Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Some wind and lots of ice on the Happy Jack road. But if you could make it into the parking lot, it was all good. Definitely no ice on the trails. Besides the high school and jr high teams, there weren't many people out today. Maybe folks were waiting for a sunnier day. Skied 2 hours and let it go at that. Saw a red crossbill at the far end of the the trails, which around here is supposed to be good for 7 years of good luck. We'll see.

Mild conditions today; the tracks had been freshly groomed not long before I showed up, and it's always fun to get some (mostly) fresh corduroy to ski on--even if was a little soft, as it was this afternoon. Tacked on a short run afterwards on snow trails.

Linked up with Graham for some skiing on an exceptionally nice day--full sun, with seasonal temps that felt mild compared to the past week or so. I knew about where to look for him and he had gotten started before I did. I was headed up a pretty decent hill when I heard something behind me, and then Graham blew by me, double poling, but then extending one pole out to me as a lifeline, so he could help tug me up the the rest of the hill. When we crested, he stopped so I could catch my breath--so nice of him--and then, seeing my exhausted state, he took pity on me and tossed me a few Gu's which I quickly tore open and consumed. The I was ready to resume at skiing.

At that point in time, I had been skiing for exactly 4 minutes and 53 seconds.

Lots of skiers, snow bikers, and many snow shoers were out enjoying the most pleasant day.

After skiing with Graham for about an hour and half, I switched over and ran snow trails for something a bit longer than that. So fine!

C • Same trail 26

Well, what can you say. Another day of shame for the United States of America. It is simply ... appalling. America isn't looking so great right now.

The absurdity of it is that these actions, supposedly designed to enhance the security of the "homeland" will have the exact opposite effect. And totally ignore the much greater every day threat that gun toting whacko citizens of the country pose to the rest of us.

My ski plan for the day was to head out to the far end of the ski network, and then ski around the Summit Loop as many times as I dared. Once I was done, then I tacked on one final pass on the loop, so I could count how many times I had gone around. I may have been off on my count by, at most, a lap, but with that caveat in mind, I am sure I did at least 1.5 million laps. Maybe more. Probably a lot more, because after all, I have some friends who are really good skiers.

I guess it's a good thing I had breakfast this morning!

Superb skiing conditions on the trails at Happy Jack. Last cold day in this 4th wave of cold this winter season. Ran snow trails after skiing. The wind felt bracing.

Today was the last colder day of the 4th wave of cold weather we've had this season.

Chilly day, and not many skiers were out, aside from the high school and jr. high school teams. Ran after skiing, hoping the trails I was choosing weren't going to be too drifted; they weren't.

Basically a repeat of yesterday up at Happy Jack, except that it felt like it was a tad colder, and definitely windier. Maybe not a full blown ground blizzard in the parking lot, but working towards it; most skiers were hunched over and many were guarding their faces as they walked across the lot. So fine!

Despite all that, the snow actually felt faster to me today, and I felt pretty good for the 2 1/2 hours I was out. I saw 2 bull moose at very close range on one of the trails. They weren't interested in yielding the trail for me, and I was even less interested in trying to press through them, and so it was a standoff. Eventually they got bored and moved on off. I also saw a Graham B, though the first time I saw him, I didn't recognize him (he was moving too fast to be recognizable as anything but a blur of arms and legs.) Trails were impeccably groomed.

Should start gradually warming up for the next few days, but for now I will concentrate on enjoying the proper winter conditions while they last!

C • Christo's artwork on the Arkansas River 5

Just read an article laying out the indisputable facts of how Trump won the Electoral College because of the unlawful votes of millions of previously undetected illegal Russian immigrants. Looks unquestionably solid according to numerous uncited experts who have analyzed the data, so at last we now the truth of how Trump overcame seemingly impossible odds to win the presidency. Hopefully the wall that Mexico is going to pay for can be extended to wall off Russia as well, and that Mexico can be tricked into paying for that part, too. It is going to be one hell of a wall, and just think of the mountain of aggregate it is going to require. Bonus thought: maybe they can require that the wall be made out of coal, and kick start the coal industry in that manner.

Also, it's snowing outside! ; )

Colder today with temps in the low teens at Happy Jack to start with and down in the single digits by the time I was done skiing. Effectively much colder due to some return of the wind.

Skiing was beautiful, very crystalline in nature due to an inch of fresh snow and the colder temps. My skis were waxed at least a color too warm, so I got the benefit of having to make some effort to get along the trails and especially on the climbs. Good stuff, if chilly. The grooming couldn't have been any better.

About an inch of fresh snow was on the trails today, and it snowed very lightly off and on while I was skiing. My skis felt slower than yesterday, but I wondered at the same time if maybe it wasn't just I was tired. My arms didn't seem to have much to give. But, whatever. It was really nice out with the new snow, and occasional the clouds would break for brief glimpses of blue skies.

When I switched over to run, and started off, I realized almost at once for sure it hadn't been my skis--I just didn't have any "go juice" today, and my legs were as flat as pancakes. Probably from too little sleep the night before, is my guess. I did pre-energize before training with a bagel and some coffee, but it didn't seem to take. It didn't matter though, as I was just going for an easy jog anyway, and I carried that out as planned.

On my way back in, I bumped into Justin (snow biking) on his way out, and we chatted briefly.

C • legs 1

Another big crowd out at Happy Jack this afternoon. Temps felt a little crisper than they have for the past week or so--probably more because of some breeze than because they were that much colder. Very pleasant winter conditions, at any rate. Snow was fast, skiing was fun. Besides lots of skiers, I saw as many snow bikers as I think I've ever seen up top, especially while I was running afterwards.

While I was out, I wondered idly if anyone in the administration had dared mentioned to el Maximo Presidente that the women's march in D.C. yesterday might have been a teensy bit larger than the inaugural crowd, or that there had been a couple of other marches scattered around here and there. But probably not, figuring out that he's so smart--hey, he has an uncle that graduated from Harvard!--that there's no way he would be fooled by the exaggerated numbers the press were propounding, and would have already determined that there were only a few hundred protesters at most.

Not long ago I came across this:

“That’s another thing we’ve learned from your Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?”

“About six inches to the mile.”

“Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!”

“Have you used it much?” I enquired.

“It has never been spread out, yet,” said Mein Herr: “the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.

It immediately made me think of the long ongoing trend in orienteering mapping towards ever larger scales with ever larger amounts of detail.

My view is, and has been for some time now, that the efforts in including increasing amounts of detail dwarf any benefits to the racer from having this additional detail. Indeed it has often gone to the point of absurdity, where the additional detail has become a disadvantage rather than a benefit to the racer, because of diminished legibility and increasing irrelevance of any given piece of detail.

My wish for O' mappers everywhere would be to keep one principle foremost: that above all, a map must be useful.

Then the following principles apply: legibility, consistency, accuracy, and inclusion of all important details.

An orienteering map is not intended to be, nor should it be, an exhaustive, encyclopedic inventory of all possible objects within the competition terrain. And yet that seems to be what many orienteers think it should be, as if a map with less detail is somehow a compromised, second rate product.

C • Mein Herr 2

Even in the mid-afternoon, there was still a big crowd up at Happy Jack, and the parking lot was full when I turned into it. But nabbed a spot when someone else left almost at the same time. Skied mostly with Matt, and then a short bit with Mark and Ed.

Skies were nearly entirely overcast all day long, with only occasional breaks in the clouds; I never saw the sun. But quite pleasant out even so, and no wind.

And now we exit the darkest sixth of the year.

While I was running, I thought about the Trump presidency and his administration. I thought back especially to the earliest times, beginning with the festive inaugural atmosphere and the the incredibly uplifting, warm, and unifying inaugural speech so masterfully delivered, leaving all those in attendance and those listening form around the world inspired, hopeful, and enthusiastic.

But as time by, familiarity led to a certain amount of, if not outright contempt, then resignation that the reality was that few, if any, of the brandished promises made to the American people were going to come to pass, not in one Trump administration, nor a thousand such.

Mistakes were made. Of course in an overwhelmingly complex world with new, almost impossibly difficult problems constantly emerging, some amount of mistakes are inevitable. Some of the mistakes were almost charming, such as The Formosa Straights (sic) affair, when, on the second day of his presidency, Trump signed a presidential order for the Navy to seize the Formosa Strait and make it great again for all freedom loving people, in order to demonstrate his vast alignment with, and understanding of, GBLT issues. I suppose that might have been okay, if a somewhat embarrassing misinterpretation of basic world geography (and we will not dwell here on the resultant distressing increase of tensions with China that nearly led to a nuclear exchange, averted only by Trump's last minute concession to grant a 10% discount to any citizen of China staying in one of his hotels for two or more consecutive nights), but the lies that followed, trying to blame the whole thing on the American press in general and CNN in particular, became an all too easily recognizable pattern for dealing with anything that went wrong: just blame it on the press.

I suppose my enduring image of the Trump presidency will be how (as it was reliably reported by numerous insiders independently) when, in the middle of cabinet meetings, after tiring of listening to even a few minutes of briefings and discussion, Trump would shoot to his feet, stride over to a massive aerial photo of the inauguration mounted on the wall of the Cabinet Room, and animatedly say: "I'm telling you, there were at least 1.5 million there, maybe more, probably a lot more, looks like 2 million to me easy, Rick (meaning Secretary of Energy Rick Perry), get over here and help me count again!"

Even as a diehard Trump supporter right from the heady days of the glorious "Birther Movement", I have found myself worn down by it all, not so much by the multitudes of egregious and costly initiatives that led to nothing (though certain of them did help further enhance the Trump Brand, so I guess that was something), as by the mannerisms of the man himself. The constant preening, self-aggrandizement, the fabrication out of thin air of great achievements and taking sole credit for them, the insistent need for universal adoration and adulation, the lies, and the lies--above all, the thousands and thousands of lies that will keep generations of presidential historians busy--it just wore me down.

And so now, as the earliest candidates begin to appear and maneuver, and nascent campaigns initiate their quixotic quests for funds, and position themselves for a run at the next presidency, I find my spirit and enthusiasm renewed, renewed in the hope that maybe the next president can, indeed, make America great again.

C • promises 1

Skiing was quite good; there was about 1/2" of new snow that fell overnight. Saw more bikers while I was running after dark than I've seen in a while. One of the bikers stopped and we chatted briefly; I didn't know him, but recognized his name and realized that his wife was one of the two physical therapists that had given me some good suggestions back in the summer that seemed to have made a significant improvement with the very persistent groin/upper thigh problem I had that had been impairing my running.

A beautiful day with full sun; there was some breeze during the day, as evidenced by snow blowing across the Happy Jack highway and melting and re-freezing on the surface. But even this bit of breeze was only a change from the past week or so, and nothing like the typical afternoon winter wind.

Skied and ran; skied at a very easy effort today.

Perfect day weatherwise, and ever so slightly warmer than yesterday. Did ski intervals up Moose Hill through to Summit Loop, and followed up with running until a little after nightfall. Venus is very bright and the moon was out of sight.

A cold morning offset the bright sun, and the temps never warmed up that much. It was completely comfortable outside, however, with no wind to speak of. Great skiing followed by some running on the bike trails.

Another nice day of skiing, with some late day sun. Lots of people were up top enjoying the holiday, while it seemed plenty of businesses in town were operating as if it were just another workday.

Temps were a little colder/crisper than I had expected, in the mid teens or slightly higher--just about perfect, given no wind.

Ran after skiing and enjoyed the early night skies.

5 o-clock day today! It's midwinter now, and some signs of spring will start to become apparent in less than 5 months, if we're lucky.

After skiing, and then running, I supped from the fruit of the cara-cara. I supped from some other things, too, but it is the tanginess of the cara-cara that lingers, a ruby-red splash of sweetness. Maybe it came from somewhere near El Paso or Phoenix?

While running in the dark, at one point I saw a small black shape in the snow ahead, about where the start/finish line had been for a ski race yesterday. I thought maybe there was movement, but it was hard to see. Maybe slight movement. Maybe no movement. Then, as I was passing to the side, I saw definite movement, and I could make out the shape as a fox. I whistled to let it know for sure I was there, and for all I could tell it didn't pay me the least bit of attention. I thought that was odd. It seemed intent on sniffing out some scent in the snow. Maybe mouse? Or maybe it was sniffing the scent of something that had been there earlier.

Skiing conditions were excellent. Another day with no sun, and also there was no wind.

An odd day in the valley as the sun was full out until early afternoon, when fog bank from the NW swung by and clipped the extreme NE corner of town I happened to be walking at the time. For a few minutes I was enveloped in dense fog. Then the fog pushed on and the sun returned. Within another hour, however, fog moved in from the west side of the valley and overtook the entire town. It wasn't very deep, and by the time you entered the mouth canyon on I-80 headed east, you were already above.

Ski conditions at Happy Jack were excellent! Skied and then ran some, until past dark. The stars seemed unusually bright once it got dark--but that's probably just because we've had so many lightly cloudy nights in a row that my perception was altered.

Skiing conditions were again superb today, though it didn't seem right to have no wind. What happens of cowboys and cowgirls experience too much of that, and start getting soft? It would be no good, that's what it would be.

My favorite thing I've learned this week is that Presbyterian College's nickname is the Blue Hose. Besides the fact that this sounds highly odd in and of itself, I grew up in the same state Presbyterian College (we often just called it "PC") is in, and never once heard the term "Blue Hose". Maybe this is just fake news, minus the news part?

My favorite moment of sympathy this week did involve fake news however. I should point out that generally I'm not very sympathetic to a lot of stuff. For instance, when someone takes a baseball bat to a hornets nest and they get viciously stung dozens of times by seethingly irate hornets, I'm not sympathetic. Well, maybe to the hornets.

Anyway, the moment came during the president-elect's press conference, when he complained bitterly about having been unfairly besmirched by fake news. I was so sympathetic! How could anyone do that to him, our president-elect, such a paragon of shining moral excellence! So moved was I by my anguish and heartfelt sympathy that I began to tear out great handfuls of my hair! Boy, did that hurt, and it increased my almost unbounded sympathy even more!

Naturally the thought of "birther" never crossed my mind.

Ran into Mark Jenkins at the trailhead just as I was getting ready to ski and he was finishing up. He said it had been so good he had skied an extra 5 kms, and it really was good. I headed straight out for the Summit Loop and did repeats on the loop until it was dark. As good as it was, I only saw one other person besides Mark the whole time I was out--but then Summit is at the far end of the trail net, and it gets little use at the end of the day.

I came home and it felt a little chilly when I walked in the door. That's not unusual. I usually turn down the hear when I'm going to be out for a while, and metabolism slows down after skiing during the drive home, and it just seems normal to feel a little chilly for a bit afterwards. However, this time it didn't take too long before I recognized I wasn't feeling well and there were other reasons why I was feeling chilled. So I bundled up, took it easy the rest of the evening, and slept about 9 1/2 hours, feeling mostly better in the morning the next day. Don't think I had any fever, but if I did, it was mild.

Weird, but something along these lines happens to me every so often--maybe once in every two years or so. I don't for sure remember the last time I've been sick-sick, but I think it was in the spring of 2012. Maybe it's been that long since I've even had a cold.

C • I had an experience like that recently, too 7

Superb skiing conditions--firm, well groomed trails everywhere, with about an inch of fresh snow on top. No wind, temps in the mid to upper 20s. And a nearly full moon. Easily a "10". My miss was getting out a little too late, and having to leave earlier than I would have liked in order to make the basketball game.

A little more like winter today and less like spring slush in town. Up top, skiing was quite good, conditions anyone could be happy with, even anyone named Jack. Felt good skiing, and then went running right as nightfall was settling in. But no worries--a really big moon had risen and was shining the way. Even with some wispy clouds overhead, I had good shadows to use while running. Funny though--after feeling good while skiing, while running my legs felt like they were filled with sludge. Maybe not enough rest last night is a leading guess, but since I was only planning to do some light running anyway, it hardly mattered.

Out of curiosity, I looked back in my training records to compare how different local ski conditions were for Dec 2016 compared with Dec 2015. My sense was, and remains, that Dec 2016 was unusually poor due to thin coverage (and when the coverage is poor, I generally prefer to run and take advantage of low snow levels that way) and the damage from 2 wind events. The comparability of the two periods is somewhat affected by the fact I was out of town for 3 days in Dec 2016.

Pretty different:

Dec 2016 - running 35 hours, ski 21 hours
Dec 2015 - running 30 hours, ski 45 hours

C • Comparison 3

Unusual day insofar as it sprinkled very lightly much of the day in town. Rain in January is pretty rare here, and it does get the frogs confused.

Up top the light sprinkles of town were instead light snows. Ski conditions were spring-like, with very firm trails and snow with a high moisture content. Lacking any structure (structure? who needs any stinkin' structure?), my skis were slowish, and I had to borrow a can of kick ass from a friend and take a few whiffs of that in order to power around the trails with the proper amount of fim and fet (f&f). It felt awesome to be out.

Having read about the floods and other snow/rain catastrophes about to be unleashed from and in the High Sierras, I spent much of the morning in prayer, doing what I could to assist the survival of the mountain peoples there, as well as the Boreal Pass. Even though I-80 at Donner Summit is nowhere near as high as I-80 at The Summit here in Laramie, it's still beautiful over there, and it would be a shame if it got erased by floods. Plus, I was worried about biggins.

But, at the same time, I did want to go skiing. And then I realized biggins would be safe no matter what. Even the mightiest flood probably wouldn't get much above biggins' knees. So up to The Summit and Happy Jack I headed.

It was only after an hour into the ski that I realized I had forgotten all about Carol. A mighty flood that was up to biggins knee level would probably be enough to be devastating for Carol. Oh, well! I was already up skiing, and the prayer books were back at home. Maybe she could climb up on biggins and perch on his shoulders or something.

Very nice conditions today--milder than yesterday, with air temps above freezing. It was perfect for whatever wax or wax remnants I had on my skies, which had unusually good glide today.

I ran snow bike trails afterwards for something a little extra, and finished up right around dusk--perfect!

C • fear not 4

We're a month past our earliest sunset (Dec 7, easy to remember), and today is the first day where the afternoons start getting longer by more than a minute. Now that we have sailed through the first 10% of winter, the remaining 90% will be a piece of cake, and July (the traditional local end of winter) will be here before we know it.

With the sun shimmering away and the temps well past the single digits (a relatively toasty 11F), it almost feels like summer already!

Skiing seemed like a good idea after the arrival of all the new snow and the passing of the extreme cold, so up I headed in the early afternoon for a planned long, easy ski. I expected to find to find a smattering of cars in the parking lot but not much more than that, given that the university is still on break, and the high school and junior high school teams were off racing elsewhere. I was instead astounded to round the bend on the approach to the parking lot and see the parking lot was jammed with quite a few cars parked in the snow on the other side of the highway. Outside of race days or Wee Ski Sundays, it's the most cars I've ever seen up there in the winter.

Luckily someone was leaving the lot just then, so I was able to sneak in and nab a spot. Parking on the other side of the road can be an iffy thing--sometimes you end up stuck and can't get out until May or June.

Once past the Campground Loop and the Meadow, the trails didn't feel crowded at all, and before long I was by myself. I must have gotten distracted, because when I hit the start of the hill on the Summit Trail, I was still skiing. It's not a huge or steep hill, but normally I stop and take off my skis on all the hills, and walk up. It's way faster--I don't know why they don't do it that way in all the big races--and the footsteps in the snow make for ideal places for pole plants for folks who want to ski up instead.

But anyway, I was still skiing up, at a brisk rate of at least 1 km/day, when my revery was disturbed by something loud and coming up from behind very rapidly. Maybe another skier had taken off their skis and was walking up the hill and overtaking me? Could a moose have mistaken me for wolf, and, enraged, was initiating a fierce stomple attack?

My real fear was that it could be ISIS. As long back st 2009 I had written the Obama administration to warn them that their number one priority should be to build a wall on our southern border and make Mexico pay for it because I had very good information that ISIS was at any moment ready to sneak across the border, and make a beeline for the Laramie Range in order to unleash a completely devastating act of terror on unsuspecting cowboys and cowgirls clad in the brown and gold. However, as soon as I thought that, I relaxed, because I had nothing brown or gold on me. Whew!

I should not have relaxed so soon, however, because when the gap had finally been closed and the noise making object pulled up beside me, it proved to be the notorious man from Greeley, CO--racer X8A7.

He said hello, and the truth is if he hadn't slowed down and kept quiet, I wouldn't have even recognized him. Everything is so different since the Russians elected Trump, and you just don't know what to believe anymore, not even your own eyes, sometimes.

Graham was doing some various drills and it was at a pace I could manage, so we skied together until he was done. I did my best to pepper him with questions to keep him out of breath so as to enhance the training effect from the altitude, and it might have even worked a little bit.

It was fun to see him, and to see he was fully recovered from his ankle wreckage back in July. I haven't mentioned it to him yet, but seeing he is good to go, I plan to send word to the Broncos--who are in bad need of some more help with running back duties for next season--that racer X8A7 might be just what they're looking for.

Total ski was 3+ hours, adequate to exhaust my flimsy arms.

Just heard on the radio that the National Weather Service is reporting it went down to -40F here in Laramie last night, the 5th coldest reading in over 50 years, with the other 4 readings coming in 1962 and 1963, While of course that's what first comes to mind to most people when you ask them about 1963, a small percentage of people will also mention that as being the year The Beatles released their albums "Please Please Me" and "With the Beatles" which featured songs like "Lordy It's 39 Below", "Baby Why You So Cold To Me", Give Me All Your Wind and Make It Cold", and of course the English folk traditional "Four Dog Night."

C • Wind Chill 1

I drove up top again today to assess conditions, feeling a little bit perhaps like Moses with the great flood.

Once I got up top, I sat in my truck for a while, watching snow swirl across the parking lot. It looked cold, even though it was completely sunny. Then I got out and just stood by my truck for a few moments, and it didn't seem so cold. The next step was to walk for a minute or two, so I walked over to the warming hut and stood inside. The walk didn't feel bad. Then I saw a skier coming down the trail, finishing up, and they were skating. Not fast, but they were moving okay. You can often look at someone and tell if they're really cold or not, and this skier looked fine. Okay, then!

I walked back to my truck, grabbed my skis, and headed out. My feet got a little cold, but otherwise I was fine. And considering the wax I had on and the temperature and fresh snow, I was surprised I had any glide at all. I ended up skating for 85 minutes, and didn't see another skier until the last 3 minutes of it.

When I got back home it was -9F in Laramie, but I really don't think it was anywhere near that cold up top. If it had been that cold, I should have had zero glide given what I had on my skis.

-15F out at the moment, with lots of sun. Not looking too good for skiing today--not unless the Cowboy Ski Index improves by quite a lot.

C • Iron in the Swix CH-36 and start gliding. 2

Funny to see how different the snow situation in town is over just a couple of days. Whole lotta Yowsa! today, just as much as yesterday. Road biking is not going to be a good option until we get a few sunny days coupled with some mildish temps. Not going to happen today, and it's definitely not going to happen tonight--which is supposed to get really cold.

Checking the weather history, it looks like the (now old) record low for the date was -19F, in 1971. That is versus the current -29F. Brrrr!

C • cold? 7

It snowed all day long, making for very nice Yowsa! conditions by mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, that's when I was planning on going up skiing, and by the time I was about halfway through Yowsa!, I realized it was colder than I had thought and that there was much more snow on the ground than I had realized. I went in to check conditions up top, and saw from the highway cameras that while the roads were open and there was still traffic on them, conditions looked pretty iffy, and almost blizzarding. When I checked the temps and saw it was also already -2F up top, then that settled and I scuttled plans for skiing, and returned outside to finish Yowsa!!!

Too bad about the skiing, but the Yowsa! was fantastic! The biggest piles of snow in my yard are about 6' high, and I no longer have no idea where my mailbox is, except that it is generally somewhere to the west, kind of like California, but not quite that far. I may put together an expedition and attempt to reach and locate it tomorrow, if it stops snowing.

Even though it was snowing during last night's Yowsa!, I left about half the driveway untouched, just to make sure I could have some pleasant Yowsa! in the morning.

I need not have worried; it snowed all night long, stopping right around daybreak, about 6"-8" in all. Still no wind, and the temps in the high teens this morning made for perfect Yowsa!. The time went by all too quickly, and it seemed like I was done almost no sooner than I had gotten started. Maybe it will snow some more today. Even if it doesn't, at last the Laramie Valley has a proper winter to it.

I will give skiing today 4 out of 5 snowflakes. It was probably worthy of 5 snowflakes, or at least nearly 5, but I am a hard grader and like to save the 5's for when everything is absolutely perfect, and for one thing that means absolutely no snowsnakes. I didn't see any snowsnakes today, but then I skied for a long time after dark, and they can be very hard to spot in the night.

While I was skiing I couldn't help but think some about an article I had seen. It was about a survey taken to see what people thought were the most underrated things of 2016. Most of the items made some kind of sense, and #1 was Donald Trump--which was kind of obvious. But #2 was puzzling: Jack In The Box tacos. The folks doing the survey thought so too, until they hit upon a quite odd relationship. It turned out that when they did a word association test and asked people what the first thing was the came to mind when they heard "Donald Trump", more than 44% of the people immediately responded with "Jack In The Box Tacos"! It sounds almost preposterous, but then so many people are pretty weird to begin with; how else can you even begin to explain the election of a man with utterly no redeeming qualities and zero moral and ethical character (I know, I know--I'm being overly generous) to be the nation's next president? It would really make more sense if people had elected an ordinary mushroom instead.

I guess this caught me off guard because I didn't even know Jack In The Box had tacos. I thought they just served hamburgers and stuff like that. But then, I've never been in a Jack In The Box.

Anyway, it was really pleasant out tonight, and the christmas trees were all lit up again.

C • Canadian activities 1

At last, some honest to goodness Yowsa! I was beginning to think it was never going to happen, Without Yowsa!, there really isn't much point being in Laramie for the 6 winter months of the year.

Woke up this morning, looked outside, and was surprised to see snow had fallen during the night. Excellent!

I was surprised because before going to bed, the skies had been dark. Around here, the skies almost always take on a pinkish glow to the SW (lights from town) before it starts snowing and while it is snowing.

Later in the morning it started snowing again, and it snowed at a steady, light rate all day long. The best thing was that after eight days of nearly incessant wind, today the gods of wind took the day off, and so the snow was falling straight down--exactly what was needed to patch up scoured parts of the trail net.

I went up skiing in the mid-afternoon, and it was so nice to at last have some nice snow on trails again and not have an accompanying amount of treefall that I skied well past nightfall and skipped running. There was very thin cloud cover and so while you couldn't see any stars, enough of the moon was seeping through that the lighting was quite good, and way more than I needed for skiing (map reading, on the other hand, would have been a problem!) It was such a nice time to be out. The clouds weren't touching the ground, but looked so low and thin that my guess is that if the trails were just another 500' higher or so, then maybe they would have been above the clouds, with a clear shot at the moon and nearby Venus. (The elevation of the ski trails is a little less than 9000', and so high enough that sometimes it seems like you can feel the thin air if you're working hard enough.)

As I was finishing up running Saturday night and approaching the parking lot, I was surprised to see a group of people had shown up and were out stringing up lights on small fir trees. It seemed odd, so many days after Christmas, and to be doing it then, the 31st--plus I'd never seen anyone doing something like this up there before--but the lights were quite pretty.

Tonight I saw the lights were still up. They really add a surprisingly nice bit of atmosphere to the place after dark. I have no idea how they're powered--maybe batteries, maybe solar + batteries?

Normally the place is just dark at night, except for whatever headlamps skiers might have on, or from bike lights. There's no electricity up there and therefore no lighting otherwise.

C • Moon 2

Headed out noonish for some skiing and running and, mostly, to enjoy the low sun before it got lower still.

I skied long enough to get the flavor of the place and to check out the crowd, which today included a friendly amount of snowshoers and about the usual amount of snow bikers. So far we still don't have any snow biker gangs, though I am hopeful.

Then I went running, partly on nicely tracked snow bike trails, and partly on snow drifted trails blocked off to tire traffic by numerous fallen pine trees. It was heavy going except for the parts where I had been preceded by moose, and even though their footprints were partially drifted in, they still offered better footing for me when I could fit my shoes in.

When I was finishing up and back at my truck, I decided on a whim to add in just a little bit more down the hill form where I was parked. A lucky decision, because I came across a very large moose which was also checking out the scene. It had no antlers, but the odds on guess is it was a bull.

Came home and had some dinner while watching some videos of Billy Gibbons running through some old ZZ Top numbers with an Australian chick (Orianthi.) Holy cow! Mercy!

Now I can't decide if I want to head to Texas first or to Australia, but I'm leaning down under.

C • Which sounds more fun? 3