Day 2 of 2

I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make right before crossfit is eating sushi. Not that that stopped me from doing so, but I had regrets. I was so hungry today, first I ate my lunch early, then I needed something to eat before I could work out. I was kind of counting on laziness to keep me from getting a snack, because I have to walk down 3 flights of stairs and to the student center to get food, but then I just got something on the way out.

Anyhow, I'm going climbing with my brother tomorrow, so I had to go to crossfit today. Which I was a little sad about given the WODs - todays kind of sucked, and tomorrows looked much better. Though, I guess I wouldn't think that so much tomorrow...

First we did front squats. I did 6 sets of 3. I wound up working with someone who's new to crossfit, so I was actually lifting more than her! That never happens. I got up to 80 pounds with relatively decent form.

WOD: 8 minute AMRAP
30 chest to bar pull ups
25 thrusters (I lifted 35 pounds)
20 chest to bar pull ups
there was more to it, involving descending reps, but that's as far as I got.

I'm trying to decide if we should climb inside or outside tomorrow - not so sure about the weather. One thing I do know, def not going to hike owls head! :)

Day 1 of 2

Once again I'm in the position of having to do two days of crossfit in a row. Today wasn't too bad, I got caught in traffic and got there late so I missed the warm up, which was a good thing because it was the coach's birthday and the class did 29 burpees in his honor. Hum, I've been 29 many times before too (except I think maybe he really is).

WOD:
400 meter sprint (WTF? Sprint?)
3 rounds:
5 power snatches (I lifted 35 pounds)
5 squats (it was supposed to be overhead, but those hurt my shoulders, so I did back)
25 double unders (I did 50 singles)
400 meter sprint
3 rounds:
5 power snatches
5 squats
25 double unders
400 meter sprint
my time: 17 min 50 sec

We started with snatches or power snatches. I did power snatches because I'm so powerful :) Also because I can't squat with the barbel over my head. We did 5 rounds of 3 and I got up to 60 pounds for the last 2 rounds.

The students are back at school. It's so strange, but it is kind of nice.

Owls Head!!

I did it!!! And, I'm never doing it again :)  According to my fitbit, it was a total of 55,374 steps!  Which, when you consider Owls Head (or, The Owl, as I've been calling it) is an 18.2 mile hike, isn't surprising.

I was thinking about either Owls Head or the Osceola's. The Osceola's are way shorter and easier, and have much better views. Owls Head's view looks like this:

When my alarm went off at 5 am, I was determined, though! (OK, I hit the snooze bar, but I was determined at 5:10). I knew it really was pretty much my last chance for this year to do Owls Head, and I really didn't want it hanging over my head all winter. I got up at 5:20 am, got dressed, and hit the road by 5:45. Now, this was actually my first mistake - that was too late to be leaving this time of year - by the time I got to the trail, it was already 8 am. Book time for the hike as 11 hours and 35 minutes, and it gets dark now around 7:30 pm. So all day I was kind of racing against the fact that I was going to be short of daylight at the end of the day.

As all the other bloggers say, although it is an 8 mile hike to the base of Owls Head, it's not like 8 miles of NH hiking. The first three miles were basically a dirt road. I accidentally wound up on the wrong side of the river on the wrong dirt road (there's one on each side, I took the correct one on the way back). It only took me an hour to get to the camp site that's about 3 miles in, I was pretty psyched about that. Conveniently, as I was looking at the map trying to figure out how to get to the other side of the river, a ranger walked by and gave me directions that started with "keep going down the road until you get to the bathrooms...." Heck yeah! They were composting toilets, but still better than the woods. After using the bathrooms I was at the river, thinking about how to cross, and then thought "actually, I kind of have to poop..." which costed me about 15 minutes to return to the bathroom and take care of business, but time well spent.

The second trail, Franconia Brook Trail, is also wide, fairly flat, easy to hike, and gentle on the feet. There weren't any rocks like there usually are on NH trails. There was one point where I got a little confused because the trail branched, which it wasn't supposed to do. I figured out that it was because there was a bandit campsite there - a really pretty one! I would totally recommend it, and in fact on the way back I found that there were people camping out there.

I reached the third trail, Lincoln Brook Trail in pretty good time.  It was about 10:40. It's 3.4 miles on Lincoln Brook Trail to get to Owls Head. Lincoln Brook was a little more uphill and a little more NH like, in that there were some rocks and you had to pay attention to the trail some. But, it was still a very easy trail. It went uphill, but so gradually that you barely noticed. The Pemegawassit Wilderness is gorgeous, and I really liked the hike - all of the trails follow really pretty brooks and it was just a perfect day!  There were about 6 river crossings (including the unnecessary one because I hiked on the wrong side of the river on the way there). The water level was low enough that they weren't too bad, though in the spring I think they could be hard. I discovered on the way back that it's easier to jump from rock to rock if you yell "bamm!" as you leap. Yeah, it's a little weird, but effective.

Although Owls Head is one of the most remote mountains, it was like a super highway out there! I guess in part because it was a really nice day and a long weekend, there were a lot of people who wanted to hike it. It was pretty crazy, though. Just as busy as Lafayette or Washington, I bet! There was this one group of French backpackers who passed me on the way there - when I got to the top they had already summated, and were eating, when I was heading down, they were taking a nap, and yet they still got down at the same time as me!  And, there was also this group of 4 + dog that I wound up walking near a lot - they seemed nice, though their dog had apparently rolled in turkey poo. But everywhere I went on the way there, there they were! I mean, how far does a person need to hike to get some alone time with nature?

Anyhow, I reached the foot of the mountain at 1 pm.  I was a little worried that I would have a hard time finding the trail up, it's not an officially maintained trail and there's some discussion about that in the hiking books. I'd asked a couple hikers as I was getting closer if they had any trouble finding it, and they all said no - there's a cairn across from it, and when I got to it, it looked like this:

Really, no worry that I wouldn't find it! I took a moment to mentally prepare and headed up.

Climbing Owls Head wasn't really a whole lot of fun. The bottom of the trail was scree and rock. It was a lot of work going up, slippery and hard on the calves. There were a ton of people coming down, and they all looked like they were struggling too, going up is hard aerobically, but down is more a head game because you can see how far you have to fall! The trail for about the first half or so  looked like this:

After a while the trail became more tree lined and really more of a trail, even if it wasn't officially maintained. So many people traveled it, it was pretty much a trail. It seemed to go forever after it got to the trees. I wasn't prepared for that, I kept thinking I was almost there! But, of course, it's a 4000 footer, and it was 1000 feet elevation gain in a mile, so I should have expected it.  Once I finally got to the top (where the french people were eating lunch, it was still another .2 mile (or .4 mile?) to the actual summit. Apparently for a while people forgot that the real summit was somewhere else and were calling the french eating spot the summit. I'd like to know who re-discovered the top and give them a piece of my mind! It took forever to get there!  I was so hungry and wanted to sit, but really wanted to reach the top. When I got there, of course the people + smelly dog were there - they were so nice, though, they welcomed me like an old friend!  Hikers are great :)

I sat for like 10 minutes and admired the lack of view and ate a little and rested my feet. But, it was getting late and I knew I had to get down. It took and hour an a half for me to get to the top, it was 2:45 by the time I started heading down.  Going down was really hard too. There are a lot of smooth, well loved trees on that trail. I made use of them, holding on as I negotiated the moving trail. The scree fields took the longest - there were so many rocks that were big enough that I thought I would knock them on myself!  Fortunately I was pretty much alone at this point, so I didn't need to worry about knocking them on anyone else.  It took about an hour to get down, so it was 3:45 by the time I got to the bottom!  I was pretty much out of filtered water at that point, though I had a bottle that I had taken from the creek but not yet filtered, so I sat for a few minutes and filtered.  It was a few minutes before 4 when I started heading back.  I wasn't feeling so good about this, because I had 8 miles to hike, and it had taken me 5 hours on the way in, and sunset was at 7:30.

Again, fortunately the hike was not that hard, especially on the way back. Although it hadn't seemed very uphill on the way in, you could tell it was a little downhill on the way out. Not so downhill that it required navigating, rather it allowed me to walk faster. For me, I moved pretty fast, only stopping once in the middle of a creek to filter more water and have a power bar (oh, and put a bandaid on a blister I got on my second smallest toe.)

The hike again was very pretty. I got to the first trail intersection in about 2.25 hours. The second one I got to after about 3 hours hiking. I had a little internal debate with myself if I should cross the river and go back on the other side, the way I came, which I knew was going to be easy, or if I should take the chance that the other side would be easy too. Crossing the river would take time, but was safer. In the end I decided not to cross, and I was so glad I didn't! The trail on the other side of the river was actually better - it was once a railroad track, so there were old railroad ties on it, but otherwise it was so well graded, I was able to go really fast for me. It was getting dark by this time and I was worried about bears because, well, that's something that I do in woods with bears. So, I was singing and humming and talking loudly. At 1.6 miles the trail intersected with another one, and a couple minutes after I passed a couple other hikers came off that trail (sigh, I think I was singing at that time). They had two dogs, which was comforting because I figured that the bears would prefer the dogs.  They were so fast, they passed me like I was standing still and were off!

I got to my car at 8 pm, so it took me a full hour less to get out. The NH police had left a nice parking ticket on my windshield.  Live free or die, ha!  That's cold. I was so exhausted, and so happy with myself!  It took a little over 2 hours to get home, I showered and totally crashed. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with a migraine - my body telling me "never do that again."  And I'm totally listening to it! I'm glad I can check it off the list, and that I did it in one day. I wish I had stayed up in NH the night before to make it a little easier. I am kind of glad I did it in the fall, even though it meant that the last 20 min or so were in the dark - I think the hike would be very buggy in the spring with all of the creeks and hiking mostly at a lower elevation, there weren't that many in Sept. Also, there were 5 brook crossings that had the potential to be really hard if the water levels were higher. We're pretty much in drought now, and I still took my boots off once and waded, I think with snow run off it would have been much harder. And it would be awful on a really hot day, way too long. Twenty of the 4000 footers done, and that includes the two hardest - Isolation and Owls Head!

The view from the slide:

Back again!

So apparently I was actually pretty sick last week, probably part of why the hike was so difficult. Not that it wasn't difficult to begin with, but it was even more difficult due to whatever virus I had. After the hike I spent the last three days of vacation on the couch. Monday I only went to work for a half day, and all week I was pretty much a couch potato after work, doing next to nothing. I have this hacking cough and am tired, but finally I'm starting to feel better.

Which is to say, I have not been a good crossftter. I didn't go at all last week, and I hadn't been this week either. I didn't want to go today because #1 it was a partner workout and #2 I didn't want to go. But, then I decided I had to go. I've wasted so much $ and I may never go back if I get too in the habit of not going. And I don't want that to happen. I was thinking I could just go tomorrow, but tomorrow is a killer looking hero wad, and also I want to go for a hike. I'm having thoughts about The Owl, but I also am having thoughts that that's a silly idea.  We'll see.

WOD: My partner was super nice and did Level 1 with me
60 calories rowing
90 wall balls
60 pull ups
90 box jumps (I did steps)
our time: 17 min 15 sec

For rowing we did 10 calories each and then switched, so I rowed 3 sets of 10. We did 10's on the wall balls as well, and so I did 4 sets of 10, plus one more in the warm up! That's pretty good for me. Pull ups we did 5's. I used bands but was actually getting them right with the bands :)  Box jumps of course I stepped.

They have a softer box that's made of some padding-type stuff. I'll have to try doing box jumps on it sometime. It looks harder to hurt yourself on. It would be a good way to work up to real box jumps. One woman was using it and we were talking about it, and this guy was like "it doesn't work well on the higher level, though." Coach looked at him and said "I think you are talking to the wrong crowd with that concern." Everyone but the guy laughed, I think he was embarrassed.

Presidential Traverse - Day 4

I had told myself on Day 3 of the hike that Day 4 was just going to be hiking down and going home. There was an option to do one more mountain, Jackson, but it's actually not named after Stonewall Jackson, and therefore not Presidential. So, I decided I didn't need to do it. I woke up on the morning of Day 4 and thought "why not try?"

I had talked to a couple of people about the trails. The trail from the hut to Jackson was supposed to be really nice, and the trail from the hut down was nice. But, the trail from Jackson down is hard and steep. So, I decided I would hike over the Jackson with just my day pack, then go back to the hut and down. It didn't make sense in terms of miles, but it sounded like the easier route. And, I was excited with the idea of hiking with just a day pack! I had eaten some of the weight from my backpack, but still it was heavy.

So, only Jackson (elevation 4052) was on the agenda for the day. I was thinking I might regret doing it later, but I came to do six peaks that I hadn't done, and so I wanted to get the last one. I was so glad I did, I think Jackson was my favorite one! It was 1.6 miles from Mizpah to Jackson, most of it through mossy pine forest. Several places in the trail had logs to walk on, and were so easy to walk! There was more down hill to get to Jackson than up, I think!  There was only one point I wasn't really happy - I came to a clearing in the woods and saw what I knew must be Jackson. It looked so tall and far away, I was questioning my decision. But then it turned out not to be that much further or that hard to get to the top.

The view from the top was amazing! You could see most of the Presidential range. I was so psyched because I was looking at what I had hiked, and I was really happy that I had done it all when it had been so hard. I sat on top for a long time, eating the last of the gummy bears and jelly beans, and feeling satisfied and hard core.

One thing that's funny about hiking is that you can see almost no one while hiking, but on the top of a mountain you are almost never alone. When I got to the summit of Jackson there was a thru hiker there who was asking me what the weather was supposed to be like, and how was the trail? He was headed towards Washington that day, and he didn't really seem that psyched about it. Washington was under clouds, and he was really sad when I said you can always tell Washington because of the antenna on top. - he had thought Monroe was Washington. There was also this couple that came up - very nice people. But the guy was telling me how he met some "really old" dude hiking. I mean, really old, "like maybe 47!" Sigh. I just laughed, but I wanted to say "and he doesn't need a walker?"

When I had my fill of the awesome view, and the awesome feeling of having made it the whole way, I headed back to the hut. The trip back seemed even shorter. I got back at 11:30 ish. Packed everything up, refilled my water, had a last bowl of soup and piece of bread, and headed out for the last 2.6 miles.  The first part of the hike was more mossy pine forest. Really pretty! It got steep for a little bit, and the rocks were slippery. I also realized that Jackson may have been my favorite because I was just carrying my day pack, it was hard putting on the big pack (which at some point I named Brutus) again!  By the time I got about half way down I could tell I had blisters on my feet. At the end, they were killing me!  I was still glad that I had done Jackson, but I was so excited to see the parking lot and my car. I had a huge blister on the ball and big toe of my right foot, and on the big toe of the left foot. Also on the little toe. I don't know what was up with that - it's not like they were new boots. First thing I did was change to flip flops.

I drove over to a vending area and got ice cream and two beverage for the drive home. I really smelled, and I was not sure this was the best decision, as I would need to stop then, but I did it anyhow.  It was a pretty amazing feeling sitting outside eating my ice cream - that was a tough hike, but I did it!!

It took me about 2.5 hours to drive home. I unpacked, showered and ate. Then I went to bed at 9. I woke up this morning and this coughing and wheezing that I'd been having during the hike was much worse - so bad that I went to the Minute Clinic and the nurse practitioner gave me a prescription cough med and an inhaler.  So, it seems I either was sick or made myself sick - or made myself sicker??

Presidential Traverse - Day 3

Day 3 started with me waking up in my bunk in Lake of the Clouds (I crawled back in from the floor at dawn) with a strange dude curled up next to me. Lake of the Clouds is the biggest hut, and there were a ton of people there. I think it sleeps 96, and then there were also about 20-30 thru hikers sleeping on the floor in the main room. It was an interesting culture, actually, because paid guests got first dibs on the food, and then I think the thru hikers could help with dishes for left overs. So, they were all sitting around waiting for us to eat, kind of like the poor step-children. Except, they were way cooler than us - I mean, they are thru hiking!

Breakfast again was delicious - coffee, oatmeal, pancakes, eggs and bacon. I ate a lot, knowing it was going to be another big day. On the agenda for the day: Monroe (elevation 5372), Eisenhower (elevation 4760) and Pierce (elevation 4310). I have done Pierce before, but there isn't a trail around it, so I was going over it again. The other two were optional. But, Monroe was practically at the door of the hut, so it could be done right away. Eisenhower was a little further, but the croo guy described it as such a nice mountain - it used to be called Mt. Pleasant, that I didn't want to bypass it. I set out at about 8 am feeling amazingly refreshed.

Monroe was a pretty tough one. It was another pile of rocks. But, it was only .3 mile and 360 feet elevation gain. Everyone had started out at pretty much the same time from Lake of the Clouds, so there were a fair number of people up there. The wind had died down even more and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! You could see Mt Washington perfectly, and the valley. It was gorgeous. I admired for a few minutes, and felt happy that I had done the hardest mountain of the day and it only took me about a half hour! I took a short rest to admire the view, but I wanted to keep moving.

After Monroe it was more than 1.2 miles to the turn off for Eisenhower. The trail was a lot easier, though. The AT here is the Crawford Path, which is the oldest maintained trail in the US (I think). Anyhow, it's been around for a while, and it's a little less rocky than some of the NH hikes, which is to say that you can see dirt sometimes. There was a lot of downhill, since everything goes down from Washington.  By the time I got to Eisenhower I was feeling pretty tired again and I promised myself a long rest on the top. Eisenhower seemed even bigger than Monroe, though it's not. The top was every bit as wonderful as promised by the croo guy. I spent a half hour up there, admiring the view, eating a power bar, and gummy bears and jelly beans. I was pretty psyched because it was only 1:30 ish, and I was about half way - once I got down the mountain I only had 2 miles to the next hut, Mizpah.

Once I got down Eisenhower, it was 1.2 miles again to the next mountain, Pierce. It started feeling like I was getting lower in terms of elevation at this point. There were a few scrub pines and the brush was a little thicker. I stopped at the sweetest mossy glen to refill my water.  It was really nice there! Soon I started going up again, and I could tell that I was on Pierce. It was actually the easiest of the climbs, so I was glad that I didn't have the option to go around it - I probably would have, but for no reason. It wasn't that hard to get up, and there was a nice view of where I had come from. The top of the mountain didn't really have any view, so I just touched the marker and kept going. I was eager to get to the next hut and stop hiking - I could tell I had a blister on one of my toes.

The .9 mile down Pierce to Mizpah hut was pretty steep, compounded with being pretty wet. It was slow going for me. There were a few places that had ladders, it was so steep!  My feet started hurting at this point, as they always do on the downhill. Mizpah is below tree line, and after two + days above it was nice to go down a little. There were a lot of really pretty mossy glens and pine trees, tons of mushrooms. It seemed to take forever to get to the hut - but then suddenly there was a clearing in the woods and there it was!

I think Mizpah was my favorite hut. Bunks were roomy and the weather was so nice, I could sit outside with my book. My Kalamazoo friends had arrived a couple hours before me (they went around Monroe and Eisenhower), and I chatted with them for a while. I also had a delicious slice of bread and soaked my feet in the stream from the spring. Dinner was pork tacos, bread, bean soup and a cake with cream cheese frosting.

Before dinner two of the Croo Kids came out and chatted with a bunch of us. They were showing us the pack boards that they use to carry all the perishable foods and supplies up to the hut - they have regular drops by helicopter apparently, but some stuff they bring in. They regularly carry 60-80 pounds up the trails, and some people have carried 100 pounds (a century). Everyone carries the same, gals and guys. The boards are wood and they last for like 20 years - the woman said that you get attached to your board during the season, since it's so hard to pack. The packs don't have waist straps in case they trip, they can eject. If you are on the croo you need to pack food up hills, cook for a group of about 60-100, check people in, stir compost, hopefully clean pillowcases, clean bathrooms, understand how the solar power works - it's a diverse skill set. It sounds like they hire based on personality type - they want outgoing, high energy people.

After dinner I read in bed for a little bit and then fell asleep around 9. The guy across from me snored like crazy, but still I slept really well!

Presidential Traverse - Day 2

Day 2's agenda was Madison Spring Hut to Lake of the Clouds Hut, with three summits on the way. Initially I had planned to already have Madison done, but given the weather that was still on my to-do list. So, I had Madison (elevation 5367), Adams (elevation 5793), Jefferson (elevation 5712) and Washington (elevation 6288). I decided I would see how things went, but since I already had done Washington, and didn't love it (it's a parking lot on top and a lot of people in flip flops who drove up, taking pics of themselves at the Mt. Washington sign) I could possibly skip that if necessary.

Breakfast at the hut was coffee, oatmeal, pancakes, bacon and eggs. I ate some of each, one thing I love about hiking :) I left my pack in the hut and did Madison. It was only .5 mile up, but it still took more than 45 minutes because of all of the elevation gain and because, though the wind had died down a lot, it was still pretty windy up there.  Things had cleared up and I had a nice view, but I also had a long way to go, so I didn't say up top for long. I went back to the hut, got my gear (with everything in my pack at home it weighed about 30 pounds) and headed out.  Adams was next, and pretty close to the hut.

I will say for the record that I am not a fan of Adams. It is a giant heap of rocks which requires hopping from rock to rock, scrambling, and a lot of picking your way. For someone who's more like a mountain goat I'm sure it would be fun, but for me it was a lot of work. From the hut it was .9 miles with 950 feet of elevation gain. As I was sitting on the top, enjoying the view and having a snack, this guy came running up. He had run all the way up from the parking lot in an hour and 49 minutes!  It took me almost that long from Madison Spring.

After a little rest I headed down the other side of the mountain to the AT. Once I got down I had a rather depressing moment because there was a sign that said "Madison Spring Hut .9 mile." And I had already been hiking for like 3 hours! I decided right there that Washington was probably not going to happen, and headed off. It's 1.2 miles of gradual uphill from Adams to Jefferson. It seemed to take forever! It was super windy and very rocky on the trail. I was pretty psyched to get to the turn off for Jefferson and head up. Jefferson was also a pretty tough climb, but definitely easier than Adams. It's cool when you come to the top of a mountain and a whole new side of the mountain range is suddenly there!

I had packed a "bag of sugar" before I left - jelly beans, gummy bears, and swedish fish, and I enjoyed sitting up top and eating for a while.  I couldn't rest for too long, though, because even with going around Washington I still had 3.5 miles to go, and it was like 2:00! Dinner at the huts is at 6:00, and I didn't want to miss the bread course.

I was so glad I decided to go around Washington. I was really tired and moving pretty slowly. In fact, at one point I was thinking I could hike up to Washington the next day and take the Cog Railway down, and then the hiker's shuttle to the car!  Serious dark trail thoughts.

Later, I was sitting at the side of a spring, filtering water, when this woman came by. We were chatting and I asked her where she came from - "Georgia." I had meant that morning, but wow! Thru hiking is hard core.

The trail I took went under the Cog, and as I was walking there was a train going up and the engineer and I waved at each other.  It was really nice, and the path was kind of fun - it was all rocks. but I had gotten my trail legs a little, and they were pretty flat and well organized, so I was moving pretty well, hopping from rock to rock. It was reasonably flat, and I was moving fast for me.

When I got my first sight of Lake of the Clouds, I was #1 really excited and #2 a little bummed because it was so far away. It took forever to reach after I had seen it. I mean, forever! And, at the end, I really really had to pee, and I didn't want to outside because there was water everywhere and I figured it all went to the hut's water (though I guess my little bit of pee wouldn't really have been that big of a deal). I was so happy to get there!  It was 6:30 - I went to the bathroom (where I noticed that my hair had blown in one direction so much from the wind that I looked pretty ridiculous) and then one of the nice Croo kids brought me a bowl of soup and some bread, and I was still on time for the rest of the meal :)

Lake of the Clouds was amazing! The lake was gorgeous, the sunset amazing, there were a ton of through hikers staying there. I talked to this guy named Kimosape, who was saying how much of a mental game hiking is. Yup, that's true.  I asked one of the croo about the hike the next day - I was like "today kind of kicked my butt. Will tomorrow be as hard?" and he said, "if it kicked your butt, you were doing it right." and that no, it wouldn't be that hard. So, I decided not to take the Cog down :)  Also, my buddies from Kalamazoo had gotten there a few hours before me, but they didn't do any of the summits. The woman said that she had been watching to make sure I got there - very sweet.

One down point of Lake of the Clouds - when I went to my room, I was a little scared of the bunk - since I was the last one there I got last choice in beds and I was on the bottom of three bunks. My bed was basically on the floor and the next bunk was so low you couldn't sit up in it. It was pushed up next to another bed and my "bed mate" was some dude. I woke up at midnight feeling claustrophobic and crawled out of the bed and slept on the floor next to it, where someone from level 2 stepped on me at 3 am going to the bathroom :P