The Quest - Scoutland to Triffittville

Saturday, Scout and Squirrel decided to take a break from the Beautiful Loop.  Instead, the plan was to try to make it from Scoutland all the way to Triffittville.  I'd previously made it about six miles in the right direction before heading back.  I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on how to get there.

So, Mindy and I set out a little after 8 am in a surprise snow squall.  The footing could have been better, but, we knew from experience, it could be much, much worse.  Our run started much like all the others, with lots of good conversation.  Soon, it would become much more of a quest than a normal run.

We popped out of the woods at the same place Xar and I had on the Wednesday meeting of the IRS.  It took me a while to realize the road I saw was not Rte 9 at all.  How could that be?!  Mindy trotted along as I ran back and forth a bit before figuring it all out.  With the lack of snow, not all the snowmobile trails are being ridden.  The trail that was supposed to head back to the power lines never did.  We were near Frost Hill Rd.  That meant we'd need to run north a bit to get back to the rte 9 crossing we were supposed to take.

So began the first of our necessary bushwhacking.  This stretch was short and we could still run; though between the snowmobile trail extra plus the bushwhacking, we added around 1.5 miles to the journey.  We came out behind a horse barn that I recognized.  A large black dog came to make sure we were not a danger to his territory.  He never really warmed up to us, but let us by.  We ran out their slippery drive to Rte 9.  We still needed to run up the road a little over a quarter of a mile to get back to the trail.

I love this stretch.  It's great woods on a well-traveled snowmobile trail.  I was just saying to Mindy I needed to stop to pee when we noticed a guy up ahead with a dog.  OK, I'd wait.  As we approached, three large dogs bounded towards us.  I called out to the guy asking if they were friendly.  I don't know if his yes got there before his exuberant dogs did.  With the one he had on leash, he had four dogs.  We chatted for a bit.  He was walking his neighbor's overweight lab.  You could tell he was a dog lover.

We came to the big snowmobile trail intersection that I had recognized on my earlier trek toward Triffittville.  I have just assumed that I picked the right leg, since the other path says it leads to Bowdoin and the one I chose towards Lisbon Falls.  However, after this run, I think the other would bring us back to the main power lines that to head straight for Topsham.

Power lines without snowmobile trail

                                                     
Our path plopped us out behind a little development on a small power line path.  There was a snowmobile path that followed it while it could.  At the big gulley,we decided to go around.  It would bring us onto a road for a small piece, but then we'd get right back on the power line.  Ha!  That's how it should have been, but Hannah had other ideas...

Sweet, naughty Hannah

Almost as soon as we hit the street, Hannah bounded out from a house to greet us.  At first, we were very happy to meet this sweet girl.  Then it became obvious she intended to come with us.  I knock on the door of her house.  I could see someone (a woman I thought) sitting on the couch; (S)he didn't move.  OK.  I walked around to the back of the house.  Two kids were peeking out at me.  I rang the door bell.  Nothing.  The kids were looking at us, but probably instructed not to open the door to strangers.  So I knocked again.  Nothing.

We set out, hoping she would go home.  We were fooled when she appeared to leave us to check out a neighboring yard.  About a quarter mile down the street, she was right with us again.  After a car near-incident, we ran back to her house (Mindy had verified by her tag that it was her house).  There was a tied out.  Mindy de-iced it, but then Hannah wisely avoided her.  I tried the kids in the window again.  "Your dog is following us."  "It's not our dog."  "Do you know whose dog it is?"  "Our uncle's."  "Where does your uncle live?"  "With us."  Kids.

I asked if she could come in.  Yes.  Then it was obvious that she had no interest in going in.  They were not going to help.  Mindy and I, again, headed begrudgingly out.  Hannah bounded along, making sure to stay out of our reach.  We didn't go back to the power line like we would have, hoping she'd go home.  When it was clear she wasn't going to, we were delighted to find a little park with a map showing trails.  It was a very small park.  We were soon back onto a road.  I recognized where we were.  We needed to ditch the dog.  I called Rick to get the cops' number.  It would be a while before they could get the animal control officer our way.  Mindy suggested trying the number on Hannah's tag.  I couldn't imagine that they'd answer the phone after us beating on their door, but what the hell.  Amazingly, the uncle answered and was there in no time.  Ooops...it was his back and long hair that I had assumed was the mom on the couch.  Hannah had cost us at least a half hour.  Ugh!

We were able to make our way back to power lines, but ones that I now realized were too close to rte 196.  Well, they were what we had.  Not to long in, we reached the twilight zone...or the deliverance zone.  We stumbled across some kind of shack compound.  Yikes.  The power lines crossed some fenced in fields.  It didn't look like we should just run across.  We planned to skirt them and come back to the power lines.  Instead, we found ourselves running through real woods.  There was no trail.  Now we just had to go by the direction we should be heading.

Wow.  The going was very slow.  It was amazing how deep the snow was in this stretch of untouched woods and undergrowth.  Running was impossible.  Our feet got cold.  Wet feet are very manageable if you can run enough to generate warmth.  This stretch of the quest was long...not lengthwise and, maybe not time-wise, but certainly testing-the-runners-wise.  I knew we were never in danger of being too lost, but we needed to be able to get where we could at least run in time for our feet not to freeze.  We had several stream crossings (the same stream or branches thereof).  We had briars.  Mindy was lucky I still don't break into song with her (poor Rick!); the Johnny Horton song, "Battle of New Orleans" ran through my head..."they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles and they ran through the bushes where a rabbit wouldn't go".  Of course the next line didn't apply; " They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em."

OMG!  Daylight.  We cheered.  OK, I may have broken into song..."You're out of the woods, You're out of the dark, You're out of the night. Step into the sun, Step into the light."  from the Wizard of Oz seemed very appropriate.  Just after coming out of the woods, into a clearing, we find some junk.  Mindy immediately commented on the sit-n-spin.  Of course, that's what it was, but...I don't know that I'd have realized it.  Yup.  Back in the world.  In fact, soon after picking up a snowmobile trail, we were on some power lines - big power lines.

Sit-N-Spin

From here, we felt so happy feeling we were on the right path to Triffittville.  But, after every big up, we were amazed that there was just power lines ahead.  Again, twilight zone.  Then we started seeing more snowmobile signs.  Finally one said, "Trail 1, Topsham Mall"!!!!!!!!!!!!  Holy Shit!  We weren't going to be out here forever!

I'm not sure how long ago I had told Mindy we should be coming out to a farm that has a donkey and weird cows, but WE WERE COMING OUT TO THE FARM THAT HAS A DONKEY AND WEIRD COWS!!!!!!  Since we had been out for over 4.5 hours (I'd told Rick we'd call it quits at 4), I called Rick right there and then and told him where he could pick us up.  The really cool part is we were on the trail to Triffittville.  If we felt like running another 1/2 hour or so, we would have made it.  Given that they were home, we felt no compulsion to push on.

I had plans to mark up the maps that I've done to show where the paths have gone right and wrong, but....I just don't have time.  So what.  I've had time to run these special runs.  Speaking of special (don't look Mindy, if you're easily embarrassed), I want to tell you all (I'm gonna mix all kinds of metaphors and imagery...deal) of the amazing transformation I've been witnessing.   Do squirrels go into chrysalis?  I guess that's not the case cause that sort of means a state that looks dormant from the outside...but, in a way, since not everyone has been witness to the change that's been going on, I guess that it's a valid comparison.  Anyway, the Squirrel has emerged into an ultra-runner.  I swear she gets stronger as she goes along.  We do match up well; I'm strong when she's not - she's strong when I'm not. Still, I see her getting stronger every week.  There's a lot of that going on in TM world!

I'm gong to add all the other photos from our trek....

Happy dogs with good owner

Getting there

mouse art

mouse garbage

Our "trail"

Real Power line trails!