Training Log Archive: Swampfox

They say December has 31 days, and I say I skied every one of them.

And what better way to close out the day, the month, the year, and the decade with some cowboy tough wind to blow all the accumulated detritus away. Tomorrow will be a new day.

It started snowing in the wee hours and snowed all day long. Luckily the winds kind of held back, so the roads remained open even with some drifting and some icing. The groomers had rolled the trails all morning, and even with that things remained soft, and of course the snow kept on piling up.

But it was really only for the first part of the trail system that skating was tough, and the further you got out the better it was--probably reflecting when the groomers were working on the different trails.

Temps were around 10F, and I skied for something over 2 hours. Running wasn't part of the plan to day, and in any event the bike trails would have been very soft and deep, as they hadn't been groomed.

It's interesting to compare several local weather stats (for Laramie, Happy Jack would be somewhat different, certainly more snow and probably more rain, too). Year to date we're at 76% of the year average of 10.9" year-to-date (as good as the year, this close to the end.) That's pretty dry. And yet the snowfall for the *season* is now at 41" versus the 18" average for the season so far. It's been a great December, and 3 days still to enjoy.

Quantity is not sufficient, but it is requisite. Last year quantity was large, and after today, this year's quantity exceeded last year's.

A pleasant surprise this morning: checking the National Map Viewer for the first time in about 2 months, I see that there are two new large blocks of lidar that have appeared in Wyoming (near Jackson and Casper), several new smaller blocks, and that the large block of lidar near Laramie to the NW has been expanded substantially with the closest edge at least a little closer to Laramie than it used to be.

Thoroughly enjoyed the most excellent afternoon, which was sunny, and crisp without being cold. Skied for part of the while and then ran for the rest of the while, which was over once I was done. Lots of folks were out.

After breakfast I fixed up a few small details and finished drafting the new Sugar Hill map--at least all that I surveyed this summer/fall, and all that we will need for a race there next year. The best thing about Sugar Hill is that it's not really made of sugar and therefore won't melt in the rain. No telling what might happen if the grapple fell with sufficient intensity however.

About an 1 1/2" of snow fell around mid day. Since it all melted at once on the streets in town, I was expecting slow snow up top, while in fact the conditions with the new snow turned out almost perfect. The sun tried to come out, but just as things were looking promising, ghost fog swept in from the west, and that was that.

Lots of people were up, as you would expect on Christmas Day; lots of familiar faces.

Ski intervals. Another mild day, and quite nice conditions after noon, when the clouds moved off, revealing a winter sun.

Summit Loop has finally been packed and groomed for the first time, though there is so much debris left on the trail from clearing the trees that there that it will take another snow to really put it in good shape.

Despite only a small amount of wan sun through filtering clouds during the day, it was quite mild--up into the mid 40s. And since the major roads are now mostly clear of ice and snow, I took advantage of that to run some errands on my bike, though over in west Laramie the smaller side roads still featured lots of frozen water.

Snow up top on the ski trails had higher moisture content today, but were otherwise in good shape for skiing. After skiing, I ran across the road and along the road going past Antenna Hill, until I could see both the lights of Laramie in one direction (it was dark by then), and, further along, the lights of Cheyenne in the other. Legs were tired.

A perfect Solstice Day with beautiful ski conditions.

Ski intervals, 3x Summit.

The day's highlight was back home in the evening, when I looked down at my ankle and noticed a little black dot. I was thinking, "let me see what that is." So I worked at it, and eventually a thorn started to emerge. A thorn left over from Possum Trot. Around Kansas City, it wouldn't be worth mentioning unless it had another 2"-3" to it. But around here, when it was right where my ski boot presses in, a 3/8" thorn is something. I passed out several times while I was extracting it. (no I didn't, but it does improve the story)

It probably explains why putting my ski boot on that foot lately hasn't been as much fun as it used to be. I'm already looking forward to the renewed fun tomorrow!

C • thorn 9

It was a couple degrees warmer today--though a good 10 degrees shy of the forecast high--which was enough to transform the snow into something a good bit faster than the past two days.

I read an article in the paper yesterday about the spread of wild pigs and the damage they are capable of, and while I was skiing I thought some about that and about what I had seen in Sweden. It was amazing to see how extensive uprooted areas were. It was all but impossible to go far without running into uprooted areas. I'm not sure the folks I was talking with fully realize the impact of these pigs. Maybe I misunderstood, but what I took away was the general impression was that the pigs were mainly after roots and berries out in the forest--stuff like that, and that it wasn't that big a deal unless maybe you were a farmer and had pigs out in your fields. And for the folks that like to hunt, the pigs were a plus. But if you stepped back and thought about the sheer amount of area being disturbed...

The article was written in a sensationalized style, and perhaps overstated how damaging wild pigs are to the ecosystem. Even so, seeing what the pigs were doing in the forests around Huskvarna made me a little sad, in much the same way that seeing what pine beetles were doing to our local forests made me feel (though by now I've gotten over it; you have to.)

C • pigs 4

A chillier day with full sun, high of 10F in town, and something less than that up top. Skiing was slow on the squeaky snow. I went out early to catch as much of the sun as possible. And ran afterwards, by which time there was precious little sun left. Could have used a warmer jacket considering, but I survived.

Another couple of inches of snow overnight. The fresh snow plus temps down near or into the single digits made for slow skis today. But the sun was out, the wind was not (dead calm), and it was beautiful to be outside. Skiing and running combined for 3+ hours, and a somewhat chilly face.

The Tie City parking lot was jammed in the early afternoon; it's a good sight to see so many people out and enjoying the forest.

C • Cowboy Football 2

About 3" of new snow, and only the mildest of breezes, so the snow was falling nearly straight down and staying in place when it landed.

I skied longer and skipped running, finishing up after dark. There was a guy on skis at the trailhead gate, and he asked me in a thick accent where the Happy Jack trailhead was. I wasn't quite sure how to answer, because where we were standing was clearly enough the trailhead, and there isn't any Happy Jack (by name) trailhead to my knowledge. After a few questions, I figured out what his purpose was: he and his wife had driven up from Ft. Collins, and, not being sure where to go, had driven past the Tie City parking area where we were, and had parked down below at the Happy Jack Recreational Area parking lot. Somehow they had worked their way up from there, and were now at the wrong parking lot. I told him it was easy enough to get back to where they wanted to be, a straight shot, and all downhill, once they got started on the right trail, and I put my skis back on, and took them out to where the trail started, and gave them a push downhill. It seemed better not to mention the mountain lion living somewhere down that way, and besides they were two adults and the guy was pretty big. Hopefully they made it back okay, but the real problem was going to be driving back home, because by then it was snowing hard, and it was quite difficult to see while driving down the canyon to Laramie. From the time I got on the interstate until the exit, I had almost no idea where I was in relation to the two lanes, except that I was somewhere in them, except for the several times when I hit one or the other rumble strips.
I was surprised the highway was even open, given how difficult it was to see.

Since I tweaked my knee about two weeks ago, I've been taking it easy or very easy on the running front, both time-wise and also in terms of sticking as much as possible to snow trails that have been relatively level and firmly packed. Today, after skiing, I went out for 90 minutes and took in some rougher footing along the way. It all felt fine while I was out, and if things still feel fine in the morning, then I will consider it to be good to go again. Mentally, it's already there, as I realize I just haven't thought of it at all while I've been running the past 4-5 days.

Windy enough today to bring down a few more trees, and at least one new one on one of the snow bike trails I was on today.

Must be some kind of a local ski race this weekend, because there were blue plastic tabs scattered off to the sides of several ski trails, ready to be deployed. Or, possibly, they could be some clever new moose attractant, because moose are drawn to the color blue like FDFs are attracted to silly people.

Really enjoying the longer afternoons, which are already a dramatic 14 seconds longer than this past Saturday. Biked some, skied some more, and then ran even more along some snow bike trails and some snow bike trail augmented by moose traffic. Avoiding the hoof pock marks made the running more interesting.

Ski conditions are excellent and great to see that mid-winter is off to such a fine start.

We were favored with a small amount of unexpected snow overnight, maybe a half inch in town and something like 1"-2" up at Happy Jack. The sun was out in the afternoon and temps were in the low 20s to start out, and dropping. It felt like a proper winter day. Trail conditions on those trails that were open were excellent. I thought if I skied long enough, I would come across a moose or at least some fresh moose tracks, but it didn't work. I must not have skied long enough, is all I can come up with. I took this as a sign that my training has fallen off, so when I got back home, I did sit-ups until I got tired, and then did one more. Three in all, so I should definitely be good again for a while!

Running at night on the snow trails is cool. You never know what you're going to get. Since all the bikers have phenomenally bright lights, you always know you're going to get a snow biker long before you actually get it/him/her. But even then, you don't know. Sometimes the bikers are riding in long, strung out groups, so you don't want to expend all your effort on the very first biker that comes by. You have to save something for the others, if there are any others. Usually there are. I mean, with all the lions out there looking for deer, who wants to ride alone?

And sometimes the bikers have things you can't see. Like last night, when I saw I was about to get a biker, but before I got him, four of his dogs swarmed up and got me first. When the biker finally came up, I told him how that was a little bit unfair, to blind me with his phenomenally bright bike light, so that I couldn't see his low slung dogs. Well you know how it is--sometimes you get the dogs, sometimes the dogs get you. He apologized and kept on going. Like I said, running at night on the snow is so cool, and, at least so far, I have never yet met a sub-moron out there on the snow at night.

Årets kortaste eftermiddag.

Befitting the 2nd key date on the calendar, I spent a lot of time outdoors. It helped (a lot) that it was relatively mild--maybe 40F--and the sun was out most of the day. So first order of business was to take a bike ride and check on some new construction around town. The bigger streets were mostly dry with only a few places where I had to dodge ice, and only two spots where I had to ride across ice.

Next up was skiing. Lots of snow was blowing across the Happy Jack road and variously melting and re-freezing on the road surface. Really that road should be better protected by some new wind fences, especially since it doesn't get that much attention by WYDOT during the winter, being a minor road. Snow was very good; I'm guessing there were a lot more people out in the morning, and at any rate not so many while I was out--maybe 15 cars in the parking lot. Saw Bern while I was out and we talked for a bit about several new water wells drilled near where I live this summer, and also about the pending Pilot Hill land swap.

Finally, some running, and I ran for about an hour. The snow bike trail groomer had been out earlier, and conditions on the bike trails that have been getting use the past week are now quite good (for running). On the way back in it was dark and I pulled off the trails several times to let 4 bikers get by, with their lights bright so bright in the dark night. Probably if cats/lions look into those lights they are blinded for the rest of the night.

The road on the way back between the parking lot and the interstate was of course total ice.

3"-4" of new snow fell during the day, and it was so nice that I ended up skiing about 3 hours, past dusk. Some people may wonder if there can be any other kind of snow besides new snow falling down. And the answer is yes; with our wind, anything is possible: new snow, old snow, grapple trying to become old snow, wind turbine components, even sub-morons.

Enough sun and the more trafficked roads clear enough of ice/snow, so I hopped out on my bike for a quick ride around town. Everything looked more or less intact following the dual blasts of last week, so good.

Ran for an hour after skiing, and felt fine, so doubly good. Most of the snow bike trails are in tough shape for running, and need a good bit more packing--but that in turn no doubt has been hindered by all the trees that still need to be cleared away.

Saw Van while I was skiing, and he updated me on how things stood with the new trail development plan. It will take time and a lot of work, but it's enthusing to know that big things are coming.

Some grooming had been done on the ski trails today, and conditions were pretty good, aside from the dirty sports where trees had fallen and been removed. Most of the snow felt fast and almost as if the individual particles had an icy feel to them, though the trails themselves were in no way icy.

Technique and balance are both coming back up, and an easy way to gauge that is that not a single snow snake felt it was worth trying to mess with me--better to lie in wait for easier prey.

I ran afterwards for about 40 minutes, and overall it felt pretty good, even if occasionally it seemed like a I could feel a twinge of something. But that could easily be just being a bit of a hypochondriac after an injury. Everything felt just fine back home in the evening. I'll plan to do something longer and more like a completely normal easy run tomorrow as a final test.

My knee felt good enough walking around that I decided it was time to take it out for a short (running) spin, so after skiing, that's what I did: an easy run of about 20 minutes from the ski parking lot up towards Antenna Hill. Fortunately, there was enough breeze so that there was no danger of extreme overheating--a frequent problem in the mile Laramie winters. The footing was not great because of drifts and tire tracks and such, which made it an even better test. Everything seemed okay while I was running, and afterwards as well, which is good, because I augmented both my running and orienteering shoe inventory considerably recently, and these shoes will need to be used, worn down, and trashed. ; )

Skiing was fine, even if the trails were a little rough. Everything that was open had only been rolled, and some of that was lumpy depending on when during the day it had been rolled, because the temps got about as high as 40F (at least in town).

Dan is back from Montana, so now Randy has much needed help for getting the trails in order. Today they cleared off Upper UW, Moose, and Summit all the way up to Summit Loop, and all of that was rolled afterwards. I hope tomorrow they will groom at least some of what it open now, before hitting the next section of trees, but it's their call as to how to best tackle this. They probably have another 3 days of tree cutting before everything is cleared out (and that's assuming Summit Loop doesn't get ignored.)

The sun was back out today, winds were down from yesterday, and roads reopened. Lots of people were out skiing when I went up, and the parking lot was nearly full.

It quickly became apparent that yesterday's storm furnished a setback to the trail net. To me, it looked like another couple of inches of snow had fallen (hard to tell because of how the strong winds had pushed the snow around), which was good. But many pine trees had been blown down across the trails, so some of the trails that had been rolled and open Thursday/Friday were blocked and now unpacked, and littered with lots of debris. It will probably take Randy a couple of days to clear all the trees, and then it will take another decent snow to cover up all the debris. Maybe this means there won't be many more trees coming down for the rest of the winter, and if that holds true, maybe this works out for the best--to have the most susceptible trees all falling down early.

My knee felt better today, and was 100% okay for skiing. I was tempted to try a short run, but ended up skiing until well past dark, and by then the wind had picked up and I was getting chilly enough to be happy to be done. It was probably better to wait another day anyway.