Discussion: historic week in Laramie
in: 2013 Laramie Daze (Aug 28 – Sep 2, 2013 - Laramie, WY, US)
Jun 25, 2013 5:07 PM
#
This past week was historic in Laramie. Just consider all the things that happened!
--The NBA season ended at last
--The NHL season ended at last (my god, how long does it last???)
--Summer arrived
--The full moon was really, really bright on Sunday night
--the last of the snow at Happy Jack melted (yesterday), meaning that this year Laramie Daze is likely to be snow free once again
--yesterday the Miller moths arrived; the day before there were none in the woods, and yesterday there were hundreds of thousands (at least); I had wondered what had happened with those moths and I guess they got held up in Ogallala or maybe Kearney, NE
--yesterday I finished off mapping the new addition to the Yellow Pine map.
Really, so much has happened in the last week it all but rivals that epic moment the south end of the compass needle was invented.
Of all these things, finishing off the map addition was of course the thing that mattered. With hindsight, it might have been just as well to have not bothered. It's mostly a big north facing slope, and with photos taken back in the days when the forest was still alive and thriving, that's practically a guarantee that the base was going to be kind of so-so. It's a fairly bland section anyway. And with a pine beetle ravaged forest that is now 3/4's dead or dying, it's not quite the sybaritic lodgepole pine delight it once would have been.
On the plus side, the much reduced pine canopy now admits enough light that wildflowers are positively flourishing. There is practically a continuous blazing gold carpet of balsamroot throughout the forest, with much equally brilliant golden banner, and everywhere varied splotches of larkspur, wild clematis, mountain parsley, purple fringe, several species of penstemon, white geraniums, and multi-hues of varied violets, to name but a few flowers in evidence. None of which will be in evidence by the time Daze rolls around, but so it goes.
I'm not sure yet how to work this new addition in with any kind of a course, but the current thought is maybe to use it as a kind of trail running O' section. Got that? Not trail-O (you will never see it at Laramie Daze, not that there's anything wrong with it) but trail running O', yet another discipline we can add to the already long list of various O' disciplines. It will be the perfect complement to MTB O' and ski O', and once enacted the race will be on to see who the first can be to win all three of the "trail" type disciplines.
Just for fun, after finishing up the new piece of map, I headed up to Yellow Pine (campground) itself, just to see if there was anyone already there doing some "thief" training. Nope! Or, at least if there was anyone, they had been careful to take down their tent and remove any signs that orienteers were in the area.
--The NBA season ended at last
--The NHL season ended at last (my god, how long does it last???)
--Summer arrived
--The full moon was really, really bright on Sunday night
--the last of the snow at Happy Jack melted (yesterday), meaning that this year Laramie Daze is likely to be snow free once again
--yesterday the Miller moths arrived; the day before there were none in the woods, and yesterday there were hundreds of thousands (at least); I had wondered what had happened with those moths and I guess they got held up in Ogallala or maybe Kearney, NE
--yesterday I finished off mapping the new addition to the Yellow Pine map.
Really, so much has happened in the last week it all but rivals that epic moment the south end of the compass needle was invented.
Of all these things, finishing off the map addition was of course the thing that mattered. With hindsight, it might have been just as well to have not bothered. It's mostly a big north facing slope, and with photos taken back in the days when the forest was still alive and thriving, that's practically a guarantee that the base was going to be kind of so-so. It's a fairly bland section anyway. And with a pine beetle ravaged forest that is now 3/4's dead or dying, it's not quite the sybaritic lodgepole pine delight it once would have been.
On the plus side, the much reduced pine canopy now admits enough light that wildflowers are positively flourishing. There is practically a continuous blazing gold carpet of balsamroot throughout the forest, with much equally brilliant golden banner, and everywhere varied splotches of larkspur, wild clematis, mountain parsley, purple fringe, several species of penstemon, white geraniums, and multi-hues of varied violets, to name but a few flowers in evidence. None of which will be in evidence by the time Daze rolls around, but so it goes.
I'm not sure yet how to work this new addition in with any kind of a course, but the current thought is maybe to use it as a kind of trail running O' section. Got that? Not trail-O (you will never see it at Laramie Daze, not that there's anything wrong with it) but trail running O', yet another discipline we can add to the already long list of various O' disciplines. It will be the perfect complement to MTB O' and ski O', and once enacted the race will be on to see who the first can be to win all three of the "trail" type disciplines.
Just for fun, after finishing up the new piece of map, I headed up to Yellow Pine (campground) itself, just to see if there was anyone already there doing some "thief" training. Nope! Or, at least if there was anyone, they had been careful to take down their tent and remove any signs that orienteers were in the area.
Jun 27, 2013 2:26 PM
#
...the much reduced pine canopy...
Those going west this summer to Laramie Daze or elsewhere, may be interested to read this long and very interesting Men's Journal article on the current worrisome environmental conditions in the Rockies. Will the West Survive?
Those going west this summer to Laramie Daze or elsewhere, may be interested to read this long and very interesting Men's Journal article on the current worrisome environmental conditions in the Rockies. Will the West Survive?
This discussion thread is closed.