Training Log Archive: JanetT

Santa Elena Canyon hike in Big Bend. We needed to walk along the Terlingua River several hundred meters west from the canyon to cross where it was dry, then on a find-your-own-path scramble over a rocky spur to reach the trail up the canyon, which went up and down some slightly less steep spurs, with railings. Beautiful.

We did not jump up and down the canyon walls (as per GPS track) so distance and climb reported were bogus. (6.236 km, 25884m climb) The trail info sign says 1.6mi round trip and 80' climb, but that's crossing the Terlingua across from the canyon. We added maybe .3mi or so more an another 30' of climb.

Lower Burro Mesa Pour-off trail. A bit canyon-y near the pour off, so GPS signal bounded a bit; I adjusted the climb. Saw a pyrrhuloxia near the trail.

Another day of driving, after packing up and leaving our AirBnB. More adventures to come! Nice day, and we enjoyed stopping at the rest area outside Las Cruces, NM to check out the recycled roadrunner statue.

Dinner was Five Guys burgers in El Paso.

Roadrunner statue made from recycled materials (Click photo for more views)

Livelox for the Rogaine

And results

Rogaine on Cave Creek map (we were here last year too), designed/set by a scout troop from the NEOC area (that Anna Campbell is part of). I visited 8 controls for a total of 180 points (only had navigation probles with one of them). Upper 40s when we started, into the 50s by the time we left.

3 hour time limit, but I never intended to be out the entire three hours. I managed to go off the map looking for one of the high pointers (along with others) before bailing back out toward the road and relocating on some rock features to try again. This time I found it. No problems on the others; crossed barbed wire fences three times (plus two gates), and crossed raging streams from yesterday's rain storm three times (the last time up to my knees). Normally they'd be almost-dry stream crossings.

Control order (point value was 10x the second digit): 113-124-125-152-132-126-111-123-F

Started up the trail to the hilltop visible from the start (I'd skipped that last year), and when I got there, found Kathy Bannister (ROC) just finishing up talking to the crew that was here from NBC Nightly News(!) whose presence I knew about but not that they'd be up on the hill. I talked with Kathy later and it turns out she'll most likely be featured (who knows how long or short the bits will be, but woohoo!) because she had a microphone and they videotaped her climbing, with the cameraman walking backwards up the narrow rocky trail. Kudos to them! It'll be fun to see what they put together. Clinton thinks they'll have something to share within a week or so. All this is on their radar because of the study that Emma Waddington was involved in, published about a month ago, about activities like orienteering keeping people's brains healthy as they age.

Instead of eating downtown like some folks planned, Glen wanted to (re)visit Dragoon Brewery off Grant Ave on the west side of I-10, so we had beers there and ordered from a food truck selling tacos (what else?). Glen had carnita tacos, and I had quesadillas.

No events today (canceled due to cold, rainy, windy weather all day) so this is a needed rest day. I got most caught up on my email. Rogaine is rescheduled for tomorrow.

AP results are here

SWSW2023 results, with links to Livelox (maps with routes)

Dinner at Ermano's on N 4th between 8th and 9th Sts. I had the turkey-brie sandwich and Glen had the Camarones Culiche (shrimp dish).

Training event on the Ironwood Picnic Area map west of Tucson. Rain showers expected after noon, so we wanted to get out as early as we could. Mid to upper 50s with some sun. Full course (13 controls) was listed at 5.9 km but I had planned to jump from #4 to #8 and cut off a loop on the western portion of the map (1:10000/5m) removing between 1.5 and 2km, supposedly.

Found 1 and 2 okay, and there were people around to help somewhat, but my pace count to 3 was obviously incorrect as I skipped over the wash I should have been looking in and spent way too long looking up and down the next one (along with several other people). Finally decided I was one wash too far when I kept seeing others going by at an angle as if to #4, and then found it.

After 4 I headed south to #8, and had no trouble with the next few, taking bearings and sighting saguaros to use as my "trees" to aim for.

I'd hit one cactus earlier that left some annoying short spines in my left knee but they aren't too bad. Then after punching #12 I accidentally got too close to a prickly pear and picked up 50 or more 1/4" thin spines which are the worst (except for their heavy duty long spines, but at least you can see those) in my right calf. My cactus comb was no use on these, but I got the comb out again a few minutes later as I also picked up a cholla ball--that was easy to remove with the comb.

I had to relocate on the trail looking for #13 but that was a smaller time loss than at 3. More training than I was counting on!

Glen was able to remove some of the spines in my calf when I got back to the car, and I got some more later when we returned to the house, but there are still some stuck in there. [I padded my sore toes from yesterday with Moleskin and they didn't bother me on the course.]

And the rain held off until we were leaving.

Tomorrow's rogaine has been rescheduled to Thursday due to inclement (and very windy) weather, so we'll need to find something else to do.

Dinner tonight was at Culinary Dropout* at the (former) Grant Road Lumber building. Very good food, prepared to order. I had the roasted salmon with butternut squash farro risotto and Brussels sprouts; Glen had the ribs. Yum.

*on the recommendation of Craig Weber, who has a place in the Phoenix suburbs for half the year

Advanced - Splits

Cholla Chaser on a new map (work in progress) near Colossal Cave south of Tucson, 1:10000/5m. Temps were a bit cooler than expected (mid 50s, about the same as yesterday) and it was overcast, but I had brought proper clothes.

This is a handicapped race with a mass start. We entered a box of controls—how many of those you needed to visit depended on your gender and age. As an old(er) lady I only needed to visit one in the box. After getting all your box controls (in any order if more than one) you returned to the mass start area to punch a control and continue on a 6-control advanced course before finishing.

As one of the faster older ladies here I went to the closest control in the box which wasn't far off a trail system and a lot of other people headed there, so there was a stream to follow in to the flag. Then all I needed to do was return to the start and continue on the normal course. I was first back to this point, so I got to navigate 1 and 2 with no one else around, and 3 as well as AliC, eventually winner, who passed me on the road between 2 and 3, had disappeared. I then didn't navigate well to 4 so more people got ahead (including Eileen Breseman who was surprised to see me). The cacti were thick just about everywhere but seemed especially vicious in the section of the map around 4-5-6. 5 was at a reentrant junction surrounded by stiff-limbed bushes and cacti of all types and was difficult to get into and out of, but eventually I was on my way in to 6 which was close to finish.

Besides Ali, 13 others had gotten past in the second half of the course so I finished 15th, placing ahead of Clint and Glen and Rick Breseman. ;-)

I chose technical difficulty of 5 mostly for the intense focus you needed not to end up in too much prickly stuff (prickly pear, cholla, agave, yucca, catclaw, other plants with long spines). I still ended up with spines in my knee and feet, with some short ones still embedded.

After we got back to the AirBnB we ran a load of wash and sat out back on the "patio"-- an area with a fiber rug plus a roof held up by posts, and netting facing west to cut the sun's rays. Also had five seats (two that were much more comfortable than the others).

Dinner plans are to visit El Berraco, a fish place we've eaten at before. Last night was a social activity at Three Canyons in NE Tucson near Sabino Canyon. We had pulled pork quesadillas and beer. The night before we ate at Noble Hops on the north side (after Starbucks).

Chaser - Splits

Javelina Hustle (goat-type race) at Box Canyon in the Greaterville area south of Tucson. 1:10000/5m map. Much more pleasant terrain than at Catalina; grass-covered broad hills and reentrants with scattered catclaw, occasional but avoidable cholla, and slightly thicker vegetation in the reentrants. Near 60 in Tucson when we left but temp dropped to low 50s by the time we arrived, and clouds moved in, bringing some breeze too. It felt colder when we left than when we arrived and were on the course.

The twist with this race was that we could skip a control. If you were doing the Long course, you picked up a new map after finishing the short course and continued across the road where we parked, and could skip a control in part 2. The Short course was listed at 5km with ~185m climb, depending on your skip. The Long added another 5+ km.

I had people to follow for the first three controls, giving me time to examine potential skips. By the time I'd punched #3 I'd decided #10 in the canyon was a good one to skip because I could avoid a 10 contour climb from the canyon floor and past #10 up to #11. Instead the route from 9-11 had some much gentler climbs along a ridge spaced out over almost 800m, with some paths to jog on in places. I know I gained at least one place here (jumped ahead of Angela Pearson who I saw at 9 but who headed to the canyon for 10), and maybe more.

I stopped at a couple of controls (4 and 11, I think) which were on ridges to take photos of the views. Fun event!

Also of note, we finally connected the Fishers who moved to Niskayuna with Sue H-T (who did the yellow course today).

C • Skip analysis 2

Short - Splits