John has been playing with our new GoPro camera and I have been experimenting with video editing software.
Our very first, very rough attempt:
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Weather forecast for Pikes Peak weekend
Zone Area Forecast for Pikes Peak above 11000 Ft, CO:
Friday Night: Snow likely. Some thunder is also possible. Cloudy, with a low around 29. Breezy, with a south southwest wind between 15 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
Saturday: Snow likely. Some thunder is also possible. Cloudy, with a high near 32. Breezy, with a southwest wind between 15 and 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Saturday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow, mainly before midnight. Some thunder is also possible. Cloudy, with a low around 26. West wind between 10 and 15 mph. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Sunday: A slight chance of snow showers before 10am, then a chance of rain showers. Some thunder is also possible. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. North northwest wind between 5 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Friday Night: Snow likely. Some thunder is also possible. Cloudy, with a low around 29. Breezy, with a south southwest wind between 15 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
Saturday: Snow likely. Some thunder is also possible. Cloudy, with a high near 32. Breezy, with a southwest wind between 15 and 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Saturday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow, mainly before midnight. Some thunder is also possible. Cloudy, with a low around 26. West wind between 10 and 15 mph. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Sunday: A slight chance of snow showers before 10am, then a chance of rain showers. Some thunder is also possible. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. North northwest wind between 5 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Mt Sherman
We climbed a 14er with Danny yesterday!
The goal was the top of Mount Sherman (14,036 ft). Here we are starting the hike at about 12,000 ft:
The first half was a nice walk up a mining road. It was a good reminder that there isn't much air up at 12,000 feet.
On the ridge leading up to the top - fun trail! What you can't see is all the WIND blowing that day.
Signing the register to prove we made it :)
With Leadville and Mount Massive in the background:
Congratulations Danny on your first 14er!
The goal was the top of Mount Sherman (14,036 ft). Here we are starting the hike at about 12,000 ft:
The first half was a nice walk up a mining road. It was a good reminder that there isn't much air up at 12,000 feet.On the ridge leading up to the top - fun trail! What you can't see is all the WIND blowing that day.
Signing the register to prove we made it :)
With Leadville and Mount Massive in the background:
Congratulations Danny on your first 14er!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
PQ video - Team Werewolves
PQ/GoPro are having a contest. Many teams took footage with their GoPro cameras while on the course during the race. PQ compiled a video of each team, and the most watched video will win that team some kind of prize.
Here is Team Werewolves' video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MbuO-pF7G0
Of course, I personally think that the Werewolves support crew, Chad and Alan, put together more entertaining compilations, as seen on their race blog:
http://www.werewolvesofaustin.com/
but unfortunately they can't win prizes for those!
Here is Team Werewolves' video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MbuO-pF7G0
Of course, I personally think that the Werewolves support crew, Chad and Alan, put together more entertaining compilations, as seen on their race blog:
http://www.werewolvesofaustin.com/
but unfortunately they can't win prizes for those!
Monday, August 11, 2008
O-meet results
The complete Laramie Daze Results will soon be posted, I'm sure.
In the meantime, a summary for me and John:
We ran the Blue course both days. The only category for that course is "Male 21+". Our "standard" course would have been Red. But we can't resist the challenge of running the longest courses available, so that's what we usually do.
Saturday's Blue course was 10 km with 320 m of total climb. It was also pretty technical, with lots of boulders and rock formations to clamber and navigate through. That made things interesting. Even before we got to that part of the course, both John and I flubbed checkpoint 2. Which was a solitary boulder in open woods right next to a field. I think we both managed to slow down and think more clearly from then on, but we still had minor issues on several of the 27 controls and wasted time here and there.
At least twice I stood and stared at a rock pile, wondering why there was no control on top of it. Then I looked at my clue sheet and found out that the control was on the "north side" (always on the other side from our approach) and voila!
My memorable quote to myself on Saturday was "just how many hilltops are there up here?" and then finding the control on the other side of the hilltop I was looking at - "oh, just enough then."
Our final times were 1:35:02 (John) and 1:52:04 (me). I was mostly happy to have finished well under the 3-hour time limit and ahead of 4 people.
Sunday was 50% longer, at 15 km, with 380 m climb. It was billed as "faster and not as hilly." I just had to keep or improve my pace from Saturday to finish within 3 hours.
I started 4 minutes ahead of John (as opposed to 6 minutes behind him on Saturday). The first and last time I saw him, he was running John Beard-like across a wide open field, way ahead of me and disappearing fast.
We both had a much better time finding the controls on day 2. The course alternated between big empty spaces and small tree/boulder clusters, which wasn't as technical (as long as you took a good bearing and didn't lose track of which tree/boulder cluster you were looking at). Plus we didn't have to wade through thick sage brush much at all compared to day 1, so we could move a lot faster.
On the flip side, I had to move a lot faster. I walked parts of the uphills but also managed to run parts of them. A couple of the legs were almost 2 km long, mostly run, run, run, try to keep running. Phew!
Both of us started early enough in the day that many of the faster Blue course guys passed us. We both latched onto people when we could, me not being able to keep up for long and John running with a couple guys to the last few controls together. I'm usually a proponent for running your own course, but when you can see a kilometer across a field and there are guys popping into and out of the control you know is yours, you just can't ignore the data that's in front of you.
I even ended up passing one guy on the Blue course (although it was a slow pass) :) so while the complete results aren't up as of yet, I can state that I beat at least one person on day 2.
My quote-to-myself of the day, heading to control 23 out of 27: "Hey, my shoes are going to hold up!" The perplexing part is why I cleaned them afterwards instead of tossing them directly in a dumpster.
John ran great on Sunday, finishing 3 SECONDS FASTER than on Saturday, for a course that was 5 km longer. Wow. He definitely placed higher overall on Sunday.
I finished in about 2:04 on Sunday, well under the 3-hour time limit. Yay!
We had an excellent time, Mikell Platt is an excellent meet director and course setter (and conversationalist), and now I see contour lines wherever we go.
In the meantime, a summary for me and John:
We ran the Blue course both days. The only category for that course is "Male 21+". Our "standard" course would have been Red. But we can't resist the challenge of running the longest courses available, so that's what we usually do.
Saturday's Blue course was 10 km with 320 m of total climb. It was also pretty technical, with lots of boulders and rock formations to clamber and navigate through. That made things interesting. Even before we got to that part of the course, both John and I flubbed checkpoint 2. Which was a solitary boulder in open woods right next to a field. I think we both managed to slow down and think more clearly from then on, but we still had minor issues on several of the 27 controls and wasted time here and there.
At least twice I stood and stared at a rock pile, wondering why there was no control on top of it. Then I looked at my clue sheet and found out that the control was on the "north side" (always on the other side from our approach) and voila!
My memorable quote to myself on Saturday was "just how many hilltops are there up here?" and then finding the control on the other side of the hilltop I was looking at - "oh, just enough then."
Our final times were 1:35:02 (John) and 1:52:04 (me). I was mostly happy to have finished well under the 3-hour time limit and ahead of 4 people.
Sunday was 50% longer, at 15 km, with 380 m climb. It was billed as "faster and not as hilly." I just had to keep or improve my pace from Saturday to finish within 3 hours.
I started 4 minutes ahead of John (as opposed to 6 minutes behind him on Saturday). The first and last time I saw him, he was running John Beard-like across a wide open field, way ahead of me and disappearing fast.
We both had a much better time finding the controls on day 2. The course alternated between big empty spaces and small tree/boulder clusters, which wasn't as technical (as long as you took a good bearing and didn't lose track of which tree/boulder cluster you were looking at). Plus we didn't have to wade through thick sage brush much at all compared to day 1, so we could move a lot faster.
On the flip side, I had to move a lot faster. I walked parts of the uphills but also managed to run parts of them. A couple of the legs were almost 2 km long, mostly run, run, run, try to keep running. Phew!
Both of us started early enough in the day that many of the faster Blue course guys passed us. We both latched onto people when we could, me not being able to keep up for long and John running with a couple guys to the last few controls together. I'm usually a proponent for running your own course, but when you can see a kilometer across a field and there are guys popping into and out of the control you know is yours, you just can't ignore the data that's in front of you.
I even ended up passing one guy on the Blue course (although it was a slow pass) :) so while the complete results aren't up as of yet, I can state that I beat at least one person on day 2.
My quote-to-myself of the day, heading to control 23 out of 27: "Hey, my shoes are going to hold up!" The perplexing part is why I cleaned them afterwards instead of tossing them directly in a dumpster.
John ran great on Sunday, finishing 3 SECONDS FASTER than on Saturday, for a course that was 5 km longer. Wow. He definitely placed higher overall on Sunday.
I finished in about 2:04 on Sunday, well under the 3-hour time limit. Yay!
We had an excellent time, Mikell Platt is an excellent meet director and course setter (and conversationalist), and now I see contour lines wherever we go.
Howie notes
We have been slowly weaning ourselves away from requiring full hook-ups for living in Howie. Full hook-ups (electric, water, sewer, yes even cable) make life very easy. But sometimes we have more options, and pay quite a bit less, when we can live without all of those things.
It started with leaving the propane on while driving, so the fridge keeps running. Emptying and cleaning the fridge is perhaps the single most bothersome thing about storing Howie. Anything to keep the fridge running is a good thing.
We have camped without sewer a few times. That's no big deal, especially when there is a dump station on the way out of the park. We don't use a lot of water when showering, so we can last about a week before needing to drain the grey tank.
Camping without incoming water is a bit harder. We've done the "water jug" thing for hand/dish washing and toilet rinsing, and it's not terrible, just not as luxurious.
When we know we won't have water hookups, we fill the water tank and use the electric pump. It's a bit loud and has a strange rhythm, but it does work. Kip stayed with us for a night in Missouri last November, and the water pump sound was the final straw that caused him to saw "you have a very interesting house."
I wasn't sure we were ready to live without an electrical plug-in, but we decided to "rough it" at Curt Gowdy State Park last week. We actually did have water, although it intermittently went off (maybe when everyone else was trying to use water too, we're not sure) - some kind of water issue at the park.
Our big accomplishment was getting the generator running! We had neglected to run it on a monthly schedule after we bought Howie in 2006 - big mistake. For anyone else buying a trailer or RV, don't neglect the generator. But John did get ours running, and it was a good park to use it in since all the sites were pretty far apart and the occasional noise wasn't in anyone's immediate earshot.
So we had "dinner and a movie" nights where we cranked up the generator, made popcorn in the microwave, and watched a NetFlix movie on the laptop. Plus we ran the generator just long enough to brew coffee in the morning. Life is good.
The Sprint card even got a tiny bit of service there so I was able to check email :)
The highlight of the week, however, came on Sunday. We checked out of the park, dumped the black/grey tanks, put some water in the fresh water tank, and drove over to the orienteering meet.
After the meet, we took showers in Howie. In the middle of a cow field. That was really cool.
It started with leaving the propane on while driving, so the fridge keeps running. Emptying and cleaning the fridge is perhaps the single most bothersome thing about storing Howie. Anything to keep the fridge running is a good thing.
We have camped without sewer a few times. That's no big deal, especially when there is a dump station on the way out of the park. We don't use a lot of water when showering, so we can last about a week before needing to drain the grey tank.
Camping without incoming water is a bit harder. We've done the "water jug" thing for hand/dish washing and toilet rinsing, and it's not terrible, just not as luxurious.
When we know we won't have water hookups, we fill the water tank and use the electric pump. It's a bit loud and has a strange rhythm, but it does work. Kip stayed with us for a night in Missouri last November, and the water pump sound was the final straw that caused him to saw "you have a very interesting house."
I wasn't sure we were ready to live without an electrical plug-in, but we decided to "rough it" at Curt Gowdy State Park last week. We actually did have water, although it intermittently went off (maybe when everyone else was trying to use water too, we're not sure) - some kind of water issue at the park.
Our big accomplishment was getting the generator running! We had neglected to run it on a monthly schedule after we bought Howie in 2006 - big mistake. For anyone else buying a trailer or RV, don't neglect the generator. But John did get ours running, and it was a good park to use it in since all the sites were pretty far apart and the occasional noise wasn't in anyone's immediate earshot.
So we had "dinner and a movie" nights where we cranked up the generator, made popcorn in the microwave, and watched a NetFlix movie on the laptop. Plus we ran the generator just long enough to brew coffee in the morning. Life is good.
The Sprint card even got a tiny bit of service there so I was able to check email :)
The highlight of the week, however, came on Sunday. We checked out of the park, dumped the black/grey tanks, put some water in the fresh water tank, and drove over to the orienteering meet.
After the meet, we took showers in Howie. In the middle of a cow field. That was really cool.
Rogaine
We learned from Peg Davis (Tucson Orienteering Club) that John Maier will once again be directing a 24-hour rogaine on the Mogollon Rim next summer!
She told us May 9-10, but it is listed on the Rogaine Calendar as May 16-17.
Either way, we really, really want to be there.
She told us May 9-10, but it is listed on the Rogaine Calendar as May 16-17.
Either way, we really, really want to be there.
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