Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Skies turned gray early and I was only able to bike downtown and back before the first round of heavy rain hit. It rained off and on for most of the afternoon thus biking plans had to be postponed, and the main exercise ended up being a longer run at Happy Jack at the very end of the day. Lots of snow had melted off since the last time I had run there a few days earlier, and as one way to measure this, the last time out there the Troll Bridge had been completely out of sight, buried by a vast snowfield, and now it was completely snow free.

Drove up through the season's first hailstorm to go running. The hail was splooshy and didn't last long, but the accompanying rain kept on going on going. Plus it was very windy. At the parking lot, I sat in my truck listening to the news, and napped, and waited. After something over an hour, it wasn't looking any better, and I was completely under-dressed for the conditions.

So I returned home, by which time it was clearing off in the valley, and ran in the School Yard.

A little excitement was provided by some folks who had driven out to shoot. I didn't think they were allowed to do that there, but I wasn't going to confront them or even get near, not being able to see them or see which direction they were shooting, so I kept on going, and only a few minutes later I heard shots coming from a different area and this was much more alarming because these shots were ricocheting and it was impossible to tell where the rounds were going. I headed for a small canyon nearby and saw a mountain biker stopped down in it, and I hoped he would stay there long enough for me to reach him, to see if he had a phone. By the time I got to him, he was already in the process of phoning in a report to the sheriff. As I was about to leave the trails area, a sheriff's deputy arrived, and I ran over to his truck and gave him some details, but this was about a mile from where the shooters had been, with no way to drive directly there without having to drive a long way around. I have no idea how it all ended, but probably the shooters left before the deputy could reach them, as by the time all this happened it was already dusk.

Ran School Yard trails in strong winds. The trails are dry now and in many places now have their usual thin summer veneer of sand. On days like this, it doesn't take the wind long to wipe the trails clean of any tracks--kind of like what a high tide does at a beach.

I just learned of another orienteering teammate from West Point who has died earlier this year--Mike Peffers. Some here may remember him. His obituary: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sanantonio/obitu...

I ran easy out at Remarkable Flats, spending a fair amount of time in one area circling around in one area looking for a shed. I didn't find any, but I did spot some people tracks, so maybe they did.

Then I ran over to a different area to conduct further searching actions, and while I didn't find any sheds over there either, I did find a marmot, which was chirping/whistling loudly at me. I couldn't spot the marmot, but it was obvious the sound was coming from a small group of rocks, and eventually I narrowed down the sound as coming from one particular rock. And when I bent down to look under the rock, there was the marmot. I couldn't tell if it wanted a grape, or wanted me to go away. I didn't have a grape, so I went away.

Later I heard more sounds, this time coming from a giant boulder cluster, and when I went to investigate this new marmot--even though I still didn't have any grapes--it turned out to be two people. I think they were surprised to see me, more or less in the middle of nowhere, and I was surprised they weren't a marmot.

That's my story for the day, and I stand by it.

Man, already 67F--easily the warmest day of the year so far. I definitely feel some O' coming on! ; )

C • temperature 1

Orienteering was on tap for today. Real orienteering. Classic distance. Long, tough, wind, sun, snow, wide open prairie. And maybe even some flowers, here and there.

This demanded something jangly.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i89nnkz2m9q72q6/Don%27t%...

For various reasons, I calculated a course distance of 18.6 kms was required. Remarkably, when I drew up the rough design--first attempt--it measured at almost exactly 18.6 kms! I think it was fated, since I knew before picking the first control what the final control would be (marked as the Finish, but I always thought of it as the last control): Remarkable Boulder. But then, when the map is Remarkable Flats, everything becomes remarkable. So the rough design became the final course.



I stopped a little outside of the circle at #14, looking at a boulder right in line with my eyesight, which didn't look quite right. I stopped at the tick mark to see what was going on and spotted the correct boulder almost immediately, further down below and to my left. To #18, I wanted to run a little right of the beeline and almost at once spotted the large boulder right of the line which I wanted to run by. But once I ran by it and started down the steep slope and saw a wall of aspen in front of me plus the road on the other side, I realized I had picked out the very rocky knoll south of the beeline instead of the boulder, and swung right to get back on track. Otherwise, everything went well, though at #23 I had to estimate where the control feature (a two line marsh) might be, as the whole area was buried in a massive snowfield. Crampons were not required.

It turned my legs were not equal to the course, and by the time I started uphill, into a pretty decent wind, on the way to #22, I was already feeling a lack of any vestige of orienteering fitness this early in the season. No surprise, and I just did the best I could, and what a glorious day to be out in such a beautiful area!