Training Log Archive: Swampfox

O' at Pelican Bay (west part), 10.6 kms, mix of sun alternating with some nice grapple and occasional bits of snow, temps in the 40s with a good deal of wind--which made it nice to be in the forest rather than out on the open prairie. The weather reminded me very much of Day 1 at the last US Championships that were at Telemark, so much so that occasionally while I was running I went back in time in my thoughts and reminisced about that race. I was one miss from a pretty decent race that day (and did win the next day, but the damage had already been done) and the miss itself involved not reading the map carefully enough on what should have been a pretty routine advance going right into the control area. Maybe the most difficult element of all in orienteering is the combination of focus--so easy to let your mind wander on--paired with focusing on the right thing at the right time.

And my focus was not so great during training today! It's harder to keep focused in areas where you have some amount of familiarity, or at least so it seems to me.

I crunched through lots of sage and bitterbrush and, as usual, made no visible impression on those wiry little bushes whatsoever. But I did find three cans while I was running, so the day still goes down as a win.

Made it home just in time to grab a quick dinner before heading out to see the Cowboy basketball team open the season with an exhibition game.

C • Basketball 2

C • Telemark 6

Ran trails at Happy Jack, and did some work to prepare for the coming Dark Times (the part of the year when we make the stupid shift from DST)--meaning more than half the running was after dark, with no light other than furnished by the stars. There were only little tiny bits of snow left here and there, so no help from the snow, making it really properly dark. There were no goblins out and about, unless you count me. But I don't count myself as a goblin, nor do I think a good case for that could be made. There was enough wind and it was cool/cold enough that light gloves were really not quite enough for good comfort.

Looking at the latest Bottom 25 rankings, when has it ever happened before in history of football that the gods have cracked open the earth to reveal a new mighty triumvirate of the unimaginable power evoked by Wyoming, Nebraska, and CSU, in that ordering, with not even the merest whisper of Kansas? It is surely the end times.

Winter returned. Light snow during the day. Ran across mountains and ate lizards (Granite Planite), total of 9.3 kms of running/eating. Didn't see any moose. Except for one standing out in the Plains of Despair. So saw one.

I headed over to Chimney Park, for a long tour of the area. The main objective was to take a look at some of the area affected by the Badger Creek Fire (this past June), which I did. As always, it is fascinating to see how varying the burn was--many islands of forest within the burn area completely untouched, much that was mostly ground level burning, and on up to areas where all that is left are a few cindered logs out on the ground, and with the ground itself otherwise completely bare.

The secondary objective was to pick up whatever cans I might come across, and so now there are a dozen or so fewer cans in the forest offset by a dozen or so more cans residing in my garage.

The third objective was to set a new world (personal) moose sighting record. And while the odds were long that you're going to set a new record on any given foray, today the moose gods were smiling on me, because I shattered the old record easily, with 6 moose spotted. By the time I got home, there were already phone messages left by numerous news agencies who wanted to get all the details and share the excitement. Though nothing from the NY Times. I think the Times remains heavily engaged in the fight for truth and justice. Either that or else they are in a funk about the Red Sox winning the World Series. "Life is so unfair! Why can't the Yankees just win every year?!", they are thinking. Probably they're in a funk.

C • baseball 28

Ran intervals on my favorite stretch of dirt. On Friday, I noticed that a sign warning of prescribed burns in progress had been posted on the Happy Jack Rd. As I was running, I came across at least one of the areas being worked on. First, I saw isolated clumps of bush in the prairie that had been spot burned. I assumed those were probably clumps of ground juniper, but when I took a look, I saw they were nearly all bitterbrush. That seemed weird to me because bitterbrush is one of the high value browse species for mule deer and the like--or at least so I thought. Then I came across spot burns around the bases of pine saplings. Finally I could look ahead and see some larger areas burned inside some pine forest areas, including places with still visible flames.

That really surprised me. It's pretty dry out, and it's been windy the last two days. You presume the personnel planning and managing these things know what they are doing, but leaving patches of still burning forest unattended on dry, windy days? Must be one of those "don't try this at home" things.

Completed the arduous and dangerous circumnavigation of the legendary Green Mountain with Tyler. It felt a lot like orienteering, minus the lizards.

My mind wasn't focused on this epic feat, however. I guess I was still in a shock at the apparent demise of the Cowboy's hopes for a decent Bottom 25 finish in football.

O' at Twin Boulders, ran the red course from the O' Fest. It probably would have been easier if there had been lots of people to follow into the controls, never mind it being easier had there been controls at the controls. But the orienteering itself wasn't hard anyway. What was not so easy was running in almost any westward direction, with the sun so low in the sky already by mid-afternoon--some very fine glare conditions! Nice strong winds were out and about, so plenty of fresh air. And another day without seeing a single hunter or hearing a single gunshot.