Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Did a longish bike ride north towards Bosler, mostly against a pretty decent, steady headwind, and when I had gone long enough timewise, turned back home, for about 2 1/2 hours of riding. Then didn't tarry long at home before heading up to run trails at Happy Jack, since it was already nearly 4 o-clock. When snow arrives it won't matter so much that it gets dark an hour earlier, since it's pretty easy to see well enough after dark with snow on the ground.

There were more scattered clouds in the sky today than either of the last 2 days (which were essentially cloudless), but still quite mild and really fine for November, I opted to put more time in on the bike and less on the trails, getting out late enough up at Happy Jack to do most of the running after sunset. Didn't lose light until about 6:30 though, so it all worked out satisfactorily, and another day of not getting shot. Last day I can run this late and still have light, with the time changing back to normal time tonight.

I hope folks realize I'm just joking about not getting shot--in terms of the actual risk, which I rate as well below the risk of getting hit by lightning during the summer. Over the years, I've met lots of hunters around here, and uniformly they have been friendly and have struck me as being responsible. I do take some sensible measures about when and where I run, and what colors of clothing I wear. For instance, I don't run in wooded areas off trail late in the day, just knowing that is the best time to be hunting (plus dawn) as well as when the most hunters are likely to be out, plus the dimming light and growing shadows lead to some increased risk of mis-identifications.

I worry *much* more about folks who are out to just shoot their firearms and who are not hunting. I have often seen irresponsible shooting (for instance, shooting at a target with no good backstop) and we have had several "near miss" incidents in recent years in the area. When I am out running on our maps and I hear shooting going on, I steer well clear no matter where the course is going, and try to estimate the direction of shooting and where bullets might be going.

O' at Remarkable Flats, mid-day to minimize chances of running into hunters. Full sun, very little breeze, and just beautiful and beautifully mild--perfect for what I was doing. About 10 kms with 26 controls was the prescription for the day.

If fall was like this every year, I'd speculate a lot more people would be living in SE Wyoming than presently do. Winter will show up sooner or later, I'm sure.

C • Saturday is only the second... 2

Last Saturday, after I finished the last little bit of map I was working on and as I was about to leave, I turned back around and took a second look at that last little bit, and was unhappy to see the relationships of the features weren't as good as I had thought. It wasn't *bad*, and it really wasn't that important either, as anyone running through the area (maybe 70 x 80m) probably wouldn't notice anything amiss, and probably even a control on one of the few features in there would have worked. The problem was there wasn't enough supporting detail on the base map in the little piece to work from, and I hadn't gotten things nailed down in the right places--and I could see that, but it wasn't easy to see exactly what was wrong and how to fix it. So....good enough.

But it nagged at me over the ensuing days, and so I took a look at Google and Bing imagery and decided I there was enough vegetation detail from that which I could use to augment the base map with, and give me several nearby features which hopefully I could use to better fix my position(s) in the area.

And, with the augmented base map, I went back in the afternoon today, late enough that I almost bagged it as soon as I arrived, figuring I would be running into deep shadows in the forest and that with nice weather for the next few days, it would be better to choose another day. I decided though that I would give it a try anyway, and if it wasn't a quick fix, then it wouldn't matter, and the 20 minutes of jogging each way would just be part of my running for the day.

As it turned out, with the additional vegetation details it was pretty easy and quick to make some adjustments, and this time when I finished mapping and walked back through, things looked better.

Of course, the best thing of all was another day out in the forest, and not getting shot by any hunters.

After mapping, I kept on running until dusk. It was clear out with full sun all day long, and became quite mild by mid-afternoon, after beginning the day with temps at 21F or colder. Despite the very mild conditions, frost lingered in shaded areas on northern slopes all day long, and today was the first day I saw any rim ice in several of the beaver ponds I ran by. When the sun went down, it began cooling off immediately and sharply--the first day it's done that this season. It's really late for this, and overall fall continues to be unbelievably mild out.

My streak of running every day this November so far went really well, and I got in a good one with light graupel mixed in with teensy rain--which kept things from overheating nicely. While running I considered the question of whether Clinton has vowed to never use email again. Semaphore or even just plain old smoke signals might be better choices going forward.

Looks like Kansas did a good job of tightening its grip on the #1 spot in the Bottom 25 Rankings, though why on earth they would tempt fate by attempting a field goal if there was even a smidgeon of a chance of making it is beyond me.