Discussion: Daze 6

The Daze for Daze 6 has dawned clear and sweet, with the sun rising into mostly clear skies occasionally mottled with rice crisp cloud things. Live race coverage will begin at 0850 at the usual live coverage race site, with twitting updates and a live camera feed from our brand new Quadra Cow Cam Drone. Mostly we will concentrate on following Greg Walker, since he is the one runner tall enough that we can always be sure his head will be visible sticking out above the trees.

Pre-race temperature as we approach the 1 1/2 hour mark until start is 49F.

We've done some interviews during the week, and one of the real surprises was finding out the most popular breakfast item among the campers at Yellow Pine this year is, of all things, the crusty croissant. Apparently Soupbone has mastered the art of making croissants over a hot open fire using some specialized technique involving a batter box, aluminum foil (thanks, Gavin!), and worn out guitar strings. Quite astonishing, when you think about it.

PS--Slight correction, we just had email saying that Gibson guitar picks are also integral to the croissant making process.

These song for this year's Rocky Mountain Goat is "Whole Lotta Love."

Racers will get a whole lotta Diamond Bay, and even more. Rock on!

Official Results, 2013 Rocky Mountain Goat, 12.5 kms, 20 posts. Climb? Yes. Seasonally warm temps, averaging 70s or so, sunny, many grasshoppers, even more ATVers, some moose, no cows.

1 Graham Baird 87.57
2 Greg Walker 93.21
3 Greg Balter 95.39
4 JP Lande 99.22
5 Craig Murray 99.31
6 Pete Curtis 111.58
7 Troy Bozarth 116.25
8 Charlie Shahbazian 124.21
9 Sverre Froyen 124.25
10 Ludwig Hill 129.12
11 Eugene Mlynczyk 132.26
12 Carol Ross 134.15
13 Dennis Carney 138.57
14 Sue Kuestner 139.04
15 Gavin Wyatt-Mair 141.12
16 Mark Parsons 152.06
16 Brendan White 152.08
18 Doug Berling 152.42
19 John Crowther 156.44
20 Dmitriy Zamoshchin 166.31
21 Sam Listwak 171.36
22 Brooke Mann 184.38
23 Kris Beecroft DNF
24 Valentina Shcherbinina DNF
25 John Murray DNF
26 Troy Couture DNF
27 Ralph Lindzen DNF
28 Peg Davis DNF
29 Scott Drumm DNF
30 Ardis Dull DNF
31 Linda Moore DNF
32 Dean Huwe DNF
33 Team C2 DNF
34 Scott Donald DNF
35 Shirley Donald DNF
36 Carl Moore DNF

I saw some cows when I was crossing Diamond Bay near the end of the course.

I can confirm John's cow sighting; they were lounging right in the middle of Diamond Bay. I had to swing a bit wide of my intended route...

Are you sure they weren't deer in cowhides? The start of hunting season (bow) isn't that far off, and those deer are clever. Or maybe it wasn't just the meet director who was dazed and confused by Daze 6. In the shimmering heat of the day, maybe those cows were actually ATVers?

Mikell - Thanks again for a great Daze.

Okay. So there were some cows after all. But there weren't any gnats. I'm sure of that!

Here is the Rocky Mountain Goat course, on the newly enlarged (this summer) Diamond Bay map, which is now massive. If you include enough adjoining white paper, Diamond Bay is *just* under 100km2. Otherwise, it's' smaller.

From publiken

Man, I wish my annual family reunion wasn't the same weekend as Laramie Daze each year. I really need to get back there. (And no, moving the reunion to Laramie is not an option, despite how fantastic that would be. ;-)

Thanks Mikell for a great week! The latest daze is on Routegadget.

Great thanks from Z-man and me to Mikell and others who helped, for excellent 6 days event, great times, best Laramie weather ( I think, that 's where the entree fees go). My GPS confirmed that all controls were there, in the only spot they shell be, can not ask for more than that. I hope to race here more and more.

Well, thanks guys. As time goes along you will never know how much that means to me.

As I've said to others, it almost doesn't matter what I do to set things up unless folks show up, and I'll go beyond that in saying the "right folks". We had a super group this year, shiny happy people in the best sense of the phrase. It's hard to imagine doing a week of anything without seeing a single frown or hearing a single complaint, and yet I can tell you all I saw were smiles, the whole time. That's amazing to me. And it's not as if every single thing was perfect. Rather, it seems like folks were here to have a good time, enjoy the Laramie Range, and nothing was going to stop them.

The one real regret I have is, yet again, never making it by Yellow Pine after dark. It's not that I didn't want to. Rather, it would have been a "bridge too far". Already as it was, there wasn't a night I turned off the lights before midnight.

At least I got to hear some of the campfire stories, and I"m still laughing at several of them. ; )

Yeah, it was a great week.

That's a pretty fine looking map.

Indeed it is. I should let nothing get between me, those maps, and a final showdown between my bugbear Balter and me on the steppes, peaks, and valleys of Laramie and its environs.

Book your tickets for 2014, folks.

We were definitely in the "there to have a good time and enjoy the Laramie Range" category. And it was a very successful trip! Thanks again and looking forward to next time.

Gotta add my sincere gratitude for this wonderful event. Love the place, the people, the wonderful courses, maps, water, weather, cows, coyote, rocks, sage, altitude, all of it. I always feel younger afterwards too - not sure why. Very very grateful to Mikell. Looking forward to next year already.

Oh, there were frowns, trust me. On the faces of those of us who were not able to be there.

@jjcote - Here here!

I got a copy of the Laramie Daze article from Amber Travsky, the Laramie Boomerang reporter who was at the Rocky Mountain Goat on Monday.

She said the article will only appear in today's print edition, not on their website, so she sent me a PDF.

Orienteering combines fitness and navigation in the field
by Amber Travsky
September 6, 2013

Dang, Brooke beat me to it! I can only bow my head and acknowledge that Brooke takes the win. Brooke, you're almost too good! ; )

However, I can add something, just give me a minute or two...

Here are 3 photos that Amber took that she submitted along with her article, but none of them ended up being published (out of her control):

This is Greg Walker on the way to #10 at the Goat, in midget form (in normal full scale Greg form he is a good bit taller than the average Laramie Range tree):

From publiken

After the race, I asked Greg what he was thinking as he was headed in to #10, and he told me he was thinking: "Carol and I really need to move to Laramie, the tax advantages would be so awesome!"

This is Pete Curtis, showing off the Abe Lincoln look he adopted for this year's Laramie Daze (also taken by Amber):

From publiken

I didn't ask Pete what he was thinking because it is plainly obvious that he was thinking "I need to move to Laramie, too."

Better watch out for that rock at your feet, though Pete! Pete was about to take a tumble and he didn't even know. But it's more fun that way, right? ; )

Way to go Troy, Pete and Greg! looking fabulous!

This is the third of Amber's fine photos, now featuring Troy Bozarth. I had trouble uploading this photo, and I'm almost positive it's because Amber must have cropped the photo. And why would she have cropped this photo, and not the rest? Try to take a guess before looking at the answer.

From publiken

Well, the reason Amber didn't crop the photo is because she didn't want to spoil the set up. Troy is smiling because the attack welsh corgis at controls #3, 12, and 17 were unable to penetrate his flurry of dislodging kicks. His socks remained intact, and he will not need to change them before reporting to work the next day.

me thinks Swampfox has been lurking. Sounds like I need to take lessons from Troy