Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Today was mostly overcast, but no snow, just a very light breeze, and temps above freezing, so it was a real surprise when I was driving to go skiing and got on the interstate only to see...flashing lights ahead, and the gate drawn down across the interstate. It either meant there was some bad wind blowing snow around higher up (which sometimes happens even when it's relatively calm in town), or something else, like a wreck.

So I turned around and came back home, and immediately checked road conditions. It was a wreck, and it must have been bad, since it sounded like it had happened in the morning and yet the interstate still wasn't open.

Later I found it it had been a 24 vehicle wreck, mostly semi trucks.

Since skiing wasn't happening, or anything else up top, I ran from home. I think it's the first day I've missed skiing since Nov 27.

Earlier in the week the forecast had called for some chance of snow yesterday, and partly sunny conditions today. However, when I looked up from work in the afternoon, it was snowing! There was enough snow in the air that I checked road conditions before I headed out to go skiing. Roads were open, but slick with falling snow, according to the report.

In fact the highway was open, but there was a good bit of snow across two of the uphill lanes and no signs that snow plows had been out. By the time I got onto the Happy Jack Rd., it was near white out conditions and there was a lot of snow on the road, enough so that I spent part of the time driving in the oncoming traffic lane. But I made it to the parking lot, and into the parking lot, only to find 6" of new snow waiting on the trails.

With skate skis, it was tough going, but still manageable. I was glad to be out skiing, even if the workout I got was different from what I had planned. I skied for about 2 hours, until light was failing, and decided to pass on running. I got chilled in the time it took to get my skis and walk to my truck, and by then the snow was so deep running in it would have been a struggle, so it was an easy call.

If it's white and it falls on the ground and stays there and then you can ski on it, it must be snow--even if the calendar says January. I reckon there was something between 1/2" and 1" of new snow up at Happy Jack by mid-afternoon, which was enough to freshen up the trails nicely. Skied and didn't feel zapped from yesterday, which was good. Ran afterwards, and that was good, too. To glance around at what other skiers were doing, it looked like everyone was taking an easy day today.

Ski intervals today.

Despite being overcast all day long, temps were just above freezing, and it was enough to raise the moisture content of the snow a good bit. So the trails were on the slow side when I started skiing in mid-afternoon, and gradually got faster as temps started to drop a little and the winds picked up some. Eventually a few snowflakes in the air showed up, but it wasn't close to being a measurable amount. It's been a full month now since the last measurable snow in town. It looks like there's a chance for some snow in 2 days, but if it doesn't come, then January will go down as a dry month.

C • Dry January 10

I got up top for skiing around mid-afternoon. The parking lot was pretty full though with spaces in random places, and there were cars parked on the other side of the highway and one or two along the highway. That, plus other random aftermath, was enough to make it clear that Wee Ski must have begun today.

It was both mild enough and sunny enough that there was another first of the season today: several sections of trail had glazed or hardened up to some degree, most notably on the big south facing climb on Summit Loop. It just made for faster skiing.

It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the area.

It's been a long time since I've had even the tiniest thought about orienteering and the Olympics, but for some reason I was curious to see where orienteering stood with respect to US Olympics, and what I found is that we are nestled within a small group that also includes: football (can totally see that making it to the Olympics some day, can't you?), DanceSport (don't ask me, I have no clue), Flying Disc (can't risk appearing to discriminate against Martians, who after all come equipped with X-Ray guns and other armaments), Polo (another up and coming sport for the masses), and Underwater Swimming (the SEALs must have wielded their considerable political clout to get this included; it must involve in seeing how far you can go underwater with a single breath or something like that.) If you judge by the company kept, it doesn't look like O' is in any danger of moving on up anytime soon, if ever.

Son-of-a-Bosler! The City Council must have been reading AttackPoint, because it turns out that right after I wrote about plastic garbage bags here, they scurried into a work session on recycling, and shortly thereafter (this week) adopted a resolution to "diminish and regulate retail-use plastic waste within the city", which will kick off a multi-year process which could potentially result in a ban on same. The cause-effect relationship here could not be more clear cut.

See if I write anymore about plastic bags. I probably better be careful with writing about pizza, too! Man.

While they're at it though, it would not hurt my feelings if they also went after those worthless mylar balloons, one of which I found (and picked up) on a trail while I was running tonight.

But in the meantime, time to kick off Operation Bag Horde. Wouldn't surprise me at all if bag usage at Walmart suddenly skyrockets.

C • Plastic bags 8

There hasn't been any new snow except for traces this month. So, it's been a dry January so far. Despite that, ski conditions have been great all month. Yesterday was the first day where the snow was a little affected by temps above freezing, and had softened some and was slower.

There was a story in the paper today about the wreck I saw on Monday. There was one fatality and 9 people were injured, some requiring evacuation to Colorado.

C • 9 injured 2

Felt full of energy all day and when I got up top for skiing, the feeling only grew. I'm sure it had everything to do with much faster, dry snow, and crisper temps with some tasty west breeze kicking in as well, and nothing at all to do with the fact that I slept hard through the night and didn't wake up in the morning until more than 2 1/2 hours later than usual. When I woke up I had no idea it was as late as it was. I've examined my skin carefully 3 times already, looking for radioactive snow snake bites.

But if the "Go" light is shining brightly, then go for it, and in spite of doing intervals yesterday, I probably ended up skiing even harder today and felt really strong the whole time. Weird. It was the kind of day you want for a big race.

Ski intervals were up today. I cut the session short by one interval versus what I had planned, based on how I was feeling after the last interval I did. My view is that with higher intensity stuff, it is better to err on the side of being conservative than to risk over doing it.

Came home, had a non-vegetarian pepperoni calzone for dinner (had a vegetarian pepperoni calzone last week, so mixing it up here) and am now getting ready to watch SDSU slaughter Wyoming. Of course, it's always possible Wyoming could win against the 19-0 Aztecs, but on this night, with this team, the odds are really long. To put them in a popular context, they are even longer than the odds that the Death Star would not be blown up in the original Star Wars movie. Go Cowboys.

Big sun was burning bright in the sky--at least as much as sun can burn in January around here--and it seemed like an ideal time to hop on the bike.

Actually, I hopped on the bike yesterday. It looked equally promising as regards the sun, but the temps didn't quite clear freezing, and there was cold breeze out of the north...as it turned out. My mistake was going out, too optimistically, in summer biking gloves. Bit by bit my fingers got colder and colder. I tried every trick to keep them warm, including going up to cars at stoplights, and putting my hands where the exhaust was coming out, all to no avail. But we survived.

Today was enough degrees more better (great English!) that it was an altogether different experience, and I rode long south of town and back, getting comfortably toasty in the process. Very nice.

Except for a big time wreck across 287 several miles south of town. After biking and driving up to Happy Jack, the helicopter light on the hospital was revolving, and it was still turning when I drove by in the dark a few years later. There's no guarantee the lights had anything to do with the wreck, but that's where I would put my money.

Skiing was terrific. It was dead calm and it made me think about Saturday when it was total scream method wind from start to finish. Saw all sorts of people I recognized and skied with a few of them. Didn't see Steve Tyler.

C • Helicopter light 5

Sunny from start to finish, beautiful outside in every way, and windy as well. Very windy in fact, and at various times during the day various roads around Laramie were closed, including the interstate. Though I'm not sure that all the announced road closures corresponded to actual closures on the ground.

It turned out the ski race had ample staff (and not so many racers), so briefly I was asked to collect bibs from racers as they finished. I had dressed for skiing (sweep duty) and not for standing around, and already after getting just the first few bibs I explained the situation and bailed, and did a good ski. Followed up by running down into the Crow Creek drainage. After 4+ hours of that, or whatever it was, I was pretty well done, and headed home. The wind never let up one little bit, and it was rock and roll going down the canyon. Man!

The wind fans kicked back on today, and just in time--more than a day or two of quiet, and it just doesn't feel right.

There was mention in the local news early in the afternoon of a snow squall in the vicinity of Elk Mountain (west of Laramie), and when I was driving up top go skiing and had a view from near the parking lot out over the Laramie Valley, I could see there was an amazing looking ground blizzard obscuring the valley floor NW of Laramie--no doubt the result of the snow squall plus the big wind. On the way back home, signs were flashing warning that the interstate was closed west of Laramie.

Tomorrow there is a local ski race, and I agreed to help after being asked. The organizer wrote me:

"Here’s a bit more information about your role as course sweeper on Saturday:
Course sweeper. Ski part of race course, starting approx. 10:45, to be sure that all racers have finished. If you encounter a racer who needs assistance, ski back to start/finish to notify Randy and the 1st-aid person. Plan to stay until 11:30."

I wrote him back:

"For those who are flagging through no fault of their own, I will have marshmallows and little trinkets to encourage them along.

For the recalcitrant who are not even trying, swift and terrible justice will be rendered, along the lines favored by the founder of the Pole Mountain Shuffle, General Philip Sheridan.

Thus will sweeping be accomplished."

He then wrote me back:

"Wow. I’m glad I’m not racing…"

There is an announcement today that the permitting process for a 5th nearby, major wind project has begun, this one to be sited south of town.

It looks like at long last SE Wyoming is making a play to be Wind Capital of the Orienteering World. To be sure, a mere 5 major projects will hardly make a dent in the wind resource, but it is at least a start.

Went out biking at noon; with the sun out, the winds not so much, and temps up to as much as 48F, it felt like spring, and warmer than it's been since back in October. Down in Denver it is probably summer time, and geese are likely frantically chasing scantily clad sunbathers off the greening grass.

The reality is it's not even the end of mid-winter yet, and won't be for two more weeks. But for today, skiing will be toasty.

Skied short and ran longer, at very easy intensity the whole time. Saw one friendly young lab who was happy to get to go out on the snow bike trails, and didn't see any moose. When you do see them, moose also are happy to get to walk around on the snow bike trails.

Beyond that, it came to me while I was running that Howdy Doody had 48 freckles. That was odd, especially given that I never ever saw Howdy Doody, and that what really comes to mind with Howdy Doody is a certain infamous Wyoming football incident.

Saw some very large blades coming down the canyon, headed west.

After updating for the Sugar Hill mapping, it looks like there is about 147 km2 of contiguous O' map here in Laramie. All of which is thoroughly infested with moose. But things could be better, and by the end of 2020 hopefully that figure will finally cross the 150 km2 mark!

Ski intervals, did a little more total volume that I have previously this season. I was somewhat tired from staying up late last night, watching the Tigers play the Tigers. Nice day, nice conditions, nice swampfox (I could be biased.)

A little inspiration before foraying out into the winter is often helpful, and today's serving of rock was "My Wife" by the Who. It got me so fired up that in time at all I had a guitar plugged and the volume turned way up. By the time I got out into the wind I never even noticed it. Skied with Tyler and then ran some on my own, and then headed home just in time to catch the coin toss for the Big Game, which very happily the Tigers won. Less happily, it was the *other* Tigers, but so it can go. It didn't take away one bit from the Championship broccoli pizza.

Skied, and then tagged on some running afterwards, just to show the howling icy wind who was really in charge. Well, actually the wind was in charge, but I pretended it wasn't, and that was enough to get me started. It may have been too much by then for the rest of humanity, however, because the only folks I saw while I was running were two snow bikers so battened up in clothing that it was almost easier to make them out as some kind of bike mounted, gigantic, nu-tech caterpillars. At least it was until I heard their muffled greetings.

While I was out, I thought about goals some. Goals are useful, at least for me. Without them, I have little to look forward to, and I get depressed that everyone else has covered their skin in tattoos, while I have none. Thinking about that distracted me enough for a moment that I started wondering why nobody gets prominent carrot tattoos on their cheeks, but I forced myself to break off and re-focus.

Last year my sole goal that I explicitly stated for myself was to stay out of the hospital. When midnight arrived Dec 31 became Jan 1 and other people were setting off fireworks, I did a brief but ridiculous happy dance--no hospitals.

That was such a good goal that it was an automatic to carry it forward for another year. But I wanted something else, and it looked like it was too late to join the Democratic field for the presidency as a viable candidate.

After mulling some more while the wind was tearing at my exposed neck (I had most unfortunately left my neck gaiter at home, in an oversight), I decided on a reliable fall-back: aluminum cans. Last year, without a goal, I recycled 79 pounds of aluminum. This year I will aim for 88 pounds. Which will, if nothing else, have ancillary benefit of addressing the prodigious and still growing pile of plastic grocery bags I have. Now all I need is for the sun to fire up and start peeling back the frozen waters, to reveal the accumulated winter's worth of metallic treasures.

C • grocery bags 8

What I like about this day is the average high for the day ticks up a degree, to 34F. Though it fell well short of that today, and looks to remain comfortably below that for most of next week.

Even so, there were lots of skiers out, and all the other usual activiziers as well. Plus me. Skiing was great.

After skiing, I went running down into the Pole Creek drainage, and 45 minutes into the run I was comfortably now running on a dead flat, snow packed Forest Service road. Hadn't encountered a single even mildly slippery spot, and then the next step put me flat on the ground in a millisecond. I banged a knee and laid on the ground for a bit to assess for any damage, and then got up and looked around for the offending spot. I couldn't find a thing. It must have been some kind of devilishly clever runner trap, with all the knobs twisted to the perfect setting for swampfox.

I kept on going, alert of course the rest of the way for the possibilities of additional cunning devices designed to fell.

I guess I was lucky it wasn't an IED.

Still a fine outing, and the nearly full moon shining ghostly through very thin high fog provided the perfect touch.

C • obviously.... 4

Quite nice day, the wind backed off a few tens of mph, there's almost no snow left that is loose enough to be blown around, and temps soared right on past the freezing mark, urged on by a soaring sun and a brilliant nearly full moon. It almost felt like mid-January all in all. I skied and then put in an hour running on the snow trails, all leading up to going to the basketball game this evening. It turns out that the undefeated #7 SDSU is a whole lot better than the much defeated #300 (or thereabouts) Wyoming, and it showed.

Ski intervals up today. Fast snow, lots of sun, big wind, but not cold enough to make the big wind brutal. Good stuff, and a little very easy running afterwards (and, boy, were the snow bikers out in droves tonight.)

The wind took the day off, and that brought out innumerable skiers, snowshoers, snow bikers, and miscellaneous dogs. Nobody could believe what was going on, and there was even sun!

Conditions were ideal for setting out some skiers traps, so I set out a line, and as soon as I got done with the last trap I checked the first trap. Success! I already had my first skier, which of all things turned out to be Graham Baird (X8A7). I told him if he would just stop struggling against the snares for a few moments I would set him, and that he could then continue wearing out his arms double poling. Upon hearing that, the good Graham said he would rather stay in the trap instead, if that would be alright. I guess he was tired by that point--surprising, when it later developed that by then he had only been out skiing for 8 minutes. I'm not sure how he is going to get through Birkebeiner, unless it's on the back of a snowmobile.

Saw lots of other friendly and familiar faces, and ended up skiing for more than three hours when I had planned for only roughly 2. And you can't be too unhappy about the lack of wind--it will no doubt return soon.

Ski intervals.

Once again, the wind was kickin some ass in the afternoon, and causing all sorts of mayhem along I-80 from one end of the state to the other--and that's a lot of state. There are 4 major wind projects (one of which will be the largest yet in the country) either about to start construction or underway in the counties of Laramie, Albany, and Carbon, and the developers must sit around in their offices high fiving on days like this.

The wind was in fine form by the afternoon, and it was impossible to tell for sure if it had snowed some overnight up top, or whether the wind had blown in new snow, or both.

The plan had been to ski and the run some afterwards, but by the time I finished skiing my assessment of the wind and the amount of snow blown in the parking lot and being blown in made me think it would be smart to cede the field to the wind and head home while the gettin' was still good. I was actually surprised to see how much traffic there still was on the interstate and would have been less surprised had it been closed. Luckily, the forecast for the next two days is more wind, so maybe we can look forward to closures on Friday or Saturday.

A dusting of snow fell in town overnight, and a squall passed through midday that dropped an inch on the ski trails. Skiing was outstanding, and I skied until the sun quit and all the other skiers had quit, too. Call it 2 1/2 hrs of fun and breathing clean air.