Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Ran long at Lights of Cheyenne (map). It's been a long time since we've last used this area, and while I was out and enjoying the big views there, it seemed to me that it's been too long.

In turn, I thought about the news that the North Americans and World Rogaining Champs have been officially postponed, which leaves our planned Rocky Mountain O' Festival as the next event of any national significance (is it, is it not?) in line. I haven't talked with anyone since early January about the event, and of course since then many things have happened, to say the least. But, assuming the coronavirus is brought more or less under control and that the ongoing outbreak has clearly peaked and well on its way down in the next 6-8 weeks, it seems like we should be able to go ahead with the event should we choose; also assumes the NFS will be on board to have group activities by then.

I also thought about one single set of rather large tracks I saw in the snow. My first impression was that it might have been a bear. Couldn't have been a dog, because there were no human tracks nearby. And they were too large for coyote. But the more I looked at the tracks and considered, the less I could make them out as bear. And coming home and checking images online, I couldn't make them out as bear tracks either. So, a mystery.

C • Really hoping things ramp d... 8

The cool thing about Spring around here is that it doesn't really look like Spring in most "normal" places, with lush green grasses springing up, trees leafing out, and flowers everywhere with bumblebees busily about, gathering pollen and other goodies.

Instead, it looks a lot like this, desolate, barren, brown, and yet, offering some slim vestige of hope that one day things might change:



It looks mostly like some much misplaced piece of dried up sea weed, but actually it's a pasque flower, waiting for just the right bit of additional warmth (which is why it might have to wait a while) to burst into purple glory. It's said that Prince's favorite flower was the pasque flower, and that in between spring recording sessions he would sometimes take his private jet to fly secretly to Bosler, and from there drive a jeep up into the hills to follow the Wyoming pasque flower season.

Ran in the late afternoon at Happy Jack. I was parking just as top of the hour news was about to start, so I listened to that. Outside it was snow and fog; it started snowing lightly at about daybreak and snowed all day long. While I listened to the news, I watched the snow blowing by, nearly horizontally. It looked cold. After the news, it still looked cold, and I rationalized I should listen to the next segment on the radio, which sounded interesting. As that concluded, it still looked cold, but it was time to get going or else to just decide to take a pass. I did what I usually do at that point, which is I started my stopwatch, pulled on my gloves, told myself if I ran for 15 minutes and really wasn't having fun I would turn back, and stepped out into the cold--because it was cold, upper teens plus the wind and snow.

For the first few minutes it was cold, but at least I had the wind at my back. And I thought about what it would be like to be somewhere in the deep South instead, at 99F and 99% humidity. Once I thought about that, teens and wind sounded a whole lot better, and by then I was starting to get warmed up.

After that, the time flew by, and 2 hours later I was back at my truck. Didn't see another person the whole time. Or a turkey. I kind of wished I had seen some more turkeys.

I headed up to Happy Jack for a longish (just under 2 hrs) run on a piece of Plutonic Pleasures that we've never used and which very few people have ever seen. Saw nobody and saw no animals though I did see a tom turkey and two hens. Before anyone says anything, turkeys are clearly some kind of an alien life form disguised as birds. You only have to watch them in the wild for a couple of minutes to know it must be true. And if you watch them for more than a few minutes, you may see them climb into a spaceship, and blast off for Saturn or Jupiter, or if they're really going far, the Outer Hebrides. It's always a treat to come across some turkeys around here, and it happens seldom enough that it's always a surprise (I did see a few turkey tracks in the snow yesterday, so I had been warned.) Skies were gray the whole time and occasionally a few snowflakes whirled around. As I was finishing, several snow squalls were nearby in different directions.

Not so fun was coming home and checking the latest news. I was dismayed to see an announcement that Adam Schlesinger, age 52, former member of Fountains of Wayne, had died from Covid-19.

I can't remember exactly when it was or where I was when I heard Fountains of Wayne for the first time, but it took only a few notes of one song and I was hooked. The name was quirky. The music was power pop at its best, and Schlesinger was responsible for a lot of those songs. To listen to him talk, you'd think he was a perfectly ordinary guy you could meet anywhere, but he wasn't. His ability to craft a catchy song was extraordinary.

C • Turkeys 9

A spring-ish day, would have felt mild out had it not been for some playful winds. I biked in the mid-afternoon and managed optimum timing with respect to the sun and the scattered clouds, which converged to blanket the sun for the entire time I was out, only the part for the sun to re-emerge as I was rolling my bike into the garage. It just made me pedal harder.

Went running after that, this time back at Happy Jack, about 1/2 cross country in/on the snow (with some fine post-holing action in scattered bits) and about 1/2 on foot or ungroomed ski trails. Saw zero people the whole time I was out.

Came home, and in the early evening while flipping through some stuff I stumbled across a sobering item. One of my orienteering teammates, who had been two classes ahead of me, Bill Sumner, passed away earlier this year. After serving in the Army, he moved to Colorado, which is where he died. Some here may remember him. I believe he was the course setter or part of the course setting team for the 1978 West Point "A" meet. As with so many others, I never saw him again after he graduated, but in some manner I some years back I found out he was in Colorado, and I gave him a call, and we talked and caught up a bit. May he rest in peace.

The weather app says light rain. Really it's snow, though.

First time this year puffy white clouds started to organize into bigger puffy clouds. Went out for a quick bike and one cloud hit me with a brief snow squall. Then the sun returned, and then another cloud hit the area with perfectly round grapple. By then I was home, and waiting for the sunshine again, and once the grapple finished, the sun returned, the roads dried out, and I biked for another hour or so before changing over and running on snow trails at Happy Jack.

Linked up with Tyler for a bike ride around town, including a swing into West Laramie, taking advantage of expansive views of the still snowy Snowies.

After that, a presto chango, and drove up to the Laramie Range for a planned long run, with the aim to scout areas of northern portion of Diamond Bay. Exactly 7 minutes in, I approached a new beaver dam which I needed to get across, and the choice was to cross on the iced over pond, or the dam itself. The ice looked rotten in places, so the choice was easy. I was coming down a steep slope, and in order to get onto the dam, there was one conveniently located shelf of snow right at the bottom of the slope. When I stepped on the shelf, it instantly collapsed, and both legs ended up in knee deep, icy cold water. Ha!

It didn't matter, because there was so much snow everywhere my feet were going to be somewhere between wet and damp (mostly wet) the whole time anyway.

I ended up going for 3+ hours at a very easy pace, and didn't see a single person or game animal--or even any fresh animal tracks--the whole time, despite covering a good bit of ground. Maybe everything up there is sheltering in place, just as in so many other places? Maybe not.

Had planned to being exercise activities with some biking, and changed into the appropriate clothes, rolled the bike outside to warm up (bikes like to warm up, too), and even that brief step outside was enough to make me reconsider--there was enough wind and enough clouds to make me think no amount of warming us was likely anytime soon.

So, change of plans. Rolled the bike back inside, changed clothes, and headed up top for a long run in the snow, and put in 2 1/2 hrs before I was through. Interesting was that despite covering a lot of ground and fresh snow on the ground, I didn't see a single fresh (wild) animal track. Just people and dog tracks.