Do Deer Wear Deerskin Blankets? Or, The Squirrel Will Make Deerskin Vests

Saturday some Monsters were headed to Ma for a fatass, a nice way to get in lots of miles with company and aid.  Since I was going to be headed to MA on Sunday to bring Sam back to school, I decided to stay with Brad, hardly a compromise.  Luckily for me, the Squirrel was all over that.  We'd do the BL and add some extra to get in the 18 on our schedule.  Next thing we knew, Xar was going to BL, too!  The only thing, she was a little reluctant to strike out with us.  She thought to start out early and then we'd pick her up along the way.  Unstrung, a bit unstrung, was still a little worried about staying with us or letting us go and then not knowing the course.  I assured her we would not let her get lost, but would carry flags.  If S&S got out ahead, we'd drop flags that she'd pick up as she followed.  A plan.

S&S met at 8 at the Brad.  Xar's CAR car was already there and empty.  We wondered how early she started.  After my Thursday night run home, I was a little disappointed with the trail conditions.  Tsk, tsk!  They were so, so much improved from our last BL, that I should be ashamed of myself for any grumblings.  Still, I had expectations.

How can we have so much to talk about after our hours and hours of running just days before?  Who cares?  We do and it works.  Out near the gravel pits, Porter and Angus (or maybe some other animal(s)) had the moose ribs in plain view.  Mindy was not disappointed; it was just Fred Flinstonish enough.

Through the first stretch of power lines, across rte 9, we were still seeing the Hoka prints.  Then we came to the place with the "New Trail" sign with a left pointing arrow.  S&S had plans to check out the new trail some day, but for now were sticking with the BL.  We thought it would meet back up later, but weren't sure.  Xar!  Her tracks followed the new trail.  Oh well.

Just a few tenths later, I caught some motion in my peripheral vision.  "XAR!"  Sure enough, her trail was coming back to ours.  There was much rejoicing.  Oh!  The we came upon the recliners.  We were so happy to share the chairs with Xar.  We were pretty amazed that our footprints were still the only ones leading there.  We were convincing Xar she had to rest, when I noticed the rib cage.  What the hell?!

With some boot digging, I found the hind legs.  It was a deer carcass.  Well, since I knew where the rear was, I was driven to search for the head.  I struck pay dirt pretty quickly.  Awww, such a pretty dear head.  The Unstrung One and the Squirrel were equally mortified and tickled.  There was much maniacal laughter.  Xar filmed it.  Then, we got on with Xar reclining.  The deer was dead; it didn't care we'd moved on.

Right after, we were pleased to find the river crossing was firmly crossable.  Every mile or so either Mindy or I would comment on how much farther we'd gone in this amount of time from last week.  It was truly amazing.

After the substation, we were happy to find that snowmobiles had been through the power lines from there out.  Yup, going was a piece of cake...comparatively speaking.  After the Highland Coos, we all oohed and ahhed at the next stretch.  The BL is B.

Starting up LB, we opted to go the old BL path.  That way when we were tacking on miles, we wouldn't be doing it when we were in the parking lot and tempted to stop or just sad about the xtra miles.

Somewhere after the school, my left leg when down into a hole.  Shit!  The knee definitely was hyperextended a bit.  Luckily, some cute little border terriers appeared with their owners.  They were perfect therapy dogs.  By the time we parted, I couldn't feel any pain.  Not long after, the Squirrel hit a hole, but she had a much more interesting, graceful(?) response and wasn't hurt.

We crossed rte 9 back onto the east side of the park.  We ran out Knights Woods onto the snomo trail, then made a right.  From there we continued out into the field and beyond.  We kept running till we knew we'd have our 18 by the time we got back in.  Xar had her first BL with extra miles on top :D

We all had wonderful, wonderful soup after at E&Ls.  In fact,  I had soup and chili.