Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Yellow Fork Canyon, "long red" course, 5.2 km, 210 m. When I noticed that Spike and Mary had gone to an orienteering meet in Utah some months back, I checked the schedule, and saw that they had a race that would fit nicely schedulewise with a trip to Moab after the peak season. And Bob Heubner was meet director, which was a bonus.

A retro meet in some ways: pin punching, and a mapping style that was reminiscent of earler times (which is not intended as a negative comment). The map content was mostly just fine, though the presentation was a little problematic (symbols were quite small). The course was kind of out and back along a narrow valley. We were allowed one skip, and there was a control on both the way out and the way back that we only had to go to once (or not at all, if that was the skip). I did it on the way out and then skipped #4, which saved me approximately no distance but some possible frustration.

The first part was pretty much a yellow course, and the way back was more advanced. One averted disaster when I managed to get a prickly pear thorn in the toe, but it was still sticking out of the front of my shoe, so I was able to remove it easily. Small error on #9 (8 on the GPS track), which was in a reentrant, but it was a long reentrant and I guessed incorrectly that I needed to go higher when I got there, but in fact I was almost dead-on, just didn't see the control behind a juniper bush (maybe a minute lost). Then on #13 (12 on the track), the feature was supposedly on a reeentrant, though I don't see one in the circle, what I see is the north part of a clearing. The area was just a mottled mix of open and juniper, and I got within about 30-40 meters twice without finding it, then on the third attack I saw someone coming downhill in a way that made me think the control was in that direction, and I managed to get it, having lost about nine minutes on that one.

Utah is state #42 for me for orienteering.

Arches National Park: a hike down Park Avenue to the Courthouse parking area, then back up.

Arches National Park: short hike around the Balanced Rock area during a particularly spectacular sunset, which from Nancy's perspective was way more beautiful than any of the photos managed to capture.

I had an opportunity to visit Point of the Mountain in Draper, UT, one of the most famous hang gliding sites in the US. Smaller than I had pictured it, and though it looks like a terrific place for training, it seems like it could get boring pretty quickly.

Timpanogos: Stewart Falls hike, with death-defying stunts by Nancy. At the waterfall, we went a little higher than the base in order to get some pictures, then tried taking shortcuts back to join the main trail. I was thinking that it was good that Nancy didn't take the route that I did, then I heard her calling, and her route was even sketchier, and she appeared stuck. She got herself out, though, and ended up going my way after all.

Timpanogos: another short walk along a bike path after driving all the way around to the other side of the park, since the road through the pass is closed for the season. The cave was also closed for the season, so we didn't get to do that.

Short neighborhood walk while I thought about what I still needed to pack for the Utah trip.

Willard Brook, BrownX Day 2. A good solid run, aided by the fact that this course has had a lot of scrutiny, and I had good route choices in my head for some of the legs (and I didn't have to look at the map very much). About 10.5 minutes faster than Glen's time. I missed taking a couple of splits, but looking at the GPS track, it appears that I was faster then the best on nearly all of them, and close on the remaining few (including the first control and the finish). Quite enjoyable. Rolled both ankles at different times (left one early, right one late). 10 mylar points.

Around the block, In The Dark. I might have done something more ambitious, except a headache started just before dinnertime, and I needed to rest before the pills could knock that down.

According to the shoe tracking, I've not gotten 1000 km out of these flimsy slippers. Pretty impressive, and they still seem to be in decent shape.

WBNW, In The Dim, with Nancy. A week from now it will be this dim when the clocks are reading an hour earlier.

In the middle of one very large trail, I found a vintage pop-top, which I brought home and put in the recycling. How long must it have been there? Since the 1970s?

Down to the lake and back, In The Dark, stumbling around like a drunk and repeatedly finding I had drifted to the middle of the road because I was doing Swedish lessons on my phone at the same time, due to having ended up in a particularly tough league this week and I was scrambling to stay out of the demotion zone as the deadline approached.