I Ran!

OK, it was only 1.87 miles, but I realized that my new fitbit would keep really good track of pace and distance for me, and I wanted to check out how it worked, so I had to run to see. And, it's pretty cool! When I was running I could actually look at my fitbit to see my current pace - there were some times when I was actually going below a ten minute mile (all of these occurred on a downhill) and there were some times when I was going like a 14 minute mile (hello big uphill). Most of the time I was in the 10's or 11's somewhere. My average was 11:34, with the first mile at 11:15 and the .87 at 11:56, which doesn't surprise me because there was way more downhill on the first mile, and because I was kind of sucking wind on the second mile. 

It didn't completely suck. Maybe I will try to get into running a little bit again? Like, maybe one time a week, plus the run on Wednesdays? I feel like if I did it just a little more then I might not dread it so much. And, the fitbit maps and graphs are pretty fun.

 

Mt Washington via Tuckerman's Ravine and Lion's Head

This was #48 that I've soloed - I don't think I've processed that yet, probably tomorrow when I recover a bit from the hike. It was no joke, but also I enjoyed it a lot, except the last mile up, which was so hard! I was considering staying up in NH the night before, but my friend who has a place had "adult" guests, and all the hotels and such were about $200 for the night, so I decided I would do it as a day trip.  I really wanted to go on this day, though, because weather was predicted to be good, with good views, low winds and no rain. So, when I woke up to pee at 5:15, I was ready! (ish, I left at 5:45 and was driving on auto pilot - I forgot to turn on rt 95, but fortunately you can take 495 instead. Oooops). Anyhow, I got to the mountain and was ready to go at 9:09, which I thought was pretty good!

Tuckerman's Ravine is 4.1 miles, 2 miles that's consistent uphill to the Hermit Lake Shelter. The trail is wide, rocky and uphill, but very doable here. I knew that this part was "the easy part" and I hauled myself up as fast as I could (for me) because the sun is going down around 7:30 these days, and I didn't want to have to worry about light. It was a good walk, I was really glad I did parkour since it really helped me on the rocks, and before I knew it I was at the shelter. I looked at it, went "nice" and kept going because I decided I wanted to stop and eat something at Lunch Rocks. I had hiked up almost to lunch rocks once before in the spring to watch the skiers, but that day was cloudy and I couldn't really see where I was. I did remember that after the shelter there was more significant elevation gain, and that lunch rocks was a bit away. It started to seem like a ton of elevation gain, and a lot of distance, and I realized I was really hungry. By that time it was almost 11, and all I had had to eat was oatmeal at like 6:30 am, so really no surprise. Anyhow, I pushed myself to make it to lunch rocks, and was so glad I did! It was so nice there, with a waterfall and pretty little mossy glades.

I sat for like 15 minutes and ate a cheese sandwich and peanut butter bar and enjoyed the view and the vibe. I had been debating if I should bring a cheese sandwich because there's a restaurant up top, but in the end I decided it wasn't that heavy, and I thanked prior me for packing it. It was delicious, and I really needed it. The hardest part of the hike came after lunch - there was about 1.7 miles - first up the headwall and then the dome of the mountain. I actually didn't think the headwall was that hard. Which fooled me into thinking the dome wouldn't be either. Wrong! The dome was brutal, and I wound up playing the 50 steps game, where you take 50 steps and stop and look around, check out the view, think about how far you've come since the last 50 steps, and maybe wonder why you are there. And then you take another 50 steps, and do it again. Sometimes I did 100 steps before stopping. And it seemed to take forever to do the last .8 mile. That was definitely the slowest part. 

As I knew would happen, the top is pavement; there's a line to take a photo at the summit, that was really long. I didn't need a photo, though, so I just snuck in between two people taking pictures, tapped the summit marker, and called it a day. I was so pooped, I didn't even know were to sit, so I tried a couple places, before deciding I needed salt, and going into the restaurant. They had some pretty delicious looking pizza, but I was pretty sure that if I ate it I would puke, so I settled for doritos, potato chips, diet coke, and this disgusting looking prepackaged peanut butter and jelly sandwich (all thinks that I would normally never eat). I went outside away from the crowds, ate all the chips and drank most of the diet coke, and between the salt and the syrup, I felt better and ready to head down!

It was a really nice day at the top! No wind, the clouds were really high up, so you didn't need to worry about sunscreen but there was a good view, and no rain. You could see really far - above is Lake of the Clouds and the Crawford Path, and I sat and thought about how I'd hiked all of that. I took Lion's Head down, which initially was on the same trail as Tuckerman's. It was slow going down, but much faster than up, that's for sure (thank's parkour!) I made sure to be supportive and encouraging to people hiking up who looked tired, because that does help me. Once I got on the Lion's head trail, it was pretty fun - I enjoyed the rocky path for the most part. The only part that wasn't fun was that there were these three really loud people behind me who were playing this bad music on tinny speakers. They were so annoying I finally decided to stop and let them pass. I rested for about 10 minutes, which was nice, actually.

There was a really nice ridgeline on Lion's Head that was rocky and so fun, perhaps my favorite part of the hike. At the end of the ridgeline was a really great view of Hermit Lake and the shelter there, it was right below us, but really far down, which gave you a sense of the descent. There was a mile or so that was just downhill all the way. Pretty steep. I was glad I hadn't gone up it. And again I was glad for parkour. The crazy thing was I passed people on the way down, and I actually lead a group of guys who were fine not passing me!! Crazy! It did seem to take a long time before we got to the trail junction with Tuckerman's Ravine trail. From there it was just a long, consistent downhill. I practiced using my parkour skills and going from rock to rock, and was really happy with how I did. My legs were killing me and I kind of needed to pee. I stopped on a bridge to eat a little bit of chocolate I had brought and look at my map. But otherwise, I kind of moved pretty fast to get out. I finished around 6, walked to my car which was in a second lot about 3 minutes away, drove back to the Joe Dodge Lodge, and took the best shower before driving home. On the way home I stopped and got a super doughy white bread bagel, cheese and pirates booty and scarfed it down in the car. It was so good! I got home at around 10 and foam rolled, took some advil and went to bed.

 

I just got new trail runners from la sportiva - the exact same shoes as my old ones, but the old ones the treads had worn off. I was a little nervous about not breaking them in before doing Mt Washington, but I remember the old ones being fine. These were great and I was so glad I had them given all the rocks! There was one spot that was a bit snaggly, and I have a little bruise this morning, but nothing serious. I also got a new water bladder which was less of a success - I'll have to check and see if there's some secret to it - the hose kept popping out at random times. At one point it came out and fell on the trail - if I hadn't seen it that would have been really bad because a water bladder isn't really helpful without a hose to drink from. I was so glad that I brought a sandwich, even though there was food up top - the food was pretty junky and I wouldn't have wanted to rely on it. I brought big puff and was glad I had it - even without any wind, I was cold up top since I had been sweating. I might try Washington again one day, via Huntington. But if I do I don't think it would be solo, and I would need to stay up in NH, to have a full day to hike, and a good night's sleep before.

When you look at my splits, you can see that I walked around for almost 3/4 mile up top! That was kind of silly of me on such a long day. Also, I did pretty well for me. Some of the hours that are on the "slower" side I did have stops to eat. That was a tough one, but good day!

Climbed a 5.11!

It wasn't pretty at all, many many falls, and a bit of an assist from the belayer, but I got up a 5.11 today at metro rock! I was pretty psyched!! It was a good day of climbing - I started with a 5.8 that was one of the hardest climbs of the night because it was pretty burley at the top, then moved to a 5.9 which I did clean, then I moved to 5.10's. In total, I did 5 5.10's! 2 clean - 1 on auto belay (it took me several tries, but when I got it, it was super fun, would definitely retry), and 1 that I've done before, and really like. I also did one in the chimney with 1 fall, which is cleaner than the other two times I tried it. One that was really over hung with a billion falls, and a belayer who, when I yelled "take" was like "don't worry, you're safe." Not the brightest bulb in the bunch. I did one other that was pretty overhung, but by that point I had a new belayer who was a woman, and got it on the whole taking thing. 

The 5.11 was on slab - there were some moves that had pretty crappy hand holds, but if you got it just right, you could almost get a grip and move yourself up, until the next fall. Some of the folks in the meet up that I was climbing with were like "the biggest and best hold is near the top" and when I got close, I saw that there was this hold that was literally the size of the tip of my thumb. I was just like "are they kidding?" but it was hung in a way that you were meant to pinch it with your thumb and the wall/corner/arete. In retrospect, kind of cool. Anyhow, there was a degree of arm to the climb, and I felt pretty good about the exercise of it and the whole night. When I got home I ate some bread and cheese, just to make sure I don't lose weight and make it easier to climb.

I'm pretty psyched with how the climbing thing is going, and I love climbing at Metrorock all the time again!

Last week, on Wednesday, we did parkour on the fiedler bridge, which was a longer run to get to, but super fun once we were there. We did some climbing on the sides of the bridge, and then coach was like, just walk on the side of the bridge, and I did! At first, I thought there was no way I could do that, but actually the cement edges were like a foot wide, which you can pretty reliably walk on something that wide without falling because, gravity. So, I made up this little song that went "I'm walking along and it's not scary 'cause I've got gravity on my side." and I sang it over and over again, and actually made it across the entire river!

This weekend we are supposed to have a hurricane on Sunday, so definitely a bad day for Washington. I was thinking about tomorrow, and hurrying back, but it looks like next weekend might actually be nice, so that's the current plan. And, to keep climbing Friday night!

Rock Circuit Trail

After my failed attempt at Washington, I was eager to go up there again and try to get the peak. Today looked like it was going to be good weather, no rain, low winds, a good view - perfect! So, I was thinking I would make a day trip of it. My car, sadly, had other plans. It's tax-free weekend, so of course I went to REI. When I got into my car after shopping (got a new fitbit because it seems I fried my old one with a new charger. Sad. But, it was over 4 years old, and the new ones have so many toys, I was excited to get one) this sensor that's been broken started dinging over and over and over and over. Sometimes it would go maybe 30 seconds without dinging, but sometimes it would just ding repeatedly. There was no way I could drive for 5 hours with it dinging like that. So, I had to let the perfect day go by :(. I've taken the car to be fixed 5 times for this sensor already, no joke, and they can't seem to fix it - I'm taking it to the dealer and just getting a new one tomorrow (sensor, not car). I was just going to leave it broken - it's a tire pressure sensor, which is fun, but I guess I've lived without one for my entire life and don't need it, but the dinging has to stop!

Anyhow, since I couldn't do Washington, I decided to try the entire loop of the Rock Circuit Trail in the Fells instead. Partly I decided to do this because I went to parkour this morning and we had a pretty chill class which we finished up by going for ice cream - I had the most delicious goat cheese and fig flavor - with actual chunks of goat cheese in it! So good! I got a small, but it was not small at all, and I ate the whole thing, so I needed a little exercise.

It was finally a beautiful day - the sun was out, no humidity, about 80, a perfect day for a walk in the woods. I wore my chacos, which may have been a mistake for a 4 mile walk/hike, my feet felt a little raw at the end. And, it was really fun wearing my new fitbit - I have one face that's a bitmoji of me - it changes depending on what I'm doing. It was running while I was exercising, and then it had a banana later. Now it's sleepy. Anyhow, it was a nice walk in the woods, I ran into a few people, but it wasn't too crowded, I was a little warm for a while, but nothing too bad. 

The rest of my staycation wound up being pretty chill, but very nice. There were a few rainy days that I spent on my couch watching the Olympic climbing (so amazing!) and I read a good book. It was hard going back to work, but what can you do? I'm going to be back in person in like 3 weeks, it's so hard to believe! It will be so strange going into work, but I bet soon it will feel strange that I worked from home for a year and a half. I'm going to try working 8:30-4:30 instead of 8-4 to see if I can get an extra half hour of sleep. Wednesdays I will go right to Harvard Square for parkour I think, and maybe I can find a yoga place near Wellesley? I think if it's 3 days a week that I am commuting, it will be different than when it was five, but we'll see...

 

Mt. Washington Fail

My one goal for my staycation was to solo Mt. Washington for #48 of my solo NH 4000 footers. Well, today the mountain won. It was not a good day for hiking Washington, though it was nice out everywhere else it seems. 

My goal was to hike up Tuckerman's Ravine to the top, then down Lion's Head. To make things easier, I stayed at my friend's place up in N. Conway - they've got wifi up there now, it's so on-the-grid. The forecast looked OK - rain overnight, clearing in the morning, sun coming out around 10 or 11. I decided with the rain that I would hike the other side of the mountain, doing the Ammonoosuc Trail up and Jewel down since they are less climbing-like, and I figured that the rocks would still be wet. Which they were, because it rained the whole time I was there!

I got up a little later, around 8:30, made coffee and had my oatmeal that I brought, and hit the road by 9:15. It's a 45 minute drive, and I got to the mountain around 10. It was a beautiful day in N Conway, but as I drove closer, I could see the clouds around Washington. They were thick. It didn't seem like they were going to clear off, but I went with hope, and started off on the hike. One thing that's nice about Washington is that there are real bathrooms at the foot of the trail, so I stopped at the visitor's center to pee before heading out. 

Although it's August 2, I wore long pants, one of my new long sleeve lulu shirts, my rain pants (the egg salad people would be so happy that I learned my lesson from Isolation) and my rain jacket. I was a little warm once I got going, but not too bad. The first mile is pretty chill, and I strolled along in the rain wondering if there really was any chance that the clouds would clear up. After a bit you get to a really pretty little pool with a waterfall going into it, and that's the start of the really uphill bit. I pulled out my hiking polls, and headed up. After about a half hour I ran into a park ranger who said that another front was moving in, and the winds were picking up above tree line, and it might be hypothermia weather up there. Which kind of silly to think of dying of hypothermia in the beginning of August, but it can happen. I started thinking about maybe just going to the hut instead, and tagging Monroe. 

As I hiked, I got warmer, and it kept raining. I was sweating, and so my pants and shirt were getting wet, even though I had rain gear on. As I got higher, the wind started to pick up. I came to a second water fall which was beautiful, and stopped to eat a power bar and my cheese sandwich on sourdough bread. And, I thought about how miserable Isolation had been. And then I was like "fuck it, I'm turning back." Because I didn't think I was going to be able to make it to the top, and I was probably going to have to go down the same trail, and it was steep and slabby and not fun and I didn't want to do another miserable hike like Isolation just because I had started it. So, that's what I did! 

I only wound up hiking for about 3 and a half hours, with a total of about 4 hours on the mountain. I didn't actually make bad time - the slow split in mile three was due to sandwich eating, photographing the waterfall and deciding about going back. I'm glad I made the choice I did. When I got home and looked at the current weather conditions on Washington it said winds were at 44 mph with gusts up to 52, temp was 42 with a wind chill of 30. In wet clothes, that would not have been a good idea. The mountain is always there for me to try again.