Some snow today

There was a light dusting of snow on the trail today.
The temperatures were cold but there was not the wind the city was suffering through.
There seemed to be more icy spots around this morning too.

Good weekend

The travels were in pretty good shape on the weekend considering the time of year.
The ground is definitely frozen solid.
There was some ice. Many of the trails that had been iced over earlier in the week had melted by the weekend but you still have to watch you footing in spots, especially where water would pool normally.

Enjoy the trails! Winter is officially here today.

Winter is here

As is you did not already know it by the cold temperatures and wind this week!
Quite different on the trail this morning from two weeks ago when I was out. Last time it was shorts and a bit of mud. This morning it was tights and ice.
The trail for the most part is wide open with very little snow but there are lots of spots with ice. Enough ice that screws in your shoes would not be a bad thing.
I was very careful but did manage to slip, once crashing to the ground in a heap, while on the ice.
Other then that it was a beautiful day to be out. Especially as the temperatures warmed up.

Another beautiful weekend

It was another beautiful weekend in the valley, or at least it was Sunday when the sun got up and glowing warmly.
The trail remains in great shape for the most part.
The section of Martin's Road that I wrote about in the last post has been graded and is good to go again.
There is a long dead pine down on the section of trail that is a pine forest before you come out to the road about two kilometres that requires a bit of a jump around and the trail is muddy there but other then that..........

Wet but mainly good today!

The trail was pretty damp today from Saturday's rain.
Several of the down hill areas were a little greasy but carefully foot falls made them passable.
What was a mess, however was the Martin's Road hill between the open space where a rock has been planted in the middle of the road to prevent access (near the entrance to teh private property) and where Dieter's aid station is located during Sulphur Springs Trail Race.
It appears someone has been tearing up the hill with their cars. It was extremely muddy.

Fall is definitely here

The trail is in pretty good shape now, as long as you are careful.
We seem to have missed out on some fall colours as a large amount of leaves have falledn already hiding the foot grabbers and obstacles for your feet. Two runners fell when they were out with me on the weekend.

The Gulch

The Conservation Authority was apparently talking about closing the gulch earlier this year but so far has not.
Unfortunately the torrential downpours the area has suffered in the last couple of month has been eating away the bottom of the gulch.

Someone has managed to dump this load of lumber half-way up the gulch. Apparently someone was planning a bonfire one night.

Trail conditions from Labour Day Weekend

It's been closed for a while but in case you did not know the Conservation Authority shut down the lookout trail in May. The section of the trail was closed for the Sulphur Springs Trail races.
One end of the section has been seriously closed by a pile of debris but the other end is part of another trail section and is not blocked except by the single sign.


It seems no sooner does a tree get clean-up from across the trail down from the parking lot at the start of the trail when another falls to replace it.

Nice mess!

Apparently someone had fun at the pool house parking lot on Friday night.
This pile of burned garbage was left at the start of the trail with an overturned shopping chart and someone had done donuts again in the grassy field.
Unfortunately it took until Monday for someone to clean up.

Trail this weekend.

I have to admit I did not get out to the trails again this weekend.

Two friends who were out on Saturday reported good conditions with minimal in the way of ice but the trail got muddy fast when the thaw set in as the temperatures warmed.

The cold overnight temperatures are not helping get ride of the remaining snow but it's supposed to be plus temperatures all week. This should help.

Trail this weekend.

Good and Bad!

The trail this morning had some good and bad news!
Much of the trail is either bare or covered in snow/ice that was fairly pitted and fairly easy to run on, especially with screws in your shoes. Areas that are open to the sun, such as the Monarch Trail, were down to the dirt.
Unfortunately, many of the slopes are solid dangerous ice.
The trail down to the bridge crossing and the switch backs on the Main Loop were unpassable.
I cut short today so did not make it up to the top of Headwaters to view the conditions there.
The snow tonight might help to improve the conditions somewhat.
The temperatures are supposed to hit the plus side again by mid week.

Dangerous conditions

I was unable to get out to the trail all weekend. Was home sick in bed.

I'm told however, the trails were very dangerous and spikes were highly recommended!

Trail conditions Thursday at noon hour

I have gotten a couple of questions about the condition of the trail now.

I have not been on the trail since Saturday but here's what I found when I stuck my head in at a couple of spots along the trail today.



This is the trail leading from the pool house parking lot.



The tail here was pretty icy and I image any spot on the trail that is exposed to the sun will be in a similar situation.
The trail below the slow down from the pool centre was covered in wet snow and I mean very wet. The weather forecast I've heard for the rest of the week predicted freezing temperatures which could turn this stuff to ice.



This is the red main trail leading down from the parking lot at the gatehouse. The dark spot is mud that had been deposited by dirt from water that had been running off the parking lot in what appeared to have been a heavy stream.
There was a lot of wind in the area overnight and I did not see if any trees were down but would not be surprised if there were.



This was the trail leading back up to the gatehouse parking lot where the run off had cut a stream through the ice on the trail. I can only speculate that the hill leading up to the farm field on Headwaters Trail is going to look much the same.

Overall there's snow, ice, mud and water!

Have fun!

Hoping to get out for a loop on Saturday to see what it's like then for myself.

Nice to day while it lasted

The warmer weather today made for some great running conditions this morning.
The snow melted enough to give you a stable trail to run on. The temperatures were warm enough to be more than comfortable. The only way to improved the conditions would have been with some sun shine.
The usual trail blockages are still in place---mainly on Headwaters. There was some evidence someone was clearing some dead falls on the Lookout Trail.
A group of coyotes had managed to make a meal of a deer on Headwaters. The nearly picked clean carcass was still on the trail when we came through. It has now been moved from sight.

Temperatures sound like they are going to yo-yo for the next couple of days with minus temperatures Sunday and back to plus 9 on Monday.

Warmer today but.....

Temperatures were definitely warmer on the trail this morning.

The snow on the trail was still cold enough to be granular and loose under foot.

The sunshine where it reached through the trees, definitely was helping some of the snow to become sticky and more stable under foot.

Headwaters still had the deep snow along the edge of the farmer's field and still has not had enough traffic for a well worn path.

All I want for Valentine's Day is some nice WARM temperatures!

Cold but pretty in spots

Trail for the first half was quite good today.
The cold had the snow rather granular but some of it was packed down quite hard on the larger trails. Thank goodness for cross country skiers who in many spots had packed the trail too.
The footing was not too bad although there had been no traffic on the Sulphur Springs trail section on the way back from Turnbull Road to the main loop.
Headwaters was another story.
The first half of the trail was slow due to the footing. On Headwaters the wind had done it usual and deposited snow along the trail in some place causing me to post hole as I tried to make my way along. The wind was also up and therefore the wind chill made it exceptionally cold up along the farmer's field.

Sunday's predicted warm temperatures should change everything. I'm sure the footing will improve with the thaw but that may not come until much later in the day.


Martin's Road as you can see is still blocked by a tree you have to crawl under.

This is one of several blockages along the upper portion of Headwaters where the path is starting to get worn through the bush.

Not really sure what happened here but I'm told it involved a bottle hand off and a quick move by the dogs. I found my friends this way when I rounded the corner catching up to them.

Cold this morning

Well it was another cold day on the trail today.
Mercury was hovering around -12 at my house. It seemed slightly warmer on part of the trail but the sunshine sure helped.
Any place there was a hint of wind though, the temperature dropped that's for sure.
The crossing across the top of the Headwaters trail was cool with some wind. The footing up there was fairly tough again. The trail never gets a chance to get packed down before it's winds swept again.
The footing on most of the trail was excellent. The colder temperatures had the snow frozen solidly and it had already been fair packed down from use. There was no ice in sight, despite the thaw on Friday.

There are still three obstacles on the upper section of the Headwaters Trail and the tree is still across Martin's Road.

While it has been cold here for running, friends in Brockville tell me the temperature was -28 this morning for their run.

Rain?

O.K. It looks like the weather man blew it and we're not going to get any rain today. That means the coating of snow over the ice covered trail should stay and the footing should be good for a while longer.
There is talk of snow in the forecast for Tuesday afternoon which can only improve the footing.
Finally got up to Headwaters on Sunday and the up side of the look is really blocked now. For a couple of weeks there has been a tree down not far from the junction with the main trail back to Martin's Road. Unfortunately there has been a second tree blow down in the same spot and it's covered in vines. A path around has already started to be worn around the blockage.

The part superintendent was out in the Dundas Conservation Area on Sunday clearing the trees down on the main Red Loop.
He was talking to some runners and said the tree across Martin's Road is not the conservation authority's issue since it is not on their property. He said the city may not be inclined to clear it either (it is the city's problem) since the there has been an effort to discourage four-wheels from using Martin's Road. It will have to be cleared by Paris To Ancaster bike race for sure (which is before the Sulphur Springs races).

Happy New Year!

Well it's a new year and time for resolutions, mine mostly to get back out to the trail more and keep this blog up at the same time.
My motivation has been low of late and now my training partner has busted he leg, motivating myself is even harder.
I did a partial loop this morning.
The trail was actually in pretty good shape with a coating of snow over a layer of ice. The snow was compacted enough to make it possible to run without Yak-Traks or screws in your shoes.
The forecast for a warm front to move in tomorrow afternoon and with it freezing rain will make the trails dangerous for the start of the week, I'm sure.
There is lots of evidence of storm damage around the sections of the trail I was on today.
Clearview Trail has a small tree across it as does the Monarch Trail. The red main trail has at least two trees down in the area of the path leading up to the Railway Station and the main park entrance. There is a large tree across Martin's Road near Dieter's aid station by the last slope in the road before his station. The tree is too high to crawl over and low enough it is hard to crawl under.
I did not get up to the Headwaters Trail and know only that there was at least one tree across the trail several weeks ago.