Training Log Archive: Swampfox

First heard, and then saw, another crossbill. I can't believe I can pick out the song of a crossbill now; it used to be I would hear something and think: "Oh, yeah, that's probably a *bird*." ; )

Many other *birds* to admire on the trails today as well, however, these were all of an entirely different variety.

It snowed steadily on the trails the whole time I was up, versus zero snow for the valley. Temps were right around freezing, and the interstate was wet and not iced on the hill (until passing over into no-snow land) on the way home, even though by then it was after dark.

Apres ski running, still up at Happy Jack. Mused a little about the changes underway in the forest. Folks who were at last year's Daze and come to this year's Daze might be surprised to see how fast the forest is changing. Folks who haven't been back since the US Champs might be stunned, were they to come back this fall.

C • beatles? 4

Felt like it might have been the warmest day of the year (so far.) That despite the fact that it was overcast all day long, with only occasional hints that some blue or some sun might lie beyond.

Thankfully a few snowshoers had been kind enough to tromp around on several trails before I did the same in regular running shoes.

C • Do snow shoers and skiers g... 3

Brilliant sunshine.

I could see before starting it was snowing lightly outside, so I bundled up accordingly. In other words, I dressed exactly as I would have had it been sunny instead.

Once I got to the path rimming the golf course, I could tell there was something different about the snow. Something. But what? It felt like it had an extra texture to it.

The sky and the ground were identical in color, so that it was nearly impossible to tell what was up and what was down, and where the line of demarcation might be drawn. Some people say to use crow, because crow fly in sky, but they are brainwashed. I know crow can be on ground, too. At any rate, I saw raven and not crow.

What would have helped for sure would have been dark horse, because dark horse are always on ground.

Something landed on my nose, and at first I thought it was a brightly colored beetle. Upon examining it more closely, I saw it was only a bit of chaff, perhaps blown down from some already forgotten medals ceremony in Vancouver. It was at least proof that somewhere in this material world, someone was living, and her name was not Madonna.

By then, I was feeling good and warmed up, like I was on cloud nine, and flying! So fine! I knew if I kept it up, the next thing that would arrive would be blue jay way, which struck me as beyond odd even as the thought came and left. There are no blue jays in Laramie, nor cardinals either. I could have gone further, much further, but that had to be weighed against breakfast, which was also beckoning.

I was torn and so looked for some kind of sign, and when I saw that someone had written "think for yourself" in the snow, I made up my mind and headed home with no regrets.

After all, all things must pass.

8 times the Lollipop (aka Summit Loop) with good effort, steady snow sifting down the whole time, somewhere between powder and pellets.

The skiing was really good, but I left as dusk was falling, as the Happy Jack road had been fairly dubious again on the way up, and there was no telling what condition of distress the interstate might have passed over to, having been wet on the way up. WYDOT had been putting down sand and I didn't notice any ice, but you never know, and it was just as well to have left when I did. As it was, the semis were crawling down the hill.

It looks like we are set with the Forest Service for the 2010 Laramie Daze. Next up is to start doing course designs!

C • Daze 2

The trickiest part of skiing today was negotiating the Happy Jack road between the interstate and the parking lot; it was totally glazed over and totally treacherous.

The second trickiest part was negotiating the parking lot, where massive drifts and randomly formed up, courtesy of some pleasant winds. One popular approach is to simply drive through them with a bit of steam, and hope for the best. That will often work well enough, unless there is a care buried inside the snowdrift--which does happen sometimes.

The third trickiest part? Nope. Just the two tricky parts above--that was all.

11+ hrs. of sun time returns today!

100% sunshine, and utterly calm!

Amazing! The thermometer has climbed back into the 20s!

I can almost feel summer setting in already.

Full sun all day long was not enough to warm things up much.

Only got colder after skiing, and it wasn't until about 40 minutes into the run that my hands started warming back up. Brrrrr! Somewhere under 0F, but the edge came from the winds (windchill down to -25F?), which crept up and up and up as the shadows lengthened. Maybe this will be the last cold day of winter here?

At the turn, I stopped and did 3 sets of twizzles off each side. (note: this has absolutely *nothing* to do with ice dancing, I swear!)

Intense ice fogs settled down into the valley overnight, thickly riming all the trees. By the time I was out the door, the fog had mostly dissipated, except for residual heavy banks off in the western side of the valley.

I ran in the tracks of an antelope herd that had wandered into town, as the indians once did.

C • The indians wandered into t... 2

C • The indians wandered into t... 2

Lots of new snow, great conditions.

After skiing, on snowshoe trails, in the dark. Had to be careful to avoid tendrils of fog creeping in silently from the southeast.

It looked like it snowed during the night, and it did snow all day long. The groomers rolled the trails (probably late morning?) but enough snow fell after that such that the trails were very, very soft and unstable.

After skiing, running in the new snow on the (theoretically) packed snowshoe trails underneath. I was cutting new trail and snow was flying everywhere. Probably it will show up on tonight's news when they reprise today's weather.

Once a week for the past 24 weeks Capital One has sent me a credit card solicitation, and I am not joking. Today another outstanding offer arrived, making it #25. Some bored hacker must have hacked into Capital One's computers, and altered the trolling software to send lots of solicitations to the portion of the potential card using universe *least* likely to use their cards.

C • New sport for Wyoming cowboys 2

As I arrived at the parking lot, I could see a figure trudging towards the parking lot down the dirt road that bounds Telephone Song. It turned out to be a snowboarder, and once he hit the parking lot, he looked about as lost and forlorn as the did the dog I saw yesterday (albeit in the parking lot for the HQs trail.)

Some new snow fell today, but not enough to completely hide the corduroy.

After skiing, ran down the drainage on snowshoe trails, over to Yellow Pine Campground and back.

Small world note: I think the Silver medalist in the Cross Country Men's Individual Sprint is the brother of a skier at U. of Wyoming.

A dog was in the HQs trailhead parking lot, and it was barking every so often, and running around in a somewhat uninspired fashion, pausing every so often to look around and then look more intently off in the distance. It looked lost, which I think it was. It had tags on, and while it wasn't acting hostile, it also wouldn't come close to me, and so I went ahead and began running, per plan. The dog was gone when I returned.

I don't know what was going on with the skiing today. I was going super fast, but I don't have the technique, conditioning, or equipment to be going super fast. Sometimes it almost felt like I was going too fast uphill. I don't know--maybe the snow was perfect or something. Or maybe I ODd on waffles this morning, and was skiing with altered perception of reality.

Mostly I was glad not to get ticketed by the ski patrol.

C • Not getting caught... 2

It was cold despite full sunshine, and about 4" of new snow had fallen overnight. Even after grooming, the trails were quite soft, and I was s-l-o-w.

Lots of fresh snow to run in. And thanks to the snowshoers that preceded me!

Excellent conditions. Several flurries came through and left about 2" of new snow on the trails while I was skiing.

10 1/2 hrs of sunshine!

A little new snow was on the trails, and it had arrived after today's grooming, and left the trails feeling very creamy, faster rather than slower, and with very good bite. Really nice conditions.

Fair number of skiers out, though none of the college or high school team folks, and not so many from the miscellaneous faster crowd either. Maybe they have all decamped for the new snow zone (Washington, D.C.)? I can think of no better explanation, though my limitations are too well known.

From an overlook I could see what appeared to be heavy snow falling over the Gangplank only a few miles to the SE, but there was not a single flake falling at Happy Jack where I was.

Sunset back at 5:30 today.

I was sure there was a race tonight, and therefore I was almost totally puzzled by what I was seeing. Situation normal, in other words.

Full sunshine; many antelope and even some antelope tracks.

Totally having nothing to do with this, there was a report yesterday that a wolf pack may have moved into NW Colorado, which would be pretty cool, except for any ranchers. Ranchers don't think wolves are cool.

Today's song of choice: "So Much For The Afterglow", inspired mostly by the way the skies looked after sunset, and lessly by anything else. This was skiing after all, and not sex.

Nothing like a chill Canadian wind sweeping out of the endless prairie to the north to remind that winter isn't over yet.

A light snow fell overnight, and the already white valley was looking bright white this morning with the new snow.

Looked like about 2" new fell overnight.

Chilly.

New snow falling lightly the entire time; really nice skiing, and lots of skiers were out!

Followed up skiing with some running in some very moosy terrain, but saw no mooses nor even any fresh moose tracks. More light snow falling for the entire run. Cool! As a bonus, there was no wind.

Made it back home in time for the Soopah Bole.

After skiing, I ran on trails and did what I could to invoke the snow gods, as I could see they had some likely looking clouds forming up just a little ways SE and past the interstate. A few flakes did fall now and then where I was running, but that was the best I could wrest out of the circumstance.

There was light snow falling for the whole time I was out.

While driving up canyon, I saw a pair of eagles flying off to one side.

Woodpeckers were at work again in the beetle trees at the top of Summit Loop.

A full month now since the last measurable snow! Despite that, the Laramie Valley remains very close to 100% covered in snow.

It reminds me of some of the finer parts of West Texas.

Running on some of the south side, snowshoe packed trails at Happy Jack. Ran into a black, 11 month old, highly energetic Great Dane and its owner.

If a black, 11 month old, highly energetic Great Dane runs into a typical runner on snowshoe packed trails, it develops the typical runner will be totally taken out.

Did not spot any packs of African hunting dogs.

Another day of no snow, and not much wind. That's an acceptable bargain.

Ran by another foundation being excavated today for a new house (probably a duplex, actually) a few blocks away, over by the schools.

Even though it was nearing lunchtime, I didn't observe any of the construction munching escarole, though I did see some french fries. Some greedy looking crows were lined up on the street curb near the workers.

I think the crows saw the french fries, too.