping the mountain held more snow then the surrounding towns (which were nearly bare). Dave D and Paul B assured us (via pictures no less) that there would be a snowshoe race. In Dave we trust.

First Snowshoe Double of the Season - Curly's (Part 2)

Curly's Record Run Snowshoe Race

Although not originally planned, I decided to run Curly's Record Run (results) on Sunday and complete my first snowshoe double of the season. JJ picked me up at 6am for the 3hr ride waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out to western Mass. Curly's would take place in the Pittsfield State Forest, in fact the start/finish was at the same exact location of the Turner Trail snowshoe race I did a few weeks ago (my favorite course to date). Curly's would be a totally different course but would include many of the same great elements of Turner.
Surprisingly (not), we were the first ones there but the lot filled up quickly. All told I think they had around 90 snowshoers, quite a large crowd for a race in the middle of nowhere. Heck, even the western Mass folk have to drive over an hour to get there :-)

Turner Trail Snowshoe Race

This weekend I opted for the 2nd WMAC snowshoe series race (Turner Trail 5M) instead of the 'local' Olde Salem Green Classic. My decision to travel 6 hrs with jj and dd and be within spittin' distance of New York was based on a longer and potentially harder course. After last weeks sprint I was really looking for something different and boy did I find it.
For now, I'll skip over the details of the ride out. That could be a post all by itself. Let's just say it was amusing and entertaining.
Turner Trail (results), located in Pittsfield State Forest (Pittsfield,MA) is now one of my favorite snowshoe races, and one of the hardest. About an hr before race time Jim Johnson, Dave Dunham and myself did a 3M warm-up on snowshoes up an access road and then back down the last 1 and 1/2 miles or so on the actual course, meeting up with Tim Van Orden on the way down. The course would be run in reverse of last years race and would be a little longer.

Pisgah 23k Trail Race

Update - added elevation profile and overview map
Today was my 4th consecutive weekend of trail racing (10m, 6k, 17.5m and 23k distances). I'm not a big believer of tapering for my weekend excursions so during this period I also maintained my typical weekly mileage. I have to admit, I'm a little tired, and felt it today early on in the race. Reach the Beach is coming up at the end of the week so I'm going to have to force myself to take a couple of days off (not taper) and rest up. Ok, now on to today's race!


The Pisgah 23k takes place in New Hampshire's largest state park, and one I've never heard of. Heck, I can't say I've heard of Chesterfield either (the location of the start/finish). In case you were wondering, Chesterfield is about 10 miles due west of Keene, and just a couple of miles from the Vermont border.


There were two races today, a 23k short course and a 50k long course. I opted for the short course today. Since both races started together and followed the same course for the first couple of miles, there was no way to tell how many runners were doing the 23k or 50k. It was a safe bet that most of the folks up front (who shot off like it was a 5k) were doing the 23k. Ben Nephew & George Adams, who probably had the closest finish EVER in any trail race back in 2006 (when they finished the 23k in near identical times of 1:33:57), Josh Ferenc, and a bunch of young guys who all had their heads shaved for some reason (I'm guessing they lost a bet) all rocketed to the front on the fast downhill start. So in a 14.2 mile trail race my position was essentially set in the first 10 seconds.

Most of the first 2 miles of this race was on paved and dirt roads that lead up to the Pisgah trail head. There was a short downhill at the start and then a couple of decent climbs (one on pavement and one on dirt). The 50k folks split off to the left not long after entering the Pisgah State Park and the shorties continued straight on the Reservoir Trail, which was a very runnable doubletrack trail. The course was so well marked with pink ribbons that it would be impossible to go off course. Even with the rain the previous couple of days there was very little mud and my feet never got wet the entire day. Nothing overly technical, just the same ole roots and rocks we've come to love in New Hampshire. The Reservoir Trail was lots of short ups and downs sprinkled with a ton of moss-covered wooden bridges strategically placed at the bottoms of the downs (at least it seemed that way). In general I'd say the net effect was we were climbing more than we were descending.

23k elevation profile

At mile 6.7 we came to the first of two manned aid stations. Temps today were in the mid 60's and my hand-held water bottle was doing just fine so I motored on by. The course then heads up the Pisgah Mt Trail (gee, I wonder where this trail goes?) and the serious climbing began. If I remember correctly this 2 mile trail was the only single track we ran on all day and some of the most difficult running (up and down). I just had nothing for the climbs and felt very tired (not a good thing at the half way point), losing a couple more positions. I don't like getting passed in general and I HATE getting passed after the 1/2 way point of a race. I always interpret this as me fading as opposed to the other runner surging. As I struggled up Pisgah Mt trying to maintain contact with the runner in front of me I could now hear another runner coming up behind me. Oh crap, there goes another spot. I held him off for nearly 2 miles but shortly after the second manned aid station at mile 9 I was swallowed up. Anyone else care to pass while I'm suffering?

The next 4 miles were back on doubletrack trails (Davis Hill Trail and Hubbard Hill Trail). The only thing that made these trails slow were my tired legs. Otherwise they'd be some nice (maybe even fast) trails to run on. The terrain was a bit easier now, with mostly small rollers to deal with. The last mile or so to the trail head exit on Winchester Road was mostly downhill and once we hit Winchester Road we had about 1 1/2 miles of dirt and paved roads to the finish at the Chesterfield Fire Dept.

23k overview map - race goes CW

At the time I didn't know how long we had to go once we hit the road (I was guessing maybe a mile). The dirt road was all downhill so I picked up the pace but it went on and on before finally turning to pavement. Ah, I must be close now I thought so I kept up the pace, trying to get in under 2hrs. I was not about to let anyone pass me at this point either. I glanced back a couple of times and was ready to run myself into the ground to avoid someone passing me in the last mile. Luckily for me there was no one back there. Then my pace came to a screeching crawl as the course threw us one more hill. As I shuffled up the hill, checking my watch, I was just about to throw in the towel on my sub 2hr attempt when I reached the top and saw a stop sign off in the distance. That stop sign was on Rt63 and the finish was only 100m down the road from there. As I started running hard again all I could think about was how pissed I was going to be if I came in at 2hr-anything. Heck, in the end it wasn't even close. I finished in 1:57:52, 12th overall (2nd master) and could have dogged it a lot more in the final mile :-)

early results board

Josh Ferenc won the race and set a new course record ( I believe) with a time of 1:30:45, followed by Ben (1:33) and George (1:40). I didn't hang out long enough to see any of the 50k'ers come in so I don't know how that went. As of this morning results were not posted yet.
Update: results posted

view from the finish

I'm not sure how long they've been running this race but they had a cool display setup with photo albums, maps and results from all previous years (some were hand written in notebooks). To me it's always helpful to see course maps, elevation profiles, pictures or just race reports from previous years when I'm deciding what race to run. The more info the better. This is a great race, well supported and run by some of the nicest people I've seen so far. Scan all this history and get yourself a website already!

Hawley Kiln Snowshoe Race

My snowshoe racing season is officially over. Dungeon Rockers Bill Morse, Jay Curry and I (I'm not a Rocker, just an acidotic groupie) made the trek to the Mohawk Trail State Forest in Hawley, Ma for the 4.6 mile Hawley Kiln Snowshoe Race.

Hawley is a very rural mountainous town somewhere out in western Mass and seemed to be within spitting distance of a number of WMAC snowshoe races (Savoy, Moody Springs, Hallocville to name a few). A little factoid about Hawley is it's one of the most wintery towns in Massachussetts, averaging nearly 110" of snow each year.

Although the course had its share of hills (500ft of climbing), most of the climbing today was done in the car getting to the start (thankfully). If you looked up 'low frills race' in the dictionary, you'd find Hawley Kiln listed first. Registration looked like some sort of drug deal was going down, with people lining up at the drivers window of a small white van, handing the driver cash. Turns out this same white van doubled as the official timer as well.

Onto the race. The start climbed steadily for just under a mile on nicely groomed (and frozen) snowmobile trail before turning sharply into the woods on a trail that was just barely a single track. About 2/3 of the race would be on single track and it was not easy going. First, it was impossible to pass, stepping off the trail would put you in knee deep snow. Second, although the single track was frozen and seemed firm, it was an illusion. Almost immediately we were post holing, breaking through the thin frozen surface and sinking into a foot of snow. I followed a runner the entire time on the first 2 mile section of rolling single track, never looking up from his shoes, trying to avoid his post holes and not end up on my face. Somewhere around 3 miles we joined back up for a brief run on snowmobile trails before heading back onto the final mile of single track. I managed to pass the runner in front of me during this section and made up a little time. Turns out it was a little easier in front since I was a bit lighter and didn't break through as much. I knew I should have asked to pass.....oh well. At about 4 miles we jumped back onto the snowmobile trail for the last .6 miles to the finish.

Overall I was happy with my race, felt pretty good and finished strong. The top 20 are listed below and full results are located at WMAC. Turns out fellow acidotic RACING team mate Matt Cartier was there but I had no idea. With a no-frills race and no shelter, nobody really sticks around and chats much. Beth Herder has some great photos of the race here.

PLACE	FIRST	LAST	AGE	TIME	POINTS
1	Dave	Dunham	44	0:38:32	100
2	Matt	Cartier	33	0:39:56	98.63
3	Tim	Van Orden	40	0:41:20	97.26
4	Tim	Mahoney	29	0:42:18	95.89
5	Peter	Lagoy	49	0:43:05	94.52
6	Steve	Wolfe	44	0:43:32	93.15
7	Brian	Northan	34	0:44:12	91.78
8	Larry	Dragon	48	0:44:56	90.41
9	Ken	Clark	46	0:45:40	89.04
10	Amy	Lane	29	0:46:48	87.67
11	Richard	Teal	31	0:47:09	86.3
12	Bob	Dion	53	0:47:48	84.93
13	Erik	Wight	49	0:47:58	83.56
14	Jay	Kolodzinski	29	0:49:42	82.19
15	Peter	Malinowski	54	0:50:14	80.82
16	Jay	Curry	37	0:50:28	79.45
17	Richard	Chipman	48	0:50:40	78.08
18	Chelynn	Tetreault	33	0:50:46	76.71
19	Glen	Tryson	55	0:50:50	75.34
20	Pat	McGrath	43	0:51:53	73.97

After the race a few of us did head over to the South Face Farm Sugar House for breakfast. Blueberry wheat pancakes with real maple syrup, bacon and coffee and good company. Not a bad way to end the season.






Now a little history of the kiln, the races namesake (courtesy of the 2002 WMAC newsletter).
The kiln was built in 1870 by a man named Albert Dyer. Mr. Dyer was building the kiln for a man named William O. Bassett, who in 1870 was Hawley’s most successful farmer. I don’t think at the time that Mr. Dyer thought he was building the most historical site in the Hawley State Forest. The kiln is also the oldest known flagstone charcoal kiln in New England.

The kiln is a beehive structure, 25ft high, 25ft in diameter and could hold 25 cord of wood during the charcoal process. Today, it is apparently a very popular hangout for connoisseurs of hops and barley based on the number of cans that litter its interior.

2009 Grand Tree Trail Races

The Western Mass Athletic Club (WMAC) announced their race lineup for the 2009 Grand Tree Trail Series. The list includes 14 races in Massachusetts, 5 races in Connecticut, 4 races in New Hampshire and 1 race in New York. You can check out the complete list at:

WMAC 2009 Grand Tree Race Schedule

NOTE: the list doesn't include race #5 or #23.