Training Log Archive: Swampfox

I came across an article listing 45 small towns in Wyoming that tourists could consider visiting for selfie and other purposes. I'm not sure what "selfie and other purposes" might be, but then I am way behind most folks when it concerns phones, apps, various social media, and even certain undelightful vegetables such as kale and rutabaga. At any rate, doubtless the Compleat Rocky Mountain O' Fester will want to devise an itinerary that takes in all 45 towns, and even Laramie.

However, recognizing that not everyone will have that much time to visit all 45--Wyoming is a pretty big place, stretching from one horizon to the other, after all--I have culled the list for a more select, manageable group of "must see" small Wyoming towns within striking distance of Laramie.

The list: Buford (official population of 1), Tie Siding (good for buying firecrackers and mailing letters), Centennial (regularly cited as having one of the finest, most effective, and most modernized police force in the nation, plus it's fun to go there and remind the folks who live there that Centennial rhymes with millennial), Hanna (very popular with Chinese visitors who like the very low coal prices there and the limitless real estate investment opportunities), Medicine Bow (can you say "The Virgininian"? and don't forget about the log cabin nearby where the logs are all dinosaur bones), and, finally, Bosler. Bosler sunsetted a long time ago and has never looked back. There is no adjective or set of adjectives adequate to describe Bosler, but until you've been there, you've never been there.

So there you have it--all you need to know for how to kill some time after your runs at the Rocky Mountain O' Festival, 2018 style.

C • Coming through Laramie 3

Some mapping followed by control hanging for a class tomorrow.

Today finished up a trio of pretty wet days. Laramie is green and rain swept clean and in no drought danger for at least a week or a week and a half. Ran at the end of the day, by which time sun had finally reappeared. But the highlight of the day was no doubt when I biked over to West Laramie and stayed dry, and then got caught out on the way home by an all encompassing downpour. At least ice wasn't involved. Got soaked and by the end I was rain swept clean as well. Recovered by listening to various Styx songs played backwards.

Saw that during yesterday's storm, hail of up to tennis ball size was reported at Buford on I-80. That's large. That's large enough to dent a car roof. That's large enough to do worse than that. That's even large enough to take pictures of and post online, for the Facebookies.

Ran a first version of the Blue course for the East Pelican day of the Rocky Mountain O' Fest. As currently set, it's a pretty rainy course and competitors may wish to have along polypro (supertroja) and umbrellas. But maybe some aspects of the course will change (this was just Neil's first stab at the course, on paper, and before any visits in the field.)

The course was in two loops, and while I ran well physically, my map reading was pretty sloppy in several places on the first loop. It may have been I was thinking about how the legs looked from a course setting perspective and how the control locations looked, rather than simply concentrating on running the course. Of course there were no streamers yet.

Looks like we're now 2 for 2 up in the National Forest. That is, 2 years, and a shooting each year. Some kind of a shooting incident between a sheriff's deputy and some unnamed individual took place off the road bordering East Pelican Bay on Saturday. The individual was reportedly badly wounded.

The day was completely diametric from yesterday--which was 99% of perfect or better, in terms of all pleasant outdoor activities. My plans were to spend a good bit of the day mapping and hopefully get a good bit done in the process, but fortunately I played it right. I was busy with a number of things in the first part of the day, and by the time I was ready to roll, the skies were saying very, very clearly.: "DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT ROLLING, ABANDON ALL HOPE." Shortly thereafter, vigorous thunderstorm activity ensued, with occasional minor breaks for rejuvenation and presentation of the next storm cell.

It was nearly all rain in town, luckily. But things did ease up by around 6, so I was able to get out for some running on the trails, which made me glad--for a while it was looking like an unwanted rest day. Up top, it was clear from mounds and mounds of quarter+ sized hail that the destructive energy of the various storms had targeted Happy Jack and surrounds to the south and east. Areas of meadow grass looked like they had been hit by a lawn mower. Aspens were completely shredded. Even the mountain bikers had been struck so hard that there was not a single sign of any left. Awesome stuff.

And for all that, it turned out to be not a bad run at all.

PS--Apropo nothing whatsoever, I would never joke about mattresses, unless maybe a girl was involved, and even then you would need to parse things very carefully in a hunt for veracity.

Spent the afternoon on survey at Granite Planite, then hung streamers for my little land navigation piece of Mark Jenkin's Gannett expedition course.

Very large numbers of weekend campers were driving by the whole time I was mapping; no surprise, it's the first weekend all of the national forest is open between Laramie and Cheyenne, and the weather is stellar.

Woke up feeling like baking soda in shoes and overall very depressed that it was no longer WOD, and whoever knows if there would ever might be another one.

But then I remembered I had some leftover rice from several days ago, and had that for breakfast and felt much better. Plus, there was the Taylor Swift concert on Friday to look forward to!!!!

Since it was no longer WOD and that was that, decided it would be a good time for some At One With Nature Ran trails at Happy Jack at the end of a beautiful day with blooms of saxifrage and candy tuft all around. Saw some mountain bikers and one horse, but the real surprise was there were many more runners out than bikers--can't remember the last time I've seen that. All in all, a classic Laramie Range spring day, as good as it gets.