I went for a swim this morning but about lunch time it seemed like a good opportunity to do a few project miles. I only wanted 3-4 miles and I figured that the streets about Rocky Mountain College would do just fine. I played around with the map and came up with this route.
The parking lot at Rocky is exactly one mile from my home and this was the first time I would drive to the start. I got Bart the Dog loaded up and I grabbed my Minolta 16P “spy camera” which I’d loaded with film. I’ll take photos with my phone but also wanted to shoot some film and this is my smallest camera. This is it:
We started the run at noon, heading up Rugby Drive. It’s a very steep hill. We paused at the top for a few photos.
Those people have a big rock in their yard.
We did another up and back street before getting to the top of Glacier Drive where it intersects with Granite Ave.
I think Bart was having fun. We looped through the remaining streets in this section and went along Rimrock Road to the next uphill street which is Smokey Lane.
The personal: when I was coaching high school cross country we’d bring the team here and run repeats on it. On one of those days I’d arrived late and when I headed up the hill the runners were headed down. At the top, where I turned around, a dog behind a fence was barking and snarling. I didn’t pay much attention to it and headed back down the hill, turned around, and headed back up, passing my runners on their way down. When I got to the top I noticed that someone had pulled into the driveway of the house where the dog was barking. This person, the owner, let the dog out and it headed right for me. A 3-legged pit bull. I started backing up and the dog leaped and locked on to my left thigh. I stumbled on a curb and fell into a driveway as the dog released and circled for another attack. I was screaming at the owner to get the dog as I was kicking at it to keep it away from me. The owner retrieved the dog, put it away, and came back out and apologized. He said this had never happened before (a lie), that the dog was licensed (a lie), and had all its shots (another lie.). The wound was bleeding and was starting to hurt. I got his information and headed back down the hill and, since practice was over, ran back to school with the team.
The rest I’ll shorten to say that I self-treated the wound, reported it to animal control, and called my doctor’s office regarding whether I should get a rabies shot since animal control had no records for the dog. I was told there hadn’t been a case of rabies in the county in 18 years and since I was 10-days from running a marathon I decided to skip any further treatment. It healed up OK.
The epilogue is that the owner was “connected” and refused to let animal control impound the dog after which they “lost” the paperwork. After an unrelated series of events, we ended up in court after which the owner put his house up for sale and moved. I’ll leave out the other details.
OK, that’s the personal memory that comes up every time I run on Smokey but the street does have a historical link. It is named for the book “Smoky” by Will James who, as far as I know, wrote it while living is a cabin on that street. I believe this is the cabin.
Yes, the title of the book is “Smoky” and the street is named “Smokey.” And you thought this blog would just be about where I run.
We eventually worked our way to Lohof Drive. What is interesting about this street is that it’s the only one of the many streets under the rims that is partially in concrete rather than asphalt and has a tree-lined divider.
Years ago, the Lohof family owned a concrete company in the city so that probably explains this.
That’s it. A shorter run today but fun and we did check off some new streets for the project.
Oh, yes, the photos I shot with the other camera. I did develop the film and, as I type this, it is hanging to dry. I’ll scan them and add to this posting tomorrow.
January 10, 2023
Here’s some photos from that Minolta camera. I am shooting hand-rolled Kodak Double-X, which is 16mm movie film, and guessing at the exposure. I develop for 7 minutes in D-76 stock at 68 degrees. I scan the negatives.
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