Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Sunset at 6 pm!

Skied part of the time on my own and the last bit with Ted. 100% spring snow conditions, with a whole mix of soft sections, crusty sections, some nice ruts, downhills cratered with sitzplatses, and some nice loose snow areas in the coolest, most shaded parts. A t-shirt would have been fine, as it was unbelievably nice and mild out, and nothing but full blue skies until late afternoon. One hiker I saw was topless but un-calendar worthy as it was a he and not a shapely she.

On the way up the hill I spotted raven flying with branch, which made me remember that last year in about the same spot along the interstate raven had nested on a sandstone cliff blasted out of the hillside to allow for an extra lane, so I took a quick look and was happy to see raven sitting in nest!

Hard to make detailed raven observations while driving on the interstate though.

Many, many people out on the trails--exactly as it should be!

After skiing, headed down to Plains of Despair and ran the road in from the Happy Jack Rd. Vehicles had driven down the dirt road as far as the corner in the road where last year's Laramie Daze Day 1 start/finish was, and from there ATV tracks continued nearly to the eastern HQs Trail parking area. After that, the snow was unbroken. Maybe with 2 more sunny mild days the snow will be mostly melted off the dirt roads again, but I don't know if the weather gods are going to offer up two more days as nice as today. It would be awfully generous if they did, though, and really bring out the Spring sensations!

11 1/2 hrs of suntime!

C • Woah! 2

Yesterday's snowfall wasn't supposed to amount to much, but anyone who studies Cowboy football would have known better. What better way to usher in Spring Training (first session today) than a nice March blizzard?

Weather forecasters: O
First day of Spring Training: 1

There was a *whole* bunch of new snow up at Happy Jack from yesterday's/last night's storm, and even at mid-afternoon the groomers hadn't even been able to finish up a first pass of rolling all the trails yet.

How much new snow? So much that an entire gang of Bubo bearing Norwegians would have been struggling big time. They would have needed to call out the extra long legged Sturla versions to cope with this snowfall.

And since the snow had been warm and wet, and since the sun had been out and since the temps were mild, the trails were very lumpy and bumpy. Still great to have such a nice day though, and sunshine at Happy Jack still beats beets any day.

I had planned to ski for a while and then run some, but as I was headed back for the parking lot I crossed over some fresh corduroy, and the option of skiing some more on the good stuff had more appeal

Part of the time while I was skiing, I skied as quietly as possible, using very deliberate movements that would blend in, and not disturb the native and un-native fauna. Every 5 minutes I came to a complete stop and took measurements for 10 seconds.

Now I have finished analyzing the data back at home, and it is compelling. With a very high degree of certainty I can state that there were no mtb orienteers, ski orienteers, or trail orienteers up at Happy Jack this afternoon. There was not sufficient data to rule out the possible nearby (within 2 miles) existence of the sub-moron, however.

It was a year ago that the equity markets bottomed out; yet another way that the world is looking different today.

After 2 sparkling days of a presentation of spring or at least near-spring, it was time to revert to winter. The snow gods sent in everything they had held in reserve for the Olympics. For the first half of the day the snow was melting on the streets and sticking elsewhere, for the second half of the day the snow was sticking everywhere, and after dark everything that had been wet froze so that the streets became potential venues for short track speed skating. While I didn't spot Apolo Anton Ohno or his crowd, it did make me think back to some of the female US short track skaters; several of which were definitely hot.

Up top at Happy Jack the snow was heavier and more tenacious than in town, and the accumulation was worthy. While I presume the trails had been groomed in the morning, there wasn't the least flake of evidence of it left by mid-afternoon--too much new snow had buried everything. In places you couldn't even make out what was trail and what wasn't.

So the skiing was tough and deep. But a breeze compared to the Killer Bee Test Loop the other day.

The highway was a mess going back home, and traffic was crawling. On my the way down the hill, I saw a sheriff's vehicle with lights flashing going up the on the other side, and since there wasn't any traffic behind it, it looked like they were shutting things down and sweeping the highway to make sure no vehicles were stranded and needing help.

And, sure enough, down at the bottom the gates for eastbound traffic had come down, and there was a tremendous line of traffic already cued up. You could tell they were eager to get to Omaha, but it didn't look like there was going to be any more "getting" tonight.

Another nice day meant a chance to foray over to West Laramie and see what was up. As usual, the underpass on the River Path was frozen, with large melted margins from either approach that, to me at least, effectively functioned as a moat to be taken seriously. Even though I couldn't see them, I knew that giant snapping alligator turtles would be lurking right back from the margins of the ice, hoping for a meal of chihuahua, dachshund, or bikers toe.

I was surprised to see how much construction was going on, including the demolition of a very old dairy barn (which had passed out of use before I even came to Laramie) whose distinctive architecture would have fit right in traditional Pennsylvania Dutch farm country. Maybe some especially hardy Amish family ventured out to these more arid horticultural regions long ago, gave it a try, and then wisely new aged their way on down to Santa Fe.

I rolled back through campus, guessing that on this mild day it would furnish a visual treat or two, and I wasn't disappointed.

For my 2010 orienteering debut, I headed out to the Killer Bee Test Loop, now re-named the Killer Beast Test Loop, owing to the current conditions. The snow was by far deeper than I've ever seen it before, and that includes numerous min-winter runs in prior seasons. More than 95% of the running was in snow, and almost no place was it possible to run on top of the snow without breaking through, and in nearly all parts where there was snow, the snow depth ranged between 1' deep to over knee deep. It was quite the outing, and, at about 121 minutes of "running" for the loop itself, it took the longest it's ever taken to get around, as far as I can remember.

Next time won't be any easier, but thanks to all the snow steps I put in place today, it will definitely be faster. Some melting will help, too. ; )

Gorgeous day out, nearly full sun, and at a least a few degrees above freezing, so really quite mild, too.

C • Umm, snowshoes?? 8

C • Killer Beast 2

First time out on the roads this year. Not bad. It will be better when more of the chilling fields melt off.

When I met people on the trails today, they would keep on asking: "What's that on your face? Is that sun? Did you get some sun? Have you been biking?"

And I would say: "What, me biking? Oh, no, no way!"

But it was plain to see nobody was buying my line, quite possibly because I had completely forgotten to change out of my biking shorts before I went skiing. Good thing it wasn't cold!

I think it officially crossed over into Spring skiing today. It shore felt fine.

This qualified me for the trifecta for the day. In places the snow had glazed, and I am sure the more fall-prone runners would have bit the snow numerous times, had they been along.

The sun came out at around 11 and promptly began working away at the snow; this is the first day we're going to have significant melting in the valley since winter began. Some bikers will be happy.

C • history 8

Trails much firmer today--things were warm enough today (at least in the sun) that there could be some softening and re-freezing in the late afternoon.