Day 6.344: Less is more

It's been a short spell in Maine this week. I'm heading back home tomorrow. The week has been an eventful one though thanks to the foot of snow that fell just before I got here and the six inches or so since then. Yesterday daytime temperatures just crept above freezing for the first time in well over a week.

My morning runs have given me the opportunity to assess various snow clearance efforts and I've decided that less is more - to a point.

This was the view on one of my runs.  Since we're right at the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone, the sun rises relatively early (and sets early of course!).

Most of the trails and sidewalks I run on have been cleared like this:

Which, when packed hard, makes a pretty good running surface (especially with my Yaktrax).  I've encountered  two less-desirable variations.

1) The complete clearance - which, with insufficient salt and very cold overnight temperatures result in what looks like clear ground, but is actually a perfect sheet of ice.

2) The not-bothered-to clearance - which with this much snow is effectively impassable.

Now, with the temperatures rising, the hard packed snow is getting soft and mobile which is much harder going, so maybe the balance will tip in favour of option 1, but probably not as I doubt this 'warm' spell will last too long.