Training Log Archive: Swampfox

At last some snowshoers had gotten out and begun packing some trails that a runner could benefit from. At one trail junction, I gathered beetle kill pine cones and arranged them to spell out a gigantic "thank you!", though I'm not sure anyone will understand since I translated it into Swedish.

It was not wicked cold or really even cold at all, but the wind? Whoa! Definitely windy. It started snowing hard from the moment I laid my skis down on the snow, and continued for about an hour. By the time I was done, it was dark and the winds had shaken down all kinds of material off of the beetle trees. I-80 was an icy disaster, and was in fact closed by the time I got on it and joined up with all the other traffic still on the road. Only saw one wreck though.

Caught a little bit of the noon sun, which was nice.

Windy, but felt mild all the same.

Was surprised when I was checking the weather data given here for Laramie (under "more details") that the sunset time given was off by a full hour! Something must be screwed up.

Totally bizarre. The uphills were easy but the downhills were very tough. Maybe I missed the wax. Or maybe it was the big I-80 corridor winds that went rhino after 4 pm? Hard to say for sure.

Trails were in great shape.

Stuck out at twilight. The very thin moon didn't provide much light, but then you don't need much light when there's snow on the ground. As long as the skies are clear, then there's enough light to see be. Amazingly, it was *dead* calm. That's super rare in winter in these parts.

About 2" of new snow, and it was fairly sticky, like rice. No problem walking straight up the steepest hills--in fact the steeper the better.

Trails, snow.