Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Changed a front bike tyre (old one had developed a squiggle where something had cut the tyre.) Biked. Ran. Once back home, heard a plane doing odd sounding things outside but didn't bother to look to see what was going on because I knew what was going on: a cropduster was making rounds, not dusting crops, but dusting mosquitoes and dropping dragonfly canister on especially large, visible clouds of mosquitoes discernible from the plane.

Ran up at Happy Jack, and checked out the aftermath of the bike race. Not much to see, other than a few streamers that were missed on the pickup, and lots of bike tracks on the course route.

I just found out there will be bumblebee cows where we are staying in Scotland! They are really remarkable creatures, producing chocolate and white milk on alternating days.

O' training at Twin Boulders, 9.1 kms, 25 controls, several camping vans, and many cows.

Towards the end of the course a bird got up off the ground ahead of me, and it looked like a nighthawk. Even though I hadn't seen within a few feet of where it had been, I decided to see if I could spot any eggs. After searching carefully for about 2 minutes, I was just about ready to give up--after all, there was no way to be sure there was even a nest in the first place. But I hunted just a little while longer and I found a single, speckled, very well camouflaged egg. Mission accomplished. As I was stepping away, a bit of movement out of one corner of my eye caught my attention and, holy s curves, it was the biggest bull snake I've ever seen in my life--at least 5' long, no joke. And it was headed straight for the egg! I shrieked: "Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!", as I was ripping off my shirt to prepare for battle, and leapt to interpose myself between the serpent and the helpless egg.

The snake attacked first and had the early advantage, putting a clove hitch move on me and squeezing me like I was one of those tiny tubes of toothpaste TSA will let on planes with. I was fighting for air but losing the battle and, out of desperation, I manage to get off one of my O' socks and somehow dangle it in the general vicinity of the snake's nose. The fumes from the sock were something the snake had never experienced before, and, overcome by the overwhelming swamp noxiousness, it relaxed its grip just enough that I was able to deliver a truly vicious compass chop (and that's why you want to use a baseplate compass at all times, for emergency situations like this) which immobilized it. I jumped to my feet, seized the reptilian form by its tail and began whirling it round and round my head, and then released it, hurling it through the air for several hundred feet down the hill. I would need to worry about that bull snake again any time soon!

So, I put my shirt back on, and my sock, and checked for life threatening wounds--of which there were none--and began to prepare to depart. However, I took one last look at the rescued egg, and realized how hungry the battle had left me. And I thought about how delicious the egg would be in a waffle back at home.

And it was every bit as good as I had imagine!

At about 5 pm yesterday, it became violently windy, lasting about 1/2 hour or so. It was part of a storm passing through, though only a few drops of rain fell. Most smaller trees in my neighborhood were bent over nearly in half and many smaller branches were broken off. Enormous amounts of dust were swept up into the air. Driving out to go running afterwards, I saw several trees that had been split in half or blown down entirely. Even though it is often windy here, I've never seen something quite like this.

I ran at Happy Jack, and arrived--as it turned out--in mid mountain bike race (part of the summer series of weekly local races that has been taking place for a number of years now. I ran counter-flow in order to not get mowed down by racers. Always fun to see it going on and so many people enjoying themselves on the trails.

A guy was standing at the one fence crossing in the race, and it turned out to be a volunteer race medic. And, more to the point to me, it turned out to be the guy who had been my main nurse while I was in the hospital last year with blood clots in my lung, etc. It was fun seeing him and getting the chance to thank him again for looking after me then.

Ran up at Happy Jack; the snow is all gone--for now. Lots of mountain bikers were out, a few mosquitoes, and even two giant dragonflies. Mountain bikers are fine, but it is the dragonflies that make me smile.

Mapped some at Diamond Bay, several interesting bird encounters, and ran intervals to finish up my outdoors activities for the day. Seasonally quite cool and as pleasant as could be. The dirt roads are powder dry and the ATVs and buggy vehicles (whatever they are called) were kicking up impressive clouds of dust.

The first bird encounter was scaring a nighthawk off its nest. Well, nest is quite a stretch, since they simply lay their eggs directly on the ground. And, I can't be 100% sure it was a nighthawk. The bird *looked* like a nighthawk and acted exactly like a nighthawk should act when scared off its eggs, and I'm not aware of anything else that really looks like a nighthawk. And yet, the eggs were almost pure white; it's the second time (happened once last year, too) I've seen white eggs from what I thought was a nighthawk. The eggs should be speckled, and their coloration makes them all but impossible to spot unless you very carefully mark with you eyes exactly where the parent bird gets from. They're *really* hard to spot. So what could this be if not a nighthawk? I have no idea.

Bird number two was heard, not seen. It had a call that was more similar to that of a bobwhite than anything else, a 2 note call with the second note a full step up from the first note, and the call repeated 4-5 times. I've never heard it before around here, so it quite took me aback. I have no idea what it could have been.

Bird number three was a woodcock, also--I am almost positive--getting up off a nest, but I was not able to locate the nest (or chicks, if they weren't in a nest) despite seeing pretty closely where the bird got up from. At first I wasn't even sure it was a woodcock, because I thought (wrongly) they were upland birds. But it sure looked like one, and when I checked information back home I realized that's what it had been.

Also found the first deer sheds I've come across this year.

Mosquitoes were not bad at all--just one or two occasionally buzzing around--and if they're not bad by now up in the hills, then this probably will go down as a mosquito light year. Down in the valley it's quite different and without spraying and other control measures, it would not be much fun to be walking around in town, not even in the middle of the day.

edit: mystery solved! It was a poorwill and poorwill eggs I saw, and that was also the bird I heard.

Beautiful day and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon biking, about 3 hours in all. Then went running at Happy Jack. I was quite surprised to see the snowfield hadn't melted completely away yet. It was very shrunken however--down to about 3' x 3', and pretty thin, so it will probably disappear in the sun tomorrow, barring a phreak ozzy blizzard. Legs felt good.

O' session at Pelican Bay--11.1 kms, 34 controls. Uneventful, except when I nearly stepped on a mule deer fawn. And this wasn't one of those cases where I was a few feet away and the fawn got up and ran off. Rather, my foot was literally coming down onto where the fawn was hiding, and it wisely/luckily got up at the last possible moment and dashed off. The explosion of unexpected motion right at my feet completely startled me, and I came *this close* to stopping, ripping my map in half, and writing out a note to say: "Do NOT do this again!" Except of course mule deer don't read.

Quite cool out today--low 60s down in the valley, and lower than that up top.

Ran trails at Happy Jack at an easy pace. Checked out the snowfield and...it was still there! It will last at least another day, but not much longer, as there is not much of it left.

Spent the Solstice--well, part of it--setting/streamering the Rocky Mountain Goat. I did a first draft, liked it, then checked the length and saw it was 10.7 kms. Normally I would go for something another kilometer or so longer than that, but when I looked over the course again and thought about the likely field/turnout we might get for Labor Daze, I decided to go with it and just see how it looked on the ground.

And it I really liked it on the ground--everything about it. A nice mix of varying types of controls (difficulty, approach) and legs, and and an ever changing mix of terrain, visibility, vegetation, and underfooting. While I was checking out things I only ended up making one change, and that was a very tiny one--moving one control from one feature to another feature about 15m away.

Normally, with a generic course on a generic map in a generic terrain, I would expect to make quite a few changes to a design once out in the field. Here, however, it helps a lot to know the terrain, and especially a mapping style and quality I can count on.

So the course designs for Labor Daze are done, and it always feels good to get that done. Now there are only a few more details to attend to--maybe getting some punch cards, lining up some toilets, an actual permit in hand wouldn't be a bad thing, printing up a few maps, and then of course an entry or two at some point would also be nice just from the standpoint of seeing if any controls ended up in the right location. ; )

C • Punch Cards 2

At least 84F today, so easily the warmest day of the year here so far. (For those who don't know, anything over 80F counts as pretty warm around here.)

Looks like the high for the day reached 87F which, if correct, should have been enough to set a new record high for the date.

Even with the heat, it felt pretty nice to be out biking today. I ended ditching plans to run at Diamond Bay when a late afternoon storm arrived at about the time I was about to leave. It didn't last long, but it was pretty intense with very strong winds while it was going. Once it ended, I ran from home, hitting the trail net near home.

ed: It reached 88F, and it was a record.

Ran at Happy Jack and checked out the snowfield again--still there, and it looks like it could last another 2 days, so it will make it to astronomical summer. Mosquitoes are definitely going to be there to greet the solstice; they were there today to greet me.

A great deal of flagging appeared a few weeks back, indicating incipient (mountain biking) trail work. One straight uphill section leading to the snowfield and which I sometimes use for hill work was flagged for a major s-curving re-route, and it looks like the re-route was just completed. The re-route is enough longer than the piece it replaced (which was part of the Silent Trails race course) that the old records for Silent Trails will probably never be broken.

The trails are now very dry and dusty and are already approximating late summer conditions; this time last year, in contrast, some of these same trails still had trickles of water running down them from late winter snow melt.

Biking by the river, I could see that the river levels are falling quickly now. It crested a few days (from spring snow melt) and is now down at least 2 1/2'.

The sun is feeling intense. It's almost as if it is getting higher in the sky or something. Weird.

But no matter. Intervals were on tap today, and intervals were what happened.

Also, a Mark 37a FDF emerged from a miasma and maneuvered to engage me. For a brief bit we were evenly matched with neither of us able to gain an advantage. But then the enemy pilot made a mistake that proved to be fatal. When I returned to the aerodrome, my crew was already waiting with chilled Mountain Dew, and we all celebrated my first victory of the season.

C • :-) 1

Just breeze today, and no wind enough to cause travel advisories to be posted for the interstate. An odd day in that it was cloudy just about all day long, with two very brief, very light sprinkles, and quite cool temps considering it is nearly midsummer--maybe just up to 60F or so.

I ran an 11 km course with 30 controls at Diamond Bay, taking in some of the new area I added on last year. It's the first time the new area has been used by anyone. Cheat grass is still green but is now curing rapidly and it won't be long before it is ready to inflict itself upon socks, and even human flesh! It was a sad day when cheat grass got loose; it has never looked back.

There were enormous numbers at ATVers out, kicking up impressive clouds of dust, surely large enough to be easily visible from space.

I did not see any cows while I was running.

While I was putting on my socks and O' shoes, I listened to a piece on the radio talking about Yoko Ono being recognized as a co-writer of "Imagine". A long time coming. It's one of my favorite songs, as, I guess, it is of so many other people as well.

Day 7 of wind. For summer, unprecedented, that I can remember. Lots of fines were headed off towards Nebraska today. And quite pleasant out; much warmer, and it would have felt like a warm wind. As it was, it felt cooling.

I biked some, and ran some, checking out the snowfield up top. I estimate it should last at least another 2 days, but probably not many more after that. I came across a number of other trees leaning over trails, half blown over (and hung up in other trees) sometime during the past week in the wind.

Lots of larkspur in bloom. Supposedly larkspur is a real problem for livestock.

The summer shoulder season in Laramie is over now. Gradually activity will pick up from here with summer camps, athletes returning to campus, and tourists. Maybe even an orienteer or two!

I don't often run at Plains of Despair anymore unless I'm feeling unusually ebullient, but I ran there today: a course about 12 km with 26 controls. From what I gather from Gswede's log, this was as close as you can get to Estonian terrain and vegetation as you can get without actually being there. In some parts of the prairie sections of the map, the grasses were so lush and abundant that forward progress was nearly impossible, though of course since it was only *nearly* impossible, it was still possible, at least for a strong and determined swampfox like me.

I was very surprised to not see a single cow; just a few days ago, there were hundreds in the area. What gives? Aliens? Were they part of some huge voodoo sacrifice designed to give impetus to the secret Senate health care plan? Very mysterious.

But boy did I see a lot of brilliant orange-red indian paint brush! That more than made up for the lack of cattle. A lot of the time cows just get in the way anyway.

And I also nearly ran over two baby (fawn? I have no idea what you call young antelope) antelope, who sprang up at my feet and took off at rocket speed. Probably their mother is still looking for them now. They were only slightly larger than a large chihuahua. (Of course everything is larger than a small chihuahua.)

Day 6 of wind. Maybe it winds down tonight.

C • wrong, but right 2

Windy again today, now for 5 straight days.

While biking today, I encountered a gigantic water snake on the river bike path. Okay--the snake was probably not more than 2' long, but for around here, that is about as big as they get.

It feverishly tried to attack my front wheel, which was almost funny. I can't imagine what it thought it was going to accomplish. Really, I doubt it could have hurt the tender skin of a pinky finger, much less the Gatorskins on my wheels. Gatorsklns are warrantied to be bite-proof from alligators and even salt water crocs.

At length, it desisted and slithered off towards the snow-melt swollen waters of the river, which was kind of an odd choice for a cold blooded reptile. Surely the water this time of the year is icy cold.

When I got home, I called up the local newspaper, thinking this is the kind of exciting story they would want to run tomorrow on the front page, under a banner headline. But they didn't seem near as interested as I thought they would be. Apparently the serpent would have needed to have been a few inches longer to warrant that kind of coverage.

Feeling somewhat muffined by the whole experience, I then went running. There is still some snow left up top at Happy Jack at the eastern overlook off the Headquarters Trail, if you know where to look. And funny enough, just as I was stepping back form the snowfield, a snake crawled out from under a rock. It was huge! At least 2' 4" long....

One new tree had been blown down across a trail, either yesterday or today.

C • Snake 7

Interesting discussion about ticks and disease on On Point today--worth a listen for folks who spend time outdoors where tick contact is possible.

I feel very lucky to be in an area where ticks are relatively uncommon--at least, very few per year end up on me (2 so far this year, with a good chance there won't be any more, now that it's mid--June.)

Returned to the eye guy today and we fiddled around with some different solutions for my right eye; I think I have something now that will work well enough for the next year. My left eye, corrected, is still really good. I have for many years said to myself that as long as I can run up at Happy Jack and still see the windmills off to the west, I'm doing okay--and I can still see them pretty well.

Day 4 of wind, now out of the west. Can't remember 4 straight days of wind in the summer before, but starting now I will be able to. It was also quite a bit cooler today, struggling to get over 60F. It felt refreshing!

On the other hand, Day 3 of Labor Daze. That is, the task for the later afternoon was to streamer the Day 3 course--which will just happen to be the One Cowboy Relay. Just for the hell of it, I have decided to use control descriptions this time around, and see if all the cowboys and cowgirls like that; presumably nobody was going to show up expecting an Easter Egg Hunt anyway. I was quite happy with the design as I was streamering, but the true test will come when I give it a trial by fire at race speed.

Bitterbrush is in full bloom and at several times I almost swooned, nearly overcome by the enveloping, overwhelming fragrance. Those unaccustomed to it would surely have succumbed. It's the kind of thing that often causes compass bubbles to form.

Day 3 of steady winds, and today the wind was the strongest it has been in a while, again out of the east. Some of the energy in the air combined with heating and moisture to produce some fine storms east of the Laramie Range that spawned tornadoes and dropped baseball sized hail; one of the storm cells was visible from Laramie for much of the day though the fringes never extended over the range.

Decided on an easy day today and only biked; first day off from running since sometime in March. That said, biking uphill and into the wind today was far from an easy task! : )

Another fairly windy day, quite pleasant and sunny, with the winds again out of the east and southeast. Biked out north of town to examine the landscape for buffalo and antelope--saw neither.

Before running, I did the teensiest bit of mapping. It looks like the time has finally come that I'm going to have to try some reading glasses or some other solution in order to see well enough to draw any amounts of finer detail (and guess what granite terrain has so much of?). I suppose I should be happy my (corrected) vision has held up as well as it has for as long as it has--I know for many others, it doesn't/hasn't.

Ran intervals at the end of the day. I didn't feel super ready to do them, but there wasn't anything wrong--it was just a matter of getting started, and, as almost always, the workout felt good as I was finishing up.

Beautiful flowers out on the prairie and in the forest.

Biked, and then ran up top at a moderate pace. Windy out for much of the day, which kept things pleasant. Flowers are blooming everywhere, and even in my yard, too!

First mosquitoes showed up in town today--just a few scouts. The invasion armies are no doubt not far behind.

Finished setting and streamering the Daze 2 course at the Forrest Meadows area. It's always a fun area and this will be a fun course. Scared up one elk and at one control hundreds of carpenter ants were tightly clustered together on a dead log, about to embark on their mating flight. Several trailer campers pulled into the area while I was going about my work.

81F, and so first day of the year it's been above the 70s.

Made the fix at Remarkable Flats that I had planned to do yesterday. There were also some large boulders missing in the same area, so now I am guessing that I was mapping in that area at the end of a day and had intended to return, but forgot before moving on. Or maybe space aliens intervened--yeah, that's probably what it was, space aliens!

Ran at Happy Jack, heading up top via Death Crotch Hill, and checked out the snowfield at the east overlook off of Hqs Trail. Still plenty of snow, if melting fast now. Sat down on the snowfield and ate several gallons worth before heading back.

Also, I signed our operating plan for Labor Daze today, and was told our permit would be issued; all that remains is for the District Ranger to affix his signature.

C • Permit 1

O' at Remarkable Flats. I had planned to go out early and re-survey a very tiny section of map where last year I had noticed one large cliff and several smaller rock faces were entirely missing. (When I first spotted the problem, I assumed I had surveyed the rock, but had skipped over them while drafting. But a check of the field notes revealed the truth--I had simply skipped over this tiny area somehow out in the field.)

A large thunderstorm with hail had other ideas, however. So after waiting out the storm in my truck, I headed straight out for a training course and saved the map corrections for some other day. Pleasant running as the rain/hail cooled things off a bit and made for damp, softer underfooting. The highlight proved to be running past a flotilla of white pelicans bobbing about in Are You Experienced? Bay. 2 dozen+ big white birds--the largest group I've ever seen up there by a wide margin. I suppose they were feasting on fresh water shrimp.

Hillwork.

Ran trails from home. Got sprinkled on and waited out the rain for a few minutes while it was heaviest from behind a convenient limber pine. It wasn't cold and in all the rain will save me from having to shower again for the next few days--so a real time saver. ; )

A crushed gravel trail has been under construction east of the golf course for about 2 weeks now. It's mostly in place now, but the gravel surface hasn't been compacted yet (I assume that will be done) and there are a few gaps not yet filled in for some reason where the new trail crosses old double track jeep trails. It will be a nice addition for walking/running folks, but the real plus to me is that it should serve to dissuade people from driving illegally in this section of land in the future--time will tell--with new signage up and large rocks placed as barriers where these jeep trails begin off of paved roads.

Wow--it's warmer in Laramie than Lawrence, KS, at the moment: 78F vs. 75F. That doesn't happen often, especially in summer.

C • Lawrence 2

Decent training week so far as quality goes, and some of that could be felt in my legs this afternoon--they were on the trashed side of things. Though how they felt could have been also shaped by it being the warmest day of the year so far, plus the fact that I went biking right before running (even though I only biked for an hour and kept the effort easy.)

At any rate, 9.6 kms and 19 controls at Twin Boulders were the order for the day, and I was successful at avoiding campers, cattle, and moose. I also hit all the controls squarely, and as an added bonus I got to through run through kilometers of sage.

Got a very slow leak while riding today (or maybe from yesterday, and my weight was enough to speed up the leaking; I did not that the front tire seemed ever so slightly squishy when I checked it before leaving home), and was able to make it home without having to stop--though I was certainly leaning as much as I could on my back wheel for the last dozen blocks or so.

While running at Happy Jack, I saw three herons sitting in a dead tree up top. I've never seen herons so far from any standing water before. Like all herons seem to do around here, they took off as soon as they spotted me. Somewhere not so so long ago, I came across a heron that did *not* take off right away, and I got quite close before it finally did get up and fly away.

After catching some rain while biking--gotta love it when you get that rooster tail spraying your backside!--I headed out to run at Idonwannabe.

Which turned out to be thronged with cows, so I really did hear cows yesterday.

About 10 minutes into the course I was running--with a compass and using it--I noticed that, hey, there weren't any north lines on the map! I must have been running on the map piece that I had created from the original map in order to merge it into Plains of Despair. Either that, or else north gremlins struck and devoured the north lines. Kind of funny though; I must have been using the lettering and numbering to run roughly off the compass needle and doing it without deliberately thinking about it.

Met up with Mark Jenkins and his class, and hit them up with a rapid fire introduction to what an orienteering map was all about, how to use the map, how to use rough compass, and went through some basic principles of navigation and a list of simple navigation "tools". It felt like I was trying to cram a week of instruction into about 40 minutes. But that was the task, and I did as best I could. Then we spent about 15 minutes walking a somewhat circuitous path to the start of the course I had set for them, so that I could point out some features and how and why they were mapped. With that, the group set off individually at 2 minute intervals and tackled the course, which was equivalent to an Orange in both length and difficulty.

I had no idea whatsoever how they would do, but they managed really well! Everyone finished, and well within the time limit we had set. And it looked like they all had a pretty good time. Mark was very happy, so--mission accomplished.

After they left, I ran around the course and picked up the controls. I had already run around the course earlier to make sure everything was ready to go. It was a planned easy running day for me, after the intervals yesterday.

As I was finishing up, I was positive I heard cows off in the distance; this would be pretty early for them to be showing up.