Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Utsikten över Ylen är även bättre idag–perfekt egentligen, tycker jag:

Regn och någolunda svalare luft kom idag, och det kännade en hel del bättre ut–i alla fall for dom av oss som springa. Besök till Ulricemamn (Gunnar, Ingrid, Erik, osv.)

Är en sten som här fint, så måste det bli med på kartan (Ylen):

C • Signesbo - Ryd 9

En del folk samlade tidig i kvällan och sprang en ban från klubb stugan; vi fikade efteråt (till och med smörgåsor). När man (i alla fall jag) först komma ut i den där skog, det känns som om man måste kämpa för varje steg.

Sikten från stugan över Vättern:

C • Kämpa 1

Idag blev det någon slags återhämtning från värmen igår, fast det var nästan lika varm idag. Dagits uppgift var att sätta ut kontroll snitslar till 19 kontroller för kommande DM på Lekeryd kartan.

Typisk stora sten (egentligen vid Ylen):

C • snygg 3

Efter Etapp 5 blev avkörde, hittade vi flera ganska blyg folk som villde inte har photo tagits på dom. Men dom blev övertalits:



Det bli nog Ingrid, Göran, Dr. Ross, Jeff, Sofie, Samantha, och Judy.

Det är som här man ska se ut när man vinna Oringen (Isa Envall, D20, IKHP):

Oringen Etapp 4 blev inställd så alla fick vända och gå tillbacka, pga. Trump gick vansinnig (igen), med konsekvens att en del tjuvstartade 6: Etappen.

C • small worlds 2

Är det värme ut, då är det bra med sommar stugan, vid Ylen, som syns här:



Och om troll kontroller behöves, det gäller att leta i rätt ställerna:

Strax före jag skulle lämna for Sverige, fick jag en e-post från en gammla kompis som undrade hur man kunde vet när man had hittit en mosse, eftersom till honom en mosse och vanlig tall skog såg ut precis likadant.

Egentligen det är lätt. Ses det ut som tall skog, då är det tall skog. Ses det ut som en mosse, då är det en mosse. Man ska lära sig och träna.

En liten mosse:



En någorlunda storare mosse i öppet mark (där borta):



Typisk mosse:



En väldigt speciell mosse (en så kallade “quaking bog” som forst såg jag 41 år sedan):



Med speciell planter som tycker om att äta olika insektor:



Och annat som ses ut som ganska konstig, och som finns inte ofta i Svenska mossar (vad kan det vara?):

C • kolbotten 6

Konstigt. Gick ut till skoget, och hittade det här området i stället. Ses ut nästen som en Oringen mål. Fast det kan inte bli så, eller hur?

Sprang en direkt ban på 2: etappen, och lyckade att hitta all kontroller. (Menar jag inte alla kontroller på banen, men alla kontroller som fanns i tävlings området, och dom var rätt så många!) Oringen förändrits en del (fast det var länge sedan jag var sista med). Exempelvis, nu det finns inte Mål 1, Mål 2, osv., och alla är sponserade i stället.

C • Oringen still? 1

Dagets bild saknas; veter jag inte var tog iväg. Men så kan det händer ibland.

I alla fall, så skulle det finnas här en bild från Hallbys stugan, när man sprang ett skogs pass. Fastnade man i flera grona områder direkt–det tog inte mycket tid. Så fint!

Efter en längre tur ifrån Sverige, nu är jag tillbacka hemma hos Ingrid och Göran här.

If you can spot the nighthawk eggs in this picture, you are better than me!



Well, you are probably better than me anyway, but still...

C • Sweden 8

O' vid Diamond Flats, 9.4 kms, 28 kontroller. Solig och varm (90F redan, rekord varm for daget.)

Saw another young moose--same size as the one I saw a few days ago--standing in the middle of a dirt road, so I got a good, up close look at it, and now I'm sure both of these moose are yearlings, and not the "this year" crop. Biked during the middle of the day for 2 1/2 hours, and was somewhat toasted by the end. Ran at the end of the day down in the Crow Creek drainage with no plans but to saunter along and enjoy the smells and sights, which was good, because my legs didn't have much in the them anyway.

Anecdotally, drivers are not getting better--at least not around here. A few days ago, a driver was making a left hand on a busy road with oncoming traffic, with the problem being that I was part of that oncoming traffic, with the right of way, and right where he was turning into. A desperate swerve by me. was *just* enough to buy time for him to hit his brakes.

Then yesterday, trucking down a street in the bike lane, I saw signs of a driver maybe about to back out of a driveway. I assumed he wasn't looking or would miss seeing me even if he did look (for cars), and, sure enough, he backed right into where I was headed, never saw me, and once again it was only a swerve by me to get out of the way which kept me from being hit. There was a bit more time to work with in this case, but not enough to be sure there was nobody right behind me.

And then, also yesterday, now headed for home, I was riding towards a stop light a few blocks away with a steep downhill just past the light, and heard a siren down the hill. Followed by the appearance of an ambulance with flashing lights, which slowed at the light and then drove through the light (which was red). I pulled over for the ambulance. The hospital was a few blocks behind me and I assumed that was where it was headed. But no, a block or so away, it pulled over, stopped, turned off the siren, and the driver got out. Then I could see a few people looking like grounds keepers standing in the grass by the road there, and wondered if maybe someone had had a heat stroke or something like that. But as I got going again and drew even with the ambulance, I saw a rather astonishing sight: a car had crashed into a tree and the engine compartment was halfway folded around the tree. What made it astonishing was that the speed limit on the street is 30 mph, and generally traffic is pretty adherent and moving at a commensurate speed. And yet, somehow this driver had departed from the right lane, gone across the lane for opposing traffic, gone over a curb, mowed down one smaller tree, and then had hit a larger tree which stopped the car. I have no idea what happened, but fortunately from the looks of the scene and the behavior of the people there, it didn't seem anyone had been seriously injured.

It does make you wonder how dangerous biking around town might be getting to be.

O' pass, Granite Planite, warm with lots of sweat and a few clouds. Ran the Red Middle from last year.

As I was pulling in and just starting to loosen up, several cowboys and one cowgirl were packing their horses into a trailer and preparing to move out. As I ran by, one of the cowboys said to watch out for the wild cows. I told him the wild cows were the only ones I wanted to run with anymore. Their cattle dog barked, and I reckon he saw things the same way. Smart dog.

Enough of the cheat grass has ripened so that it can be considered cheat grass season is underway. No surprise--my socks proved to be most adroit collectors of the highly desired cheat seeds.

While I was de-seeding my socks post-run, I wondered why cheat grass isn't found back east. You'd think it would thrive there. Maybe it just hasn't arrived yet, though that seems unlikely, given how long it has been passed around in the West.

I am not a super big cheat grass fan like so many others are(?), and for this year I have devised a plan which I am on the verge of implementing.

Sometimes people accuse me of embellishing the truth or even just flat out making stuff up. Like I would need to do that! Life is already so weird, and why waste energy on making stuff up when you can just point to the president to point out the existence of various absurdities?

Anyway, some time ago I mentioned finding some nighthawk eggs out in the forest and sure enough someone wrote me to say: "You did not, you're just making that up!"

And so the other day when I was out mapping and noticed a nighthawk flying up off the ground, I thought to myself that I'll show them this time.

Usually the eggs are really, really hard to spot, and if you aren't quick enough to note *exactly* where the adult bird got up from, finding the eggs can be almost hopeless. There's no nest and they're just on the bare ground, and their camouflage is immaculate.

But this one time (it's never happened before), even though I didn't see where the bird got up from and didn't notice it until it was 10' or so off the ground, I saw the eggs almost immediately--I didn't even have to move any closer. Can you see them?



If you're thinking the eggs are that square whitish thing in the upper left quadrant, you're wrong. Eggs aren't square, and that's my mapping board, so give yourself a low zero for that guess, and look harder.

See them now? No?

Okay, take a look here:



And they say I make stuff up. Pffft!

For the record, the eggs are dead center in the upper photo, just to the right of the stick-stone arrangement that also shows in the lower photo.

After mapping, I headed over to run the WMP course at Remarkable Flats, and on my way out on the jeep trail I had parked on, I saw two people standing on the prairie by the road. It's very rare to see people on foot out there, except when there are orienteers around. It looked like they might be looking at insects or flowers or something. As I got close to them, they looked over, and as I pulled up to them it looked like they might want to say something, so I rolled down my window and stopped. It was a guy and a woman. They wanted to know where the bunker was. They had parked near the bunker and had gone for a walk. It developed that they were completely lost and had no idea which way to head to get back. They didn't even know which direction they were headed, even though the skies were blue and the sun well up and plainly visible. And since they looked like they just wanted it to be all done with, I told them to hop in and I would take them to their car.

It turned out they were from Cheyenne, the woman a high school teacher and the guy a UP train conductor (I didn't even know there were still such things as train conductors.) They were very grateful and tried to pay me when I dropped them off at their car.

When I first saw them and as they were getting in my truck, I subconsciously made the assumption they were a married couple and didn't think about it at all until I was driving away after dropping them off. Then for some reason I did think about it, and concluded my assumption had been wrong, and that they had seemed familiar enough with each other that it couldn't have been a first date, it might well have been the first time they had gone off together for a hike in the woods--which obviously had not gone exactly as might have been planned. Well, there are things from an experience like that that you can learn in no other way, so maybe it was a good outing in a silver lining type of way, and at least while we were together I couldn't sense any sign that either of them was put out with the other.

From there, I made my way over to Remarkable Flats and carried out the workout I had planned, running the WMP course--11.7 kms, 19 controls, 3 fence crossings on my route, lots of cows, and pleasant temps despite the sun itself feeling quite warm.

Marking down another moose sighting, this one a young fellow/fellowess in some aspens right by the dirt road I was on to get to mapping. It looked too large to have just been born a month or so ago and yet too small to have been part of last year's crop, thus revealing my limitations as a moose appraiser.

A long run and 4 bull moose up at Libby Flats. Even came across the diminutive yet showy Glacier Lily. Since I wasn't hungry, I didn't eat any (of the moose.) Pretty sure I wouldn't have eaten any anyway, but you never know what you might do were circumstances dire enough.

When I first arrived, the parking lots were all packed with people up to look for moose. So I told them "they went that-a way" and pointed over towards Saratoga, they all departed in a great haste, and then it was easy to find a parking spot.

Actually my day yesterday was fuller than I let on. Besides chasing cows around and being chased by crows, I also decided this was the day I was going to run over to a nearby rock knob I have had my eye on a while. I had already consulted the local rock register and considered various factors which led me to think there was at least a 2% probability it had never been climbed. In other words, I could conclusively ascertain it had never been summitted, and that I could be the first!

So I made my way over that way, through billowing green dunes of still ripening cheat grass, and over unyielding seas of sage and bitterbrush. At last i was at the base of the formidable knob, and I began my ascent, which of necessity (I had no equipment) was going to be a solo free climb. Call it skill or call it luck--okay, we'll go with luck--I made it to the top with no mishaps (else I would not be writing this).

As I was taking in the spectacular view, it occurred to me to wonder what song Prince might have written had he ever stood here. Maybe "Moderately Sized Yellow Beetle"?

Just as that thought was dissolving, I noticed something somewhat disconcerting: a battered PBR can. However, upon inspection, I could tell by the way it was bashed and from the various strain marks in the aluminum that it must have fallen from the sky and not placed there by some drunk hunter.

Just as was concluding my examination of the can, I heard a distant roar, and I looked to the east to see two C130s in line, flying low, and approaching at an angle about 15 degrees off a line that would take them straight overhead. Then, as the distance closed to about one mile out, the lead plane dipped to one side and initiated a turn that would take it directly over me; I had apparently been spotted.

Just before the enormous aircraft passed a mere few hundred feet overhead, its rear door opened, and something tumbled out. Before my eyes could fully make out the object, I was already sure what it was: another empty PBR can. That's all those air crews ever drink--it's legendary.

The can hit a mere few feet away from my feet (that's a double use of "feet" in one sentence, a bad no-no in writing, but so what), and I wondered what I should do with my new found collection of battered PBR cans. I could take them home as mementos of my climbing, and then recycle them when next the price of aluminum might skyrocket to a hefty $0.75/lb or possibly even more! Or I could leave them there on the knob, for the next person making a first ascent on this knob of granite to find.

In the end, I left them there, partly out of a sense of dignity and what was just and right, and partly because the mosquitoes were getting bad and I really couldn't figure out how I was going to free solo back down the knob
with cans in my hands and all while trying to defend myself from the mosquitoes at the same time.

C • Laramie Daze Control... 3

After doing a little bit of mapping in the afternoon, I chased cows around for a while. But not too fast, because it was hot out, and I had already been out on a decent bike ride during the heat of the day, which sizzled me a little bit. Warmest day of the year, well up into 80s. I know many people would point out that's not so hot at all and of course they're very right, but it's all relative, and for around here anything over 85F is damn hot, even iced tea hot, which is hot! Man! Hot! Plus don't forget the sun is much stronger up here than down in the lowlands, so effectively it was hotter than it would seem.

After I chased the cows for a while, I pretended to be an owl, and all the crows started chasing me around, so in the end it evened out. Let me tell you, real crows can fly a lot faster than a pretend owl can, and they make a *lot* of crow noise.

When I got home, I cut my hair real, real short, because that's what you do when it gets damn hot, iced tea hot. If I covered myself in mud and tattoos, then I would look almost exactly like a sub-moron that had driven through a super deep mud hole at very high and reckless speed.

I could feel yesterday's effort sitting in my legs today pretty well today. I was looking therefore for a very relaxed jog today, but the mosquitoes lining the Happy Jack trails were having none of that. Should have chosen a more open, breezier locale.

Intervals, dirt roads, 8 x 5 mins.

The forecast for today was dry and breezy. The breezy part came in, and so did some rain, mostly light, with the heaviest bit as I was finishing up the last interval. I got wet but not soaked, and if anything it was pleasant, arriving when it did. Rain 8 of 9 days in July so far. Maybe there will be a dry stretch soon. It is summer in the arid West, after all.

O' pass, 17.4 kms, 38 controls, Remarkable Flats.

The venue may have been remarkable, but my legs weren't--not directly bad, but flattish feeling. Ironic considering the length of the course today, but so it can go. Did the best I could with what I had, just like I would have had to do had it been a race.

A thunderstorm grazed by just as I was starting on some mapping work. It never rained hard where I was, but if you're not careful it only takes a few well placed rain drops to make a real mess of a map board. Rain 6 of 7 days this month so far, and storms both yesterday and Friday were some nice hail makers; several chunks of hail where I was yesterday were edging up to half dollar size--more than enough to catch your attention if you're out running. Yesterday's storm additionally furnished a tornado that crossed US 287 in the vicinity of Bosler. A direct hit and that place could start all over again.

Ran at Happy Jack to take on the mosquitoes. A few got me; a few I got. I swung by the snowfield to check on it, and whether or not it made it to today (past midnight) I don't know. But it most surely did not make it to the late afternoon when I was there. Or perhaps it has only nestled underground, planning to re-emerge in late October or so, when cooler temps might lure it above ground again.

Full set of RE intervals. Knee felt okay during, and back home afterwards. Hopefully that feeling will maintain overnight and into the morning.

Got buzzed a few times while mapping, and registered 3 FDF kills. The first one I snatched out of the air, and I'm not sure which of us was more surprised.

Rain today (sandwiching a very fine bit of hail) and yesterday; July is off to a good start and not slacking where June left off.

C • FDFs 4

Ran out to check on the snowfield at the east overlook off of Headquarters Trail, to see if it made it to July--and it did. Pretty sure this is the latest I've seen it last. It will make it until tomorrow for sure, but not much longer, and maybe not even to the 3rd.

I Huskvarna hos Ingrid och Goran.