by Jess Evans
April 8, 2019
This past weekend there were 9 adventure races and orienteering meets that were recorded on ARC’s calendar. And there are still 7 more races coming up later this month. This is a clear sign the AR season is starting. You must go to Virginia, Oregon, North Dakota, or Florida for the remainder of the races in April, but getting to the race is half the fun.
While so many people were out adventuring this past weekend, I was settling into my spring chores. The barn needed cleaning. That section of the barn had not been cleaned out in nearly 35 years. Most of the floor was decomposing hay, cow manure, and wood pallets, but I did find a few treasures. I turned up two hot wheels, a plastic HamBurglar green car from McDonalds, our old dull knife for cutting the strings around the hay bales, and two shirts belonging to my sisters or myself, most likely. Clearly the barn was a favorite place to play when I was a child. The barn is a bit cleaner, as far as barns go, and I was able to do some cross training through raking, lifting, pulling, pushing, hammering, and a host of other things.
My other main activity over the weekend was planting trees. I planted three scrub oaks and 11 pine trees. The location where I get my pine seedlings still has some frozen ground, so I will have to wait until more snow melts and the ground thaws to get the mother load of pine trees. There are plenty of young ones there ready to be transplanted. I am hoping to plant around 100 trees again this year on the old farmstead.
I am looking forward to next weekend’s Breakdown AR at The Breaks. I will be eagerly watching Facebook to see how all my midwestern friends fair the warm day and cold night during the 24 hour race. Enjoy the spring flowers and the budding trees. It is one of the best times of the year to be out in the Virginia woods.
