Training Log Archive: Swampfox

90F was the mark hit for today, warmest day of the year, and h-o-t. Some people will say: "Only 90F, and you call that hot?" Yeah, around here we *do* call that hot! That's about as hot as it gets around here, and tar was bubbling, bridges were sagging, mosquitoes had shed their wings, and cowgirls had shed all their clothes. I guess hot isn't all bad.

I biked in the latter part of the afternoon and it was warm over the blacktop--no question about it. It was still 88F after 6 pm, which is also pretty unusual. I ran trails up top, and chose to go out late--didn't get started until after 7pm. By then, up there, it was much more pleasant. The skies to the W, SW, and S were various hues of purples and pinks and oranges--tinged by smoke from the Keystone Fire. Some bikers were out also, at least one runner, and there were a few mosquitoes that hadn't shed their wings yet.

The day was a good reminder why I never want to live in Phoenix or Houston. I would just melt away and die in a few minutes of summer in either of those places. Mercy!

C • Not dead yet 3

Did some biking and running (trails); supposedly was just in the very low 80s and probably that was right, but in the sun it felt warmer and I would have guessed warmer. Lots of loud noises outside for about 15 minutes, starting at 10 pm--very strange.

As I Was headed out to go run, I heard a fragment of something on the radio about an advised evacuation from Keystone, and it made me wonder what in the world could be going on there. Maybe Trump was there to idle away some time playing golf?

I had 3 roughly 3km pieces of O' courses at Twin Boulders with designated starts and finishes for each piece, and a short jog in between each piece.

As I was on the way towards the last control of the second piece, I got a whiff of a distinct smoky smell and in just 10-15 seconds bluish smoke haze was sweeping through. Then it came to me: it must have been an evacuation order for the tiny, defunct Keystone mining camp in the Smokies, where there are now any number of private cabins, and striking floods or earthquake or Trump visit as possible reasons for an evacuation, that left forest fire. Ergo the smoke.

Before leaving home, I had watched most of the Sprint Relay. That was fun, and the coverage was quite good--a clear step up from the 2016 and 2015, when one of the two commentators really didn't seem to have all that much of an idea what orienteering was really about.

My impression of the map was that it would have been easier to read with 5m contours. But who knows; it would be interesting to see the comparison. At any rate, there were places where it was tough for me to see what was up and what was down, and I didn't know about the bridges in advance, so at first some of the routes looked quite odd. It must have been exciting for the runners!

And another thing came to mind. Not too long ago I was describing orienteering to someone and mentioned that if they saw orienteers running through the woods on TV, they would probably not be impressed, as orienteers in the forest generally look like they're not moving very fast--even though they're working quite hard. Here, in this sprint relay, it looked quite different and sometimes it looked like the runners were flying.

Watching the Sprint Relay provided some good inspiration for training.

Biked west from town, went pretty far, maybe the far edge of the salt flats in Utah, and then turned back for home. A little over 3 hours in all, so pretty good speed for all that.

Ran some afterwards, and the FDFs wisely kept away and harassed some of the weaker available targets (slow moving mountain bikers, horsemen, broke down ATVers, etc.)

For a few brief moments it almost felt like some raindrops were in the air, but I don't know--maybe I just imagined it.

Ran intervals after some mapping at Diamond Bay. ATVers and the like were out in force, and their contrails of dust were everywhere. Lots and lots of campers, too (well, this goes hand in hand with ATV activity since it is pretty much verboten to go camping anymore unless you are bringing along ample supplies of ATVs and buggies and such.) None of this should be taken to mean I have anything against ATVers though--as long as they stay on roads and trails designated for ATVing, I'm fine with it.

June closed out with hardly any rain for the month--19/100ths of an inch for the month. It is rapidly getting pretty dry out. If rain does not come soon, then fire bans will.

Notched 2 more FDF kills today and think I got a third, but it spiraled out of sight before I could be sure, and even careful post-run analysis of the gun cameras couldn't provide conclusive confirmation.

While I was out mapping, I visited the poor will "nest" again, and the mother bird (I assume it's the mother that does most of the nest sitting) flew off to reveal two flattish, oblong, vaguely fluffy bits of something that more than anything else resembled the tannish red underside of thin flakes of ponderosa bark. But even without the slightest indication of a head, beak, or eyes, I knew they were chicks. Later, when I passed by the nest again and again the mother flew off, this time the chicks were slightly raised up, and it was possible to make out their heads.

Of course this goes quite rapidly, and in another few days they will be full size adult birds, feasting on mosquitoes and maybe even the odd FDF or two.

The mapping right now is in a tough little area--not much shows up on the base map, while on the ground there are innumerable rocky details of one sort or another--and only limited room to fit it all into. Pick and choose is the order of the day.

Changed a front bike tyre (old one had developed a squiggle where something had cut the tyre.) Biked. Ran. Once back home, heard a plane doing odd sounding things outside but didn't bother to look to see what was going on because I knew what was going on: a cropduster was making rounds, not dusting crops, but dusting mosquitoes and dropping dragonfly canister on especially large, visible clouds of mosquitoes discernible from the plane.

Ran up at Happy Jack, and checked out the aftermath of the bike race. Not much to see, other than a few streamers that were missed on the pickup, and lots of bike tracks on the course route.