Training Log Archive: pfc

A steeper and shorter course than yesterday, at Antenna Hill. Lots of controls placed along the moderately steep rocky slopes north of Happy Jack Rd. I was slow and walked quite a bit, but read the map well and made no major mistakes. Came in too high or too low on a few controls. The second half was more along the top of the ridge, faster and more open.

A not-so-stellar time on the Happy Jack training map.

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When I woke up this morning, my left eye was really bothering me - very scratchy and somewhat painful, and watering profusely. This has happened infrequently ever since I scratched my cornea last year, and it didn't settle down until I took some ibuprofen. I wonder if it's just more sensitive now because of the injury, and it's getting irritated by the stronger UV at altitude (by the rule of thumb, it should be 30% more than at home.) I'll have to pay more attention to using the sunglasses, especially if I get into any snow in the higher mountains I intend to visit. I'm going to try sleeping in a more upright position tonight to see if it makes a difference.

Today's course was at Antenna Hill, which is very appropriately named as we parked right next a major cell phone tower. The course was shorter and more technical than yesterday's, with a lot of orienteering on rocky side slopes which gave me an ankle workout. I ran quite well. I stayed on the map the whole time and passed several people, and finished a close second to a fellow from the Bay Area club. The last leg was a couple hundred meters uphill to the finish (and Swampfox had set the course so he could see three of the last four? controls), and I had to walk most of it. Had I been able to run, it might have been a much closer finish! - but I don't mind since I was quite happy with the run.

Like yesterday, I spent the early afternoon down in Laramie getting coffee (surprise!) and then headed back to Happy Jack for the training course.

I didn't do so well.

Well, it's better to get the bad run out of the way in practice. Three factors conspired on this course: less visibility, more undergrowth, and my sense of direction kept spinning around so I had to use my compass a lot (for the first time this week.) And maddeningly, there were at least five controls where I navigated correctly to the feature, but didn't see the flagging tape, even though I looked carefully. On every single one, I circled around and attacked the feature again, arriving at the same place and seeing the flagging tape this time. And it wasn't just a matter of approaching from the wrong direction, since I was reading the clues describing which side of say, the boulder pile - most of the ones I missed were simple - like hung on a tree on a hilltop.

I also surprised more cattle in two different places. They seem to be pretty docile, but I don't want to take any chances. Although given the choice, I'd prefer cows to attack badgers.

I stayed at Yellow Pine again tonight. I had gotten groceries in Laramie and made dinner (my special hamburger hash) at camp just before sunset. Right after I finished eating a young couple driving a Jeep rolled in and picked the site just across the road and down one from me. Normally I wouldn't remark on them, but they were loud and kept the music going until bedtime. None of the other campers were as inconsiderate, and come on, you can go without your tunes for at least one night, and you probably were listening to them all day anyway!

Antenna Hill - Splits

All 4 courses combined, although I did take a rest between loops (as did everyone else.)

A few minutes after I got there, found out I was parked right next to Graham. His move to Greeley is now complete. Unfortunately he'll be heading back home tomorrow. He had a good run today.

Training course at Diamond Bay. Started out good, then made some mistakes in the middle part of the course. I started late - around 4 PM - and was caught in a light shower that turned into a major thunderstorm after it went down the slope towards Cheyenne. Also had to detour around some cows in the creek valley between 15-16. Generally an OK run, as I'm starting to get used to the terrain.

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I woke up around 8 AM at the Yellow Pine CG, feeling none the worse for the previous day's effort. Swampfox recommended the campground because it's only a few miles from the various start areas. As I was getting packed up, I saw a 2.5 inch hummingbird fly over to a flower next to my car and feed for a few seconds. It was green, so I think it might have been a ruby-throated, but I couldn't catch the flash of red. It turns out they must be common here, or at least near the campground, since I saw a number of them while here.

Today was a 10 AM course at Jubal E Spring. The format was four short loops, between 1 and 3 km each. I had a pretty good run - getting used to the terrain - but the altitude was a little bit hard to take. Luckily, I could rest between loops and that gave me some time to bring the heart rate down. It was bright and sunny. Afterwards I went down to Laramie for lunch and a wireless connection. I found both at Coal Creek Coffee in the old downtown. Laramie, even though it's a Western town, is also the home of the University of Wyoming, and much of it looks just like any college town, including the football stadium, the bars, frat houses, and other assorted businesses you'd expect to see.

Later in the afternoon I drove up to the practice course at Diamond Bay. None of the other orienteers were there, and I had the whole 7.5 km course to myself. I went slower than race pace and tried to read the map detail more, instead of relying on some of the larger features I might use in an actual competition. About a third of the way in, I suddenly heard a crack of thunder from directly above me, and a couple of minutes later rain started to fall. Usually rain isn't a problem, unless it's pretty heavy! I've also run a couple of good courses earlier this year in steady rain, so that counts as one of excuses I'm not allowed to use. As it turned out, the rain stayed light and cleared up in about ten minutes, although the thunder continued as the storm moved off to the east.

Two-thirds of the way through the course, I was running over a set of two ridges transverse to my direction of travel, and in between them I nearly ran into the middle of a herd of cattle that were foraging in the swale. I had to put the brakes on downhill, as the herd started to get a little nervous and all the heads popped up from the ground to look at me. I detoured a couple hundred yards around them and finished the course with an OK time of 67 minutes. When I got back to the car, the sun was out again and the storm had started to build as it slid down the east side of the mountain range toward Cheyenne. The rain was heavy enough and the sun was low enough to show a rainbow just peeking over the hill to the east. I sat in the sun and celebrated with a Fat Tire as I watched the storm slowly move into the distance.

Jubal E Sprint - Loop C - Splits

Jubal E Sprint - Loop D - Splits

Jubal E Sprint - Loop A - Splits

Jubal E Sprint - Loop B - Splits

Event: Laramie Daze
 

Hike/jog around Sylvan Lake and then to the top of Harney Peak in the Black Hills. Topo map and Photos.

Drove 40 miles of gravel roads to get to the Laramie Peak trailhead at 5:30 PM, but the weather was favorable. Put out a major effort (successfully) to make the top and get back down before sunset. TH: 7700 Peak: 10140 Topo map and Photos.

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I woke up around 4:30, no longer tired. I was still pretty warm out and there was a light drizzle. I decided to forego the Badlands loop and
all the ugliness surrounding Rapid City this trip and head south into the big prairie - the Pine Ridge reservation - and work my way over to the
Black Hills from the south, thus avoiding the traffic, the billboard and the tourist traps. I went south from Kadoka on 73. It was still drizzling on and off as the sun came up and allowed me to barely see the surrounding land. It seemed to be less disturbed than the land I'd seen from the freeway, more shortgrass prarie and the sparse trees were natural pines and cedar. That's not to say that land in private ownership isn't undisturbed in many places, or the land on the reservation is all pristine, but I thought I could see a difference. Shortly after sunrise I had to stop for a group of three pronghorn antelope crossing the highway.

That morning I checked the map and decided to head for the historic site at Wounded Knee. I arrived around 7 AM after taking one of the bumpy,
most washed-out gravel/dirt roads I'd ever seen. Thank the AWD. There was a large sign posted in a pulloff at the side of the road (sky blue with
white lettering, so a little hard to read.) It was placed squarely on top of the site of the Sioux camp, and went into great detail about the massacre, pointing out various geographic features including the creek valley just to the north and the dry draw to the south where many of the
band were indiscriminately shot as they fled. The memorial, interestingly, pointed out that the U.S. Army had just gone ape-shit - they fired
2 in mortar shells into the camp and ended up killing or wounding 36 of their own men, although the Sioux had the worst of it by far.

I also climbed up a small hill northwest of the monument, where there was a mass grave dug for the casualties. It was in the center of a
small "traditional" cemetery, but you could see the filled trench in the center, sourrounded by a low fence. Tied to the fence were hundreds of
cloth banners about 5-6 inches longs, each with four strips in the traditional colors of yellow, red, black, and white. (In Lakota beliefs,
these are the colors of the four directions - east, south, west and north - and of the medicine wheel.)

There were two souvenir stands next to the site, and one of them had a couple of people setting up. I did not feel like visiting them. Nor did
I disturb the site by taking photos like a gawking tourist.

My next stop was Sylvan Lake in the heart of the Black Hills. This is a beautiful area in its own right, and serves as the main trailhead for the Black Elk Wilderness, which includes the highest point in the Black Hills (and South Dakota) - Harney Peak. A major drawback is that it's easily accessible from the town of Custer, and chronically crowded to the point where people have to find novel parking spots. First I went for a walk around Sylvan Lake and then proceeded to the 3.5 mile (one way) trail to Harney. Even though the trail has about 1000 feet of climb, it's fairly smooth and I passed many single hikers and families, some with very young children. Although it can be a little disturbing to see so many people, I had to expect it on that trail, and I was happy to see so many kids introduced to a wonderful natural area. I can only hope most of them remember it as a fun time, and not the proverbial death march.

I took a lot of pictures on the way up (see link above) and trail ran much of the way down. I was only gone about 2 hours and got a good head start on the drive into Wyoming.

It was hot down in the basins of eastern WY, although there were scattered showers building from the larger cloud banks. There's not much to recommend that part of the country. The WY Highway Dept tried to compensate by building very nice rest areas along the US highways (85 and 20.) Not only were the areas nice, but the buildings were designed for passive solar heating, and each rest stop had a display inside showing overhead and cross sectional views of the building in both summer and winter, describing the mechanisms for regulating the temperature of the building.

By mid-afternoon I arrived at I-25, and was deciding what to do before heading to Laramie. On a whim, I decided to drive out to Laramie Peak and relax at the trailhead, maybe record some thoughts. It didn't look too bad on the map. No big deal.

I got off the freeway at Glendo, and, knowing I had to go through Esterbrook to get there, took the aptly named Esterbrook Road (left to Glendo, right to the road.) It turned out this was not the road I thought it was on the map. At least the name was right. The road immediately turned to gravel and climbed up out of the valley the freeway was in with big swooping turns. After several miles I crossed a cattle guard into open range, and after another few miles had to slow to a crawl for a herd that wanted to cross the road at that exact moment. The road got progressively worse as I got higher, more washboarded and rutted with more and more erosion. It took almost an hour to do the 20 miles to Esterbrook, and then I had another 20 miles on similar roads to the trailhead. Luckily, all the roads were decently signed, since the atlas left a little to be desired.

The second half of the approach was worth the trouble. It trended south to southwest along a montane valley, with jagged peaks on both sides and a long sweeping high grassland between. At the south end of the valley was Laramie Peak, which dominated the others with its 10,000+ altitude. It was pleasantly warm out, with scattered puffy clouds - picture perfect, as they say. I followed an ATV up the last five miles to the trailhead, which curved up and around the north side of Eagle Mountain before flattening out near Friend Creek on the SW side of the mountain.

I arrived at the trailhead at 5:30 PM re-energized from the surroundings. Even though I originally thought about relaxing up here, I realized I had just driven 40 miles of gravel roads up here and didn't want to waste the opportunity. I thought a while about the numbers - 8.5 miles round trip with 2500 feet of climb. I was sure I could make the summit by sunset, but wasn't sure if I could get down by dark. So I packed warm clothes, my headlamp, and the camera, and started up.

Boy, did I ever push the pace.

It was tough on my heart (I was climbing to 10,000 feet less than 24 hours after leaving St. Paul) and I was light-headed a few times, although not enough to be dangerous. I tried to take some photos as well, and got a few even though my battery was losing charge. I surprised myself by making the summit a few minutes after 7 PM, with plenty of sun left. Unfortunately, the summit has a number of antennas and relay stations, along with a couple of buildings perched on the summit rocks. But the waether was the story - the west side of the mountain was clear with a low sun shining in, and the east side was completely covered in mist, so thick I could barely see the outcrops a couple hundred feet below. The wind was out of the northeast and blew shreds of the mist across the summit ridge where they dissipated into the clear air. I sheltered on the west side of a huge outcrop and enjoyed the warmth of the sun for about ten minutes, then decided to start back down and avoid using the headlamp if possible. (See the log entries above for links to the summit photos.)

It was just a quick hike down and I arrived at the trailhead just after sunset, then had a wild drive back down to the freeway and made my way to the Yellow Pine campground after midnight. I checked in and just crashed in the back of the car after a long, long day.

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I left work in mid-afternoon and made a stop at REI for last minute supplies. Since I'm going to be the only one climbing mountains
in Colorado, I made the decision that I'd attempt Mt. Elbert again and have a go at Mt. Massive as well. So I picked up a Map Machine
topo map for that area, centered around Halfmoon Creek, along with some more GU, replacement tent stakes, and various other sundries.

I drove down 169 to Mankato and then 60 to Worthington - my usual route to the west. Then came the long trek across South Dakota to the
"hilly" parts. One thing I always forget when starting on a trip is the fact it takes a while to get used to the lengths, of both distance and time.
We spend so much of our time making short trips of a half an hour, or a few miles. It took a few hours to get the thoughts of "are we there yet?"
out of my head. There's almost a shift of perception necessary to get used to the passage of time - and if you're observant, it need not be
monotony. There are plenty of things to both see and observe, even in eastern South Dakota:

• The folded and eroded hills near Sioux Falls.
  
• The shift in land use at the Missouri River - agriculture to the east and rangeland to the west.
  
• Rain clouds in the distance. Tracking their motion relative to mine and estimating whether I'd drive through them.
  

I ended up stopping at the rest area just outside of Belvidere and sleeping from about 11 PM - 4:30 AM. The sleeping arrangement is really nice. [Photo]. The pad is comfortable and I can stretch out full length. I don't roll around very much, so
the width doesn't bother me at all.

At Lebanon Hills. Cleaned the big rock garden first time out of two, and rode the XX notched log clean for the first time ever. Almost a perfect ride (no stops, two dabs.) Hot and humid, but the cloud cover kept it from being annoying.