Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Checked the smoke plum this morning, and it was over the western part of the valley and stretching to the NE, north of town. I decided to run in the morning thinking that if the plume moved more eastward later, I would be done and it wouldn't interfere.

Ran the Blue and Red Middle courses at Granite Planite back to back. The one glitch was that between finishing the Blue and coming into the last few controls for Red, it became increasingly obvious that shooters were in the area of those last few controls, and I really didn't want to become one of their controls to be punched. I was careful as I was getting closer to the shooters, and once I spotted them and figured out where they were shooting, I ditched the last three controls. I'd never seen anyone shooting before where they were, but it really didn't matter in the end.

By afternoon the fire had blown up again, and smoke was thick and everywhere in town, with a constant rain of fine ash. I was out biking at the end of the day, and far enough south to be in clear air, and the view looking over the valley and the source of the smoke could have been a scene straight out of The Lord of the Rings.

For most of the afternoon and well into the night, a thick plume of smoke from the Ryan Fire was overhead and lined up to block the sun from Laramie and parts eastward, leading to an early nightfall. The nearly full moon was spectacularly orange because of the smoke. I biked and did some very low intensity running; the smoke wasn't bad at ground level, but ash was falling steadily throughout the afternoon.

Ran out to the Russell Hill area and then in and around the quasi forests there with Tyler. I found a small moose shed (very small, I doubt moose antlers get any smaller than this one), and on my way home passed a bull moose in the dark. It was in a ambush position by the forest service road I was on, and why it didn't open fire I will never know. Probably I wasn't trophy worthy, and who can disagree with that assessment?

At any rate, that was that, and now I am looking forward to a clash between titans tomorrow: (the new titan) Kansas versus (the been a titan for a while) Baylor. I predict the following: if Kansas wins, the Baylor cheerleaders will quit en masse, most of the Baylor football team will start dialing the agents they're not supposed to have, the entire coaching staff will start polishing their resume's, the school will change its colors and name, and all Baylor students and faculty and alumni will have their Texas citizenship revoked. In other words, the pressure is on Baylor. Go Kansas.

C • Rock Chalk 2

O' at Remarkable Flats, sunny, windy, cooler than it has been up until now this month, and quite beautiful. It's always beautiful at Remarkable Flats, and even more so if you haven't been there for a while. Ran an 11.5 km course with some can picking up at beginning and end serving as some kind of a warmup/cooldown. Saw a small cow (yearling?) moose at close hand--I think we were equally surprised--and a smallish bull moose later on that also was on the small end of the moose scale. For good measure, I also found a mule deer antler in great shape.

Sometime between 2 and 3 pm, the weather switched from summer to fall, becoming very windy, overcast, and sprinkling in the process. Rain never came, even though it looked like it could as well have become a steady downpour at most any time. Lucky, I guess, since it meant I could ride as long as I wanted and then run without getting wet. Ran up top; the ground was still completely dry up there. Saw a young bull moose in Browns Landing, and either it crossed the trail out into the open right behind me, or else it was already out in the sage and probably pretty close to the trail as I was running by, and I just plain missed seeing it until I glanced back. I give the odds to the former case because how could you miss a moose in the open right by the trail you're on??? You sure hope you wouldn't.

Ran down the Crow Creek trail and back without seeing anything other than 3 horse people (and associated horses) and some large beavers.

Went out to do some O' at Granite Planite, and as I was turning to park where we had Finish at the O' Festival, there was a truck that looked passably like Doug's truck, complete with Colorado plates. But with archery season underway, it was just a coincidence and no doubt someone was out hunting.

A few raindrops were falling and while I was waiting for that to pass, a figure emerged from the mires of East Pelican (East Pelican has mires? I didn't know it had mires), which turned out to be Doug. I know I should have called up law enforcement but I didn't, and we talked for a bit before he headed home and I headed out to do some O' training.

Aside from a few tiny remnant bits of streamers, you would have to look *really* hard to find any traces from the race--and even then, you would have to have known there was a race, and some likely places to look. And one good rain and there will be nothing left to see at all.

C • Sands of Time... 1