Discussion: Laramie Daze

Some good stuff for the day:

Drafting for the new Yellow Pine map was finished, and a preliminary course design for the Yellow Pine race was completed. Will the Yellow Pine course have a yellowish nature? Maybe! When the day arrives, we will see.

There was just enough time to finish off the last bits of a quarter km2 section at the Big Basin map (trial name for now.) That same amount of time was just enough to attract a nice horde of mosquitoes, many of which did not survive the mapping session. Fortunately the mapper did survive, however.

One thing for sure, not even a strong Swiss runner born in Grindelwald with a cow bell around his/her neck is going to complain that there aren't enough contour lines on this map to keep them from feeling happy.

Except for the mosquitoes, the base for this area is a pleasure to work with--contours and all other details are very crisp and sharp.

Here are 2 photos which reveal something of the character of the area (quite similar to the Finnish terrains for the upcoming WOC, but different):

From publiken

and

From publiken

Note the complete absence of cattle in the photos. That's what happens when cowboys get hungry.

Enjoy!

Swampfox, what is your email address? Going to be in your hood this weekend. Want to pick your brain on some fun spots to train.

Thanks,

Kylerpeter@gmail.com

if he sends you up to where he took those photos, you might never come back

With terrain like this, does a little beetle kill between friends really matter? (Disclaimer: it's not *all* quite like this.)

Some miscellaneous news from 14 July:

1) Cheyenne Frontier Days kicked off its unofficial start with the traditional cattle drive into town. As usual, once the cattle could see the windmills of Warren Air Force Base, they stampede into Cheyenne. Anyone who thinks cows are dumb has not seen the Cheyenne cattle in action. They are quite selective, invariably going after any Mercedes Benzs and Jaguars first. Then they move on to tattoo parlors and suntan lounges (what self respecting cowboy would ever have need for either?) From there they move methodically through the target list, until about 70-80% of Cheyenne has been thoroughly destroyed. Only after that has been accomplished can Cheyenne Frontier Days be considered to have been a success for another year.

For some reason the cattle never touch Subway sandwich shops, and the prevailing theory is that Subway is so ubiquitous that the cows figure it would just be a waste of time.

2) After mapping today, I headed over to the trails at Happy Jack to wind down (from the mapping excitement; was it really necessary to add that?). As I summited one of the finer climbs available at Happy Jack, a small cluster of streamering adorning a pole fence caught my eye. Seeing streamering at Happy Jack is nothing unusual, and in fact I had already run past massive amounts of streamering and other trail markings out for a 24 hour endurance race that took place on the trails this weekend. Running a six mile loop as many times as you can for 24 hours straight would seem to meet the classic definition of insanity, but you be the judge. And so that your judgement be even better informed, let it be said that just as the pathetic 6 hour class racers were getting underway, a thunderstorm struck with a force and violence that easily exceeded anything seen locally around here this year, washing away major portions of the trail net in the process.

But I have digressed. As I was saying, some streamering caught my eye, and something about it made me think I should take a closer look. And when I did, what I saw made me exclaim one of my more extreme epithets: "Helen wheels!!!" I apologize; but I simply could not help myself. Because what I saw of all things on that pole fence out in the middle of nowhere at Happy Jack was a Sport Ident unit, with a little placard identifying it as the #18 control of the upcoming Cowboy Tough Adventure Race.

Now it gets more than a little freaky. Because the tune I had been humming to myself right before embarking on that big climb was Revolution 9, and as any mathematician will quickly point out to you, the perfect pure double (one of the most powerful pairings known to exist in the entire mathematical universe) of 9 is 18. Just think of that. A #18 Sport Ident control unit at Happy Jack, and I had been humming Revolution 9!

You can not make stuff like that up, and I would not even try.

3) I finished off 2 more 1/4 km2 sections of the Big Basin map this weekend, and there is now enough map for a Daze course to be squeezed in. Though it would necessarily be a somewhat contrived course as the outline of the map to date is roughly the same as the outline of Florida will be once the ocean has risen another 32' from global warming. I was very lucky yesterday in that I had finished mapping and was nearly back to my truck before the big rains and hail were unleashed.

I will state for the record that the Big Basin terrain is essentially unique with nothing anywhere else in the US coming close to resembling it (other than the Antenna Hill map immediately to the south.) It's fine terrain with excellent orienteering possibilities and some physically challenging slopes which will help test just how much Swiss blood you have running through your veins. But nothing that can not be overcome with the help of a cowbell or two. More cowbell!

That's some adventure race...the start is in Casper.

Start is in Cheyenne, finish is in Casper. I suppose Tico 2.0 has also stumbled upon CP18 by now...

Nope. But I was in Happy Jack yesterday. See you soon.

CP17 is no doubt at the Ames Monument, which will mean a double live crossing of I-80, dodging the 18 wheelers and occasional WYDOT vehicle. Racers are paying $600-$800 per person to enter (an entry fee which would warm even tundra/desert's race organizer's heart, no doubt), and for that kind of money if they don't get to visit the Ames Monument, there will be lynchings of race officials.

Ha. Difference is the Cowboy Tough has a $10,000 cash purse, but I'm positive they can't touch Vlad's Tshirt design.

Don't have to dodge semis if you know where the culverts are...