Training Log Archive: JanetT

Laramie Daze day 2, race 1. Debut of the new Yellow Pine map around the campground, about 1.2 x 2.5 km. Printed at 1:10000, 5m contours.

Very nice course by Mikell; the next-to-last control was in the vicinity of some large exposed outcrops with a channel between them -- very cute. :-) Ran on trails and downhills; walked almost all uphills.

I had John Pascal and Steve(?) D in my sights for most of the race. Finished ahead of both; got ahead of John on the way from 8-9; Steve (who punched 13 the same time as me) followed the wrong line from the GO control and headed back towards the start, adding an extra 5 contours to get back to finish.

2nd woman behind Erin Binder who was 9-10 minutes ahead (and who finished in a pack of 5). Sue K, Ardis D. and Peg D. finished after me.

FR = 6.164 km. Climb as calculated from my track.

Yellow Pine - Splits

20 minutes of walking at the Painted Canyon area of TRNP before the driving trek to Laramie, with a detour through Custer to retrieve an eyeglass case I mistakenly left behind at the restaurant where we ate Sunday night... 500+ miles in all!!!

Event: 2011 Laramie Daze
 

Teddy Roosevelt National Park (southern unit), near Medora, ND. Temperature ranged from mid-70s to mid-80s during this hike, and hit 93 before the end of the day. Fortunately the humidity wasn't too bad, and there was a good breeze from mid-day on.

Hiked on the Jones Creek trail starting at the west end from the loop road, to the second trail junction and returned. There was one gnarly creek crossing in the second mile, but managed to get down it okay on the way out, and up it on the way back.

Not too much in the way of animal sightings (they were smarter than we were?) -- a hawk, a buzzard, and many grasshoppers and small yellow butterflies. Some wildflowers in bloom included thistle (near the end), sunflowers, yellow asters, and a few others.

TRNP - Wind Canyon overlook. Walked along the canyon rim, and overlooked the Little Missouri River, which had several herds of bison crossing the river (probably at least a couple hundred total in that area).

TRNP. Hiked up Buck Hill from the parking area. Very windy. Great views of the badlands.

TRNP - Coal Vein Trail. This nature trail wandered around an area where TR had seen coal burning in one of the many veins throughout the park. A portion of this section burned continuously from 1951 to 1977; people were known to come here and toast marshmallows. That would have been a sight to see! We just saw the resulting hardened sandstone (which locals call scoria) and areas where the land had collapsed when the 12' coal area burned away and no longer supported it. Interesting terrain detail!

Event: 2011 Dakota Rogaining Championships
 

Dakota Rogaine in Custer State Park, SD, put on by BHOC and Peak Assurance. These folks will host WRC on 2014 in Black Hills National Forest. We registered for the 12-hour division.

We weren't using GPS so distance is as measured from our drawn-on-map track. Of the 49 checkpoints spread over 180 sq km we made it to 12, for 540 points. We focused on a cluster of mostly 40 and 50 pointers in the SE area, plus one 60 and one 70 pointer.

Another fine Rogaine with Glen who tolerates my slowness. Navigation was fairly easy, tho in some places mapped roads were quite obvious where others were invisible, in which case we used contours.

No night controls; we got the 70-pointer up a canyon between 7 and 8 pm while it was still light out.

2nd in 12-hour (behind Team Icebone), 1st Mixed Veterans.
Sharon C was there too--fresh from WTOC in France which ended Thursday.

C • Sounds like fun 2

Wind Cave in SD, "Fairgrounds Tour." Stairs here and there, totaling 450, from their count. Wind Cave is quite an extensive set of channels on several levels, only a tiny portion of which is visited on any tour, in the limestone formation surrounding the Black Hills. Natural entrance was discovered in 1890, with first explorations done by a young fellow who spent hours each day underground.

Class in Chatham. Instructor (Jennifer) has an injured foot and canceled yesterday's session but was there today and after warmup (which she managed okay with), she sat down and directed us with classmates taking turns leading for a minute. Interesting.

She was horseback riding and the horse lost its balance and fell, her leg underneath. It's either sprained/strained, or the stirrup broke some little bones--X-rays soon.