Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Ran intervals along the section of the Enduro course that cuts through Twin Boulders and Pitcher Hill. After the ride, and all the way through Fall, it becomes a great trail for running on. Before the ride, it tends to be a bit overrun by encroaching sage and jealous grasses.

Many cattle, and as usual, they were by degrees quite curious but then even more skittish and ready for a stampede.

The best thing by far was finallyyyyy finishing up the survey on a new chunk of Pelican Bay that I've been working on now for (seemingly) 2 or 3 decades. After all this effort, there will definitely be some Rocky Mountain Goat controls in there.

The last bits of the chunk were so filled with crazy rock detail that a great deal of generalization was necessary; mapping it all at 1: 15000 wasn't close to possible. And not helping matters was the fact that the base was such a chore there. But it's done now, and that's all that matters.

Encountered 2 of the boldest turkeys I've yet seen up at Happy Jack. Besides the fact they were further west (and thus closer to the hub of activity) than I've seen any turkeys before, they had planted themselves squarely astride the path I was running down. And not only did they not immediately run off when I came into sight, they actually started turkey hissing at me!

I was pretty sure they were only bluffing, but you can never be certain. During the training week at WOC 2004, James Scarborough got attacked by a turkey-like bird which ended up chasing James up into a tree.

I kept on running towards them, and got my compass out and started slinging it around my head by the lanyard, and told those turkeys they better clear out or else I would go intifada on them.

That was about as much as they could take, and they started running off. I don't know what it is, but there's just something about the way turkeys run that I have to admire. You know they should be flying and they know it too, but they can't help themselves: they want to orienteer so bad!

Happy Jack trails, cruise intervals. Only one mosquito, which makes it acceptable.

The 2010 pine bark beetle has emerged and has gone right to work burrowing into the next round of pine trees. It's easy to pick out the trees under attack, either by scanning for sap tubes or looking for tell-tale rings of sawdust around the bases of the tree trunks.

There's one tree by a ski trail that has somehow already survived two rounds (years) of beetle attacks and is a prodigious producer of sap. Beetles are boring in right now; it's hard to believe this tree can possibly survive a third year of attack.

afternoon

Toasty--89F, which is about as warm as it gets around here, and probably the warmest day of the year, so far.

C • Pine Bark beetles 3

morning