Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Finished off a 42nd full section of O' map up top.

Orienteering in the Laramie Range is not dangerous. However, the risks should not be minimized, much less ignored.

As a case in point, while out mapping today, I almost stumbled into what was seemingly a harmless example of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). In fact was anything but. It was an example of the extremely rare but highly dreaded Artemesia carnivora. Sometimes prey will be able to pull themselves free before the plant is able to fully activate, but the more usual result is that the victim is ensnared, subdued, and digested with only a bone or two left as evidence that not all sage is to be trifled with. This orienteer was not having a good day:

After a month without rain, the drought was ended as mighty storms swept through the valley. Some might say I am biased because I was caught out by one storm as I was biking, and others might opine that I was better able to judge the intensity of the events for having experienced it firsthand.

I was well south of town and could see the first cell coming up out of the west, and it looked to me it was moving slowly enough that I could complete the loop I had planned and make it back to town in time, and also it seemed to me the cell would likely pass a hair to the north of town. In both cases I was wrong. Then I thought maybe I could just hang out to the south and wait it out, but a second cell appeared off to the west right in line with where I was, so waiting it out was no longer an option. I decided to just bite the bit and go for it, and if I got wet, I got wet. Halfway back to town, and making excellent time, I could see the intersection I *had* to pass through disappearing as cell #1 overswept it. Oh, well. The rain started and I was soaked. Then the hail started, with much lightning. Time to seek shelter from the storm, and I made my way to the nearest easy place--Barts, and hung out there for about 45 minutes before the storms went by and things had reduced to a drizzle. Then back home for a change of clothes and some hot tea!

Being out in the hail was not so great, but the rain itself was. Hopefully it pounded the cheat grass and the season's seeds are now mostly on the ground.

Because of the rain, it never made it into the 80s, and I would guess there is a pretty decent chance we are done with any truly warm weather for the year.

Chalk up another record high for the date.

Changed over my map board and made a tiny start at the McKechnie Meadow Hill. Emphasis on tiny. Pretty desolate out there, with not a hint of a Subway or anything like that.

Intervals today, and I was in my truck waiting for some (hoped for) cooling wafts of air at the end of another (too?) warm day and looking for inspiration when the man on the radio said: "After 50 years, ZZ Top isn't done yet, and a new album may be in the works."

Exactly what the doctor ordered. In a blixtered moment I was out and running, my shoe laces had never felt so light before, almost like hot scallop grease on a lick 'em stick.

When I ZZ Top, I just El Loco.

All this after finishing up enough mapping to change over my map board.

Record high temps for the day (at least 88F vs the old high of 87F) led to record high cold water consumption by me on the day. Mapped during the heat of the day and thought about when it might rain again. My current fave pair of running shoes is pretty wrecked and it has been my plan to throw them out after the next rainfall. The rain keeps on not arriving and the shoes keep getting more worn and worn with too many holes in the uppers to count, and soles so smooth you could write literature on them.

Ran afterwords and kept hitting rocks--luckily without taking any falls. Some days rocks reach out more forcefully than on others.

C • Literature 4