Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Took a rare break for outdoor activities--that is, a break when I was otherwise feeling fine--and solaced myself with a short walk right before sunset. The issue was it was pretty cold out. -8F was the highest I saw, and while I gather there are spots on the earth where a winter high of -8F might be considered right warm, this, to me, is not one of those places! At 1300 today it was still only up to -12F after getting down to -33F overnight. I am beginning to have grave doubts the predicted high of 10F today will be achieved. It is definitely rabbit roaster days, maybe even marshmallow roaster days. At least the New Year will feature a less chilly day tomorrow!

C • Mountain West cold 3

A radical warmup is underway: it's not quite 12:30, and already it's up to a comfortable -16F. Somehow I have the idea that skiing isn't going to be in the cards today. Maybe a little walk will be in order--purely to scientifically test the notion that the sunny side is warmer than the shady side of various objects like cars, houses, trees, and frozen buffalo.

Thanks to heavy snow on Christmas and overnight, snow coverage at Happy Jack is vastly improved. Now the problem is there is so much snow that trails were very soft today even after multiple grooming passes, but that is happy type of problem to have. Many people were out and about. Conditions should rapidly improve to excellent and remain so for the foreseeable future (especially since much colder temps will be ruling for the next week or so.) Yee-haw!

One snow biker stopped and asked me if I had seen any wildlife. I smiled and said: "I seen you!" Most snow bikers take such comments with good grace. I think they are happy whenever a skier isn't yelling at them for being on the ski trails.

Better late than never, but at last I made my ski debut for this season. The snow yesterday and overnight helped matters, and with some shoveling work to address thins and bare spots in several wind scour areas early in the trail net, conditions could be improved to a pretty good level. Probably wishful thinking though! A little ironic with respect to the fact that running after skiing was actually pretty heavy on the backcountry trails where nobody had snow shoed them yet, so plenty of snow--just not in all the right places with respect to skiing.

Weighed in with a longish (2 1/2 hr) run in the afternoon making sure to be out up in the hills to be there for the arrival of the winter solstice. Conditions were perfect what with some decent snow falling, and I ran into a number of folks out on their snow bikes.I gave all of them my best snow biker cheer: "One snow biker, two snow biker, three snow biker, four! All together now ride 6 hours more!" Everyone smiled and no one gave me the finger, which I took as reasonably positive response.

A fine split run at Happy Jack--split meaning half before dark and half after. That's the best way! A mix of (mostly) running on trails and (some) running in untracked snow. I ran into Brian Brothers--out on his bike with his dogs--twice. The second time was after dark, and he has some killer lights. They might not be rabbit roasters, but they did a pretty good number on my night vision, and for a while after that I was running on fumes of memory and hopes that rock dragons would not reach up out of the snow.

It's already very noticeable that snow biking has picked up in popularity year over year. I think it's great, because it turns out that the best winter trails of all to run on are those that snow bikes have gone over a few times, and after the snow has transformed from that use. Plus it's just more fun to see other folks out taking advantage of the outdoors.

C • Rabbit roasters 11

Orienteering at Remarkable Flats was on the schedule for today, and I especially liked the fact that there was still full sun out at mid-afternoon. I was concerned as I was leaving the house that there seemed to be only a slight breeze.

But the alerts sign on the interstate read "50 mph winds, no travel with light trailers on interstate advised" made me pick up hope. Considering it's only a few days from the solstice, there should be better wind than that, but it was better than a slight breeze at least.

And it actually ended up not too bad, once I got started. The longer I ran, the lower the sun sank, and the lower the sun sank, the windier (and chillier) it got. By the end the wind had worked up to a right proper winter roar, and so it was "all is well that ends well." The now increasing length of the afternoon was just enough to allow me to get around the entire course before darkness seized the flats.

Happiness--I've finally figured out and fixed a problem ongoing for months where typing in certain websites (including here) was painfully slow. And it turned out to have nothing to do with Schrödinger's guitar, guitar cases, tuning, or even misshapen pizza crusts. This should be enough to keep me very happy for at least several weeks, if not longer, mainly because I am such a simple swampfox.

C • Oh... 4

Was planning on an O' run but in light of all the new snow overnight, and afternoon breezes pushing the new snow around, I headed up to Happy Jack and ran trails while enjoying the extra minute of afternoon. And just when I thought afternoons would never get longer again! And finally winter is feeling more like winter again, too.

Orienteering at Remarkable Flats, late in the day, finishing after dark. Was reminded how hard it can be to do effective map reading after dark without a light. No wind, so running was a breeze, even in the new snow!

And either I got lucky or unlucky depending on point of view, as I found 3 separate map corrections needed on the course I had laid out, including one pretty large boulder lurking in a now leafless aspen grove, but missing altogether from the map.

Orienteering at Remarkable Flats. Got started quite late, but still got all the controls, even i by the last one it was so dark that it was done off vague map memory rather than any possibility of still having enough light to read the map by.

It was dead calm. Usually--almost always--dead calm weather in this part of the world presages a big change in the weather, and according to forecast today was the last of our extended string of "summer-in-winter" days. They will be missed, but less so if the renewal of winter also means the renewal of some snows.

C • change of weather and guitar tuning 5

O' out at Superfly Marsh. Another strikingly mild, and beautiful day, in the Laramie Range. Temps in the 50s, though it didn't feel quite that warm due to some nice west breezes. Marshes and beaver ponds remain solidly frozen over, except for in the most active main underlying stream channels. Far to the south, down in Colorado, there was a long smoke plume stretching far, far to the east, looking kind of funky so some might guess it was from an especially massive 420 party. Or else a prescribed burn in some stretch of National Forest. Probably the latter, but you never know.

O' at Diamond Bay, on what was a super mild day for December--nearly 50F or so, and only a gentle breeze carrying in new supplies of fresh air. Quite a gift, once you set aside the skiing implications.