Training Log Archive: Swampfox

First heard, and then saw, another crossbill. I can't believe I can pick out the song of a crossbill now; it used to be I would hear something and think: "Oh, yeah, that's probably a *bird*." ; )

Many other *birds* to admire on the trails today as well, however, these were all of an entirely different variety.

It snowed steadily on the trails the whole time I was up, versus zero snow for the valley. Temps were right around freezing, and the interstate was wet and not iced on the hill (until passing over into no-snow land) on the way home, even though by then it was after dark.

Apres ski running, still up at Happy Jack. Mused a little about the changes underway in the forest. Folks who were at last year's Daze and come to this year's Daze might be surprised to see how fast the forest is changing. Folks who haven't been back since the US Champs might be stunned, were they to come back this fall.

C • beatles? 4

Felt like it might have been the warmest day of the year (so far.) That despite the fact that it was overcast all day long, with only occasional hints that some blue or some sun might lie beyond.

Thankfully a few snowshoers had been kind enough to tromp around on several trails before I did the same in regular running shoes.

C • Do snow shoers and skiers g... 3

Brilliant sunshine.

I could see before starting it was snowing lightly outside, so I bundled up accordingly. In other words, I dressed exactly as I would have had it been sunny instead.

Once I got to the path rimming the golf course, I could tell there was something different about the snow. Something. But what? It felt like it had an extra texture to it.

The sky and the ground were identical in color, so that it was nearly impossible to tell what was up and what was down, and where the line of demarcation might be drawn. Some people say to use crow, because crow fly in sky, but they are brainwashed. I know crow can be on ground, too. At any rate, I saw raven and not crow.

What would have helped for sure would have been dark horse, because dark horse are always on ground.

Something landed on my nose, and at first I thought it was a brightly colored beetle. Upon examining it more closely, I saw it was only a bit of chaff, perhaps blown down from some already forgotten medals ceremony in Vancouver. It was at least proof that somewhere in this material world, someone was living, and her name was not Madonna.

By then, I was feeling good and warmed up, like I was on cloud nine, and flying! So fine! I knew if I kept it up, the next thing that would arrive would be blue jay way, which struck me as beyond odd even as the thought came and left. There are no blue jays in Laramie, nor cardinals either. I could have gone further, much further, but that had to be weighed against breakfast, which was also beckoning.

I was torn and so looked for some kind of sign, and when I saw that someone had written "think for yourself" in the snow, I made up my mind and headed home with no regrets.

After all, all things must pass.

8 times the Lollipop (aka Summit Loop) with good effort, steady snow sifting down the whole time, somewhere between powder and pellets.

The skiing was really good, but I left as dusk was falling, as the Happy Jack road had been fairly dubious again on the way up, and there was no telling what condition of distress the interstate might have passed over to, having been wet on the way up. WYDOT had been putting down sand and I didn't notice any ice, but you never know, and it was just as well to have left when I did. As it was, the semis were crawling down the hill.

It looks like we are set with the Forest Service for the 2010 Laramie Daze. Next up is to start doing course designs!

C • Daze 2

The trickiest part of skiing today was negotiating the Happy Jack road between the interstate and the parking lot; it was totally glazed over and totally treacherous.

The second trickiest part was negotiating the parking lot, where massive drifts and randomly formed up, courtesy of some pleasant winds. One popular approach is to simply drive through them with a bit of steam, and hope for the best. That will often work well enough, unless there is a care buried inside the snowdrift--which does happen sometimes.

The third trickiest part? Nope. Just the two tricky parts above--that was all.

11+ hrs. of sun time returns today!

100% sunshine, and utterly calm!

Amazing! The thermometer has climbed back into the 20s!

I can almost feel summer setting in already.

Full sun all day long was not enough to warm things up much.

Only got colder after skiing, and it wasn't until about 40 minutes into the run that my hands started warming back up. Brrrrr! Somewhere under 0F, but the edge came from the winds (windchill down to -25F?), which crept up and up and up as the shadows lengthened. Maybe this will be the last cold day of winter here?

At the turn, I stopped and did 3 sets of twizzles off each side. (note: this has absolutely *nothing* to do with ice dancing, I swear!)