Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Coolish out at the end of the day and, in contrast to yesterday, it was nearly dead calm while I was running. This was the chance the mosquitoes were waiting for, and they were waiting in decent strength in all the forested portions--which at Happy Jack was nearly all the portions. Fortunately, my legs were feeling light, but even so I came home with a fair number of welts.

Lots of flowers out and a good number of young cattle too. Quite a nice run except for the last 5 minutes, when the wind resumed and chased all the bugs away.

The last bits of snow had finally disappeared by today.

C • Plains of Despair 5

Planned for an easy long run today, and headed for Crow Creek, which I hadn't been down for a while. I thought I would run to the far trail head and back, but at the point where I needed to cross the creek, I first kept on going to the creek overlook, and then towards a fence gate a little bit further along.

Right after the overlook, I met a couple who looked like they were examining flowers by the creek, and said hello. We chatted very briefly, and then they indicated I should go ahead of them--I understood or thought I did that was the direction they had come in from--so I told them fine, but that I was just going a little bit further before turning around, and so we would meet up again very soon.

However, once I got to the gate and thought about it, I changed my mind, and decided I would cross the creek there, head up a steep slope, and make my way towards the far trail head in that manner. I wondered briefly if I should go back and tell the couple that--would they worry otherwise when they didn't see me again? I decided that was a silly worry and that they surely wouldn't care in the least and that I didn't owe them any report of where I was headed anyway. Which was all true enough.

So over the creek, up the steep slope through a forest of pine, dead pine, and Douglas Fir, and then out top into an area with large granite outcrops and fine views, and then on to the trail head, where a number of cars were parked. Objective achieved! Then I started running back, now returning on the route I had originally intended to take. It wasn't more than a few minutes later that I ran into the couple again--they had come in from the trail head I had just left, as it happened. I laughed and they laughed as we compared notes and told them that I had wondered briefly about letting them know about my change in plans so they wouldn't worry when they didn't see me, and they in turn had wondered what had happened to me, but had concluded I had probably decided to take a different loop back (there was another trail loop option that was perfectly logical.) Funny stuff.

Great day to be out, and happily I didn't see a single mosquito, especially since my legs were happy to not be going any harder than very easy.

Just at the edge of being cool in the sun.

Did a long swing on the bike south of town, going down 287 to the first water crossing. Lots of traffic, all of it going very fast. Even with decent shoulders, this stretch is all two lane and enough traffic now to make the riding more nervous than it once was. I estimate traffic could be up as much as an order of magnitude in the last 15 years. It used to be vehicles were well spaced and sometimes you could go a mile or two before having one pass you. Occasionally you might see two or three vehicles stacked together. Almost always passing traffic would veer well into the other lane to give you some extra space.

But now, going a mile without seeing a car or truck? Ha! And it's nothing to have strings of vehicles 1 to 2 dozen at a time, and lots of time vehicles can't give you extra space even if they wanted to, because of oncoming traffic. And besides that, the speed limit is 10 mph higher than it once was.

All this means I get out on 287 south of town much less than I used to. Who wants to become ambulance bait?

Dialed in an easy run for today, and that worked out well as my legs were a little sore and tired anyway. Because I love to do it, I checked out the HQs trail snowfield again, and it is still hanging in there. Maybe it will survive until Sunday before melting entirely like the Wicked Witch of the West.

Ran an old course at East Pelican Bay, 6.7 kms, w/out cattle. Lots of dark clouds all around and that plus the forecast made me think getting drenched was going to be likely, but I got started dry and made it almost all the way through before the first real drops arrived. Lucky!

On the way to #4, where there used to be some barbed wire in disarray on the ground (marked with streamers for the race), curiously the barbed wire had been removed and--much odder still--replaced what appeared to be a very rusted out '75 Trans Am in bright Lemon Yellow. I don't think I will tell the Forest Service about this, because it will make such a cool, flashy control feature.

C • Screaming chicken 9

Ran easy on trails, just fast enough to keep mosquitoes at bay, but not fast enough to keep them from following. Left heel was a little sore; it started feeling sore towards the very end of running yesterday, but not while I was running hard.

Funny about the mosquitoes--just on Monday I ran into two mountain bikers from Cheyenne up at Happy Jack and we commented on the lack of mosquitoes. No lack now, and the lack of any breeze this afternoon made it that much more obvious.

Still some snow left at the east HQs overlook at Happy Jack. But not much now.

Intervals.

One interval took me across the Troll Bridge at Brown's Landing, and through the large meadow on the other side, and past it to the next meadow. I jogged back during recovery to the first meadow and saw first one and then two bull moose which had just walked into the meadow. Cool.

I started the next interval to the east and kept going, returning to the edge of the first meadow about 20 minutes later, looking to see if the moose were still there, but they had moved on--about what I had expected.

As I kept on running, and the Troll Bridge was about to come back into view, I saw the back of a black yearling cow first. Except that it turned out to be one of the moose, now drinking at the bridge and clearly waiting for me.

I stopped. It lifted its head. I scowled. It let water drip from its snout. I pawed the ground with one foot and told it to move out of the way. It ignored me and lifted one leg to scratch an ear. I picked up a rock to show it I meant business. It resumed drinking.

I thought about circling to the left and then realized the other moose was guarding that route. I wasn't sure what to do. Should I just walk by the moose, Yellowstone tourista style, just assuming it would all be okay? Well, that would be stupid, so instead I waited a bit and swatted mosquitoes.

Eventually the bridge moose moved slightly away from the bridge. I couldn't see that it had any raised hackles and it really didn't seem at all concerned about me, so I walked forward slowly, keeping my eye on both the moose and also a nearby aspen grove I thought I could reach in time if things went south. I drew even with the bridge moose. It started eating a bush. I got past the moose and started walking faster, now switching my attention to the other moose, which was soon the closest moose and seemed to be paying more attention to me. Then I started jogging.

Now it seemed like a really good time to start the next interval, and that was that. I was cautious and don't think what I did was dangerous. To me, the bear a few days ago was a lot more worrisome, because I'm used to seeing moose and have some idea what to look for in terms of their behavior, whereas I hardly ever see bear, let alone a large bear up close.

C • Summer in the Rockies 1