Mt. Jefferson via Caps Ridge

It's been a while since I was up on the rock pile - I forgot how hard those hikes are! Caps Ridge is the highest trailhead in the white mountains - the out and back is only five miles, but that's so deceptive! It's 2700 feet of elevation gain, almost 2000 of those feet in the last mile and a half, which is intense. I did the hike yesterday and today I'm totally wiped.

I got a nice early start - I woke up at 5:30, was out the door by 5:50 and at the trailhead at around 9. It's actually only a 2 1/2 hour drive up there (for some reason I always think of it as longer) but I had to stop a couple times - first at the rest stop and then at the base of Washington at the start of the cog. Anyhow, I started hiking at 9:15, which was pretty good! The first .9 mile of the trail was really enjoyable - it went though a nice pine forest and was uphill, but not killer. I was feeling good and really enjoyed it. There's a viewpoint at .9 mile and I stopped to look at what was to come, including the three "caps" which are scrambly rock faces. I actually chose the hike for the caps - it's on the terrifying 25, though, spoiler alert, I didn't find them at all terrifying. After the viewpoint things started to get real.

The forest quickly gave way to the little shrubs that are only ankle high, and you could start to see the view. Even from the lower point on the trail it was amazing, and every time that I stopped to catch my breath I turned around to admire behind me, and then looked over to Washington where I could see the road up to the top. Every now and then I could hear the cog railway - apparently someone hurt his ankle and was rescued and brought down on the cog while I was hiking. Anyhow, out of the treeline the trail looked like this for some of the way:

Which is just kind of silly and not really a trail. It didn't take long to get to the first of the caps, which I thought was the most scrambly - I actually put my hiking poles away so I could use hands and feet to get up. The rock was pretty rough so there were plenty of footholds and I didn't find the climbing part hard, in fact I quite enjoyed it.

But it was just relentless! I think it was maybe my slowest hike ever. And, instead of playing the "50 steps game" where I take 50 steps and then rest, I played the "Let's not have a heart attack on the mountain" game, where I tried to keep my heartbeat below 155. 

Although it wasn't that hot out I still somehow was sweating buckets and wound up feeling pretty dehydrated even though I was drinking water the whole way. I started feeling a little nauseous, which didn't help the situation. Even though I brought some electrolytes that I drank at the top my mouth was still dry. In retrospect I think that I should have brought more salt, probably in potato chip form - the salt that I brought was mixed nuts, but from whole foods, so of course they were lightly salted.

Anyhow, once you complete the caps you still have a ways to go to get to the top. It was a lot of rock scrambling, which I enjoyed but again was exhausting. As you go up there is a false summit, which would have made me want to cry if I had any water left for tears. Anyhow, I finally got to the top and just sat for a few minutes catching my breath and enjoying the view. It's stunning up there, and so incredible to look down at the valley. From the top of the peak you can see lake of the clouds hut - there was a big group that was headed there. I sat up top for about 45 minutes, enjoying the breeze and eating a little of the sandwich I brought (a really amazing egg bread with cheese and avocado).

I knew that the hike down was going to be no easier because of all the rocks and scrambles, so reluctantly I eventually got up and headed down the mountain, again thinking about the ephemeral nature of hiking. I really enjoyed the rock hopping up top, using my parkour skills and trusting my feet. There were a few times I needed to scootch, especially once I got to the caps again. I started feeling really tired around the caps, and that was slow going, with a lot of using my butt as a 5th limb (I wore my hiking tights that I had torn a hole in before, and tore the seam wide open so my underware was showing most of the way down, which was pretty awesome. Every time someone came along I tried to turn so my butt was to the trees, but I couldn't really prevent people who were passing me from getting a view.)

I was so happy when I got back to the viewpoint rock, and from there the hike was a bit faster, though my legs were exhausted so I couldn't move super fast. For most of the way down I was dreaming of potato chips and a gatorade, and I decided to go to the cog station to get them because it was Sunday evening and I thought some of the stores might be closed. I tied my puff around my waist and headed inside, only to find out the cafeteria was closed - so tragic! Fortunately there was a little store downstairs where I bought an energy drink, chips and one of those disgusting uncrustable pb&j's that tasted so amazing. I changed, cleaned up a little and then drove on home - I got home around 8, took a shower, foam rolled, and went to bed.

Holt Trail

We finally got a break in the heat - though it's still warm out it's not 100, so I headed off to Mt. Cardigan to do the Holt trail again. A friend and I have been talking about hiking Huntington's Ravine up Mt Washington, so I thought this would be a good prep hike. It was a lot of fun, but also pretty exhausting.

I meant to get up early and get out early and beat traffic and blah blah blah, which totally didn't happen. I left around 9:30, drove up without stopping and got there a little before 11:30, used the bathroom and headed out. The first mile or so of the trail is very chill, it starts on a dirt road and then goes up a pretty easy path. You go over this bridge and then things start getting real. Soon you come to the first crack of the slabby parts - the spot where the guy climbed over me 6 years ago - and the fun begins. I feel like this crack is the second hardest of the slabby bits. It's not that hard, but there was one place where I had to think about where to put my feet. Still, I enjoyed it and was excited to head up the rest of the slab.

This time I remembered that the relentless uphill continues after the first slab. It's not just slab connected by trail, it's slab connected by slab. Most of them are pretty fun, like this one below has some good spots to grab and put your feet.

This one, though is the last one by the top, and it's the spot that I struggled on the first time and accidentally bypassed the second time. This time I tried it a different way, going up towards the left, but then over to the right to the little flake and then traversing to the left over the bit of rock that gave me trouble the first time. Well, I made it successfully, there were no casualties, and no injuries, but there were definitely a few moments up by the top where I decided to not look down and not think about what would happen if I slipped. It was definitely a no-fall zone. Fortunately I didn't fall - I got to the side safely and let out a big sigh. 

I feel like it was still pretty hot out there, even though the heat wave is over. By the time I got to the top of the mountain I was feeling pretty pooped. During the last bit I had to take a lot of breaks to breathe and rest. I was so glad to see the tower at the top. I made myself do the last little bit of uphill and then sat in the shade of the tower for a bit eating. Unfortunately, although I had only seen one person that day (a woman who decided to go down Holt for whatever reason) of course there were a million people up top, including a noisy family with a pretty young kid singing pink pony club. As soon as I was feeling cooler I moved over to another section of rock and ate a bagel with peanut butter and some of my home made raspberry jam. It was delicious!

I had planned to go over to firescrew and down from there, but I was feeling hot and tired, and decided I was better off going down a faster way on clark trail, which is what I did. I actually really liked that trail - it started with some slabby parts, then went into the woods on some nice trails, and the joined up with Holt before all the craziness begins, so I didn't have to down climb any of it. I got back to my car and I was so hot and gross, I figured that if I went into the lodge and cleaned up I would be sweaty again in seconds because my car was so hot, so I just headed out. It's always a little tricky there because no GPS, but I'm getting the hang of it and only made one small wrong turn. I stopped at a gas station and got gaiter-aid and some super salty chips, and chowed down in the car on the drive home. I was so hungry!

Given that it was the end of the long weekend I was worried about traffic, but actually it wasn't that bad. It took about 2 hours to get home. I took a shower, ate some watermelon and ice cream (that's a healthy dinner, right?) and have been on the couch since. So glad I didn't do the hike during the heat wave - it was kind of slow going, but fine. All trails still thinks I went 5 miles, but it was less because I took a different route down. It was a little slower than the last time I did it due to the heat, but I'm OK with that. 

Established an outdoor exercise temp range

We are in the middle of a heat wave - I mean, even hotter than NOLA today! Yesterday when I went rowing it was 98 with a feels like of 104, today it was 99 with a feels like of 107, which is just a silly temperature for going outside to exercise. So, my range for outdoor exercise is 11 degrees/feels like -4 to 99 degrees/feels like 107. 

After my trip to NOLA I came back and was feeling kind of cruddy, I slept a lot on Sunday and just couldn't get myself to do anything, and then wound up with a migraine that went until Tuesday - fortunately not a killer one, but uncomfortable and tiring. So, I had to miss Monday rowing. Yesterday I was questioning my judgement in planning to go rowing, but I had missed a week and didn't want to miss more. And it turned out to be just fine - we went up river to where we were in the shade and there was a breeze. I was still soaked with sweat when we finished, but I felt fine at least. Tired, but fine.

Today there was a lot of discussion about rowing, and if we should in the heat. Coach sent out a poll and asked if we wanted to practice - he said it would be a really technical practice. I thought that would be really good for me, and also I had been inside all day and just wanted to get out and move, so I said yes. We wound up with 16 of us, plus 2 coxes and 2 coaches. Today's workout was really hard. Everyone was hot and cranky. We got stuck with the coach who is usually cranky anyhow, and so she was extra cranky. And it was clear that the cox isn't a fan, because coach was saying to do one thing and the cox was saying to do something else and they were just arguing back and forth and it was really stressful. And then the woman who was behind me was talking to herself really loud, and I couldn't decide if she meant for me or for her - it turned out sometimes both. 

There were also all these boaters out and so we had to go close to shore, and then the rudder got covered in seaweed and the cox couldn't use it to steer, so she asked me to stop rowing. But then the coach came over and was like "why isn't she rowing??" It was a thing. Also, we didn't do all the technical drills. We rowed almost 5.5 K, which is less than we usually do, but not nothing. I think 107 may be my limit - if it gets hotter I may not go. Although now that I'm back on my couch I'm glad I went.

After I went to my garden and gave everything a good watering. This plant showed up and it turns out it's camomile, and so I've been cutting the flowers for tea. The amazing thing is that the more you cut, the more they grow.  I think my raspberry run is over, but so many berries this year! I will be eating jam until spring :)

Conference but in a fun place

In 2020 our annual conference was supposed to be in New Orleans, but of course then COVID happened and it was cancelled. This year we finally got our NOLA conference - it was my first trip there and for the most part I really enjoyed it. I went with one of my coworkers, who got there first, and was like "it's a feels-like of 104" which is pretty insane. It was like that most of the time there. I'd known it was going to be hot, but it was HOT. Which limited how much I got out of the hotel. I was pretty psyched when I got my hotel room because I had a view of the Mississippi river right at Algiers Point, which is the deepest part of the entire river. It's also super tricky to navigate, and there are no pleasure boats on it, just working boats or big tour boats.

Anyhow, conferencing was fine. I learned some good stuff. But the food! It was soooo good. I ate my mandatory crayfish, bread pudding and beignets. All delicious. My coworker asked the uber driver for restaurant recommendations, and so we went to this place that was a little outside the city called Katies, where the special was a massive plate of crayfish for $20, which I got. It was not at all graceful to eat them, but so delicious. After we went to this jazz club called the Spotted Cat (because where else would a cat lady go?) and the music was so good. It was really fun just being in a jazz bar in NOLA. The band was selling tshirts because it's kind of a gig economy, so to help them out I got one :)

The next day my coworker went home and I walked to the original Cafe Dumont for my mandatory beignets, which were delicious. The cafe was outside, covered and with fans, but still so hot. I tried to walk around a little, but it was a feels like of 99, which was impossible for me. So I went back to my hotel room and watched the boats on the river for like 3 hours. I now know a lot more about boating in NOLA because I googled a lot of stuff while I was sitting there. Anyhow, it's nice to be home on my couch again, but glad that I had the chance to go! (Oh, and my upstairs neighbor looked in on the cats and Tigger didn't throw up once! Or she cleaned it up.)

Rainy row and raspberries

I pride myself on being weatherproof, and today was a good test of that. As I headed out to rowing the sky opened up and it rained. When I got to rowing, everyone was inside the garage there, and each person who came in was running and totally soaked. We stood around for a while, not sure if we were going to get out there, but after about 15 minutes coach said that it actually wasn't really windy, just raining. And we row in the rain. So, out we went. We were all immediately soaked and a little chilled, so there was no warm up, it was just 45 minutes of rowing back and forth in the area by the dock. We are finally set and not down to starboard, which is awesome. I'm still in the 2 seat, which I'm just fine with. There were a million blue herons, and at the end of the row there was this amazing rainbow. After I came home and took a shower, and it was so nice to be warm and dry when I was done.

My raspberries have gone crazy! I was at the garden over the weekend and they were starting to ripen. When I went back a couple of days ago there were so many that I had to go to star market and get a container to put them in - I got a 9 cup tupperware and filled it more than half way. And then I went back today with a different container and filled that. I bet I have about 10 cups of raspberries. It's so much - I think I'm going to have to make jam.

Mt. Paugus

I've been kind of cranky lately and thought a good hike might help - I think it did! A friend of mine did Mt. Paugus recently and really loved it. It's one of the 52 with a view, it's 8 miles long and 2500 feet elevation gain - so a solid hike but not killer, and it's a 2 hr 20 minute drive each way, which is a lot but not so bad. So, I decided to check it out.

For some weird reason I woke up a little before 5 am. On a normal day I guess I would have just gone back to sleep, but today I was ready, got up, and left a little after 5. I've been listening to hamnet, and that made the ride go so much faster. Before I knew it I was up there. I stopped for gas, so by the time I parked it was a little after 7:30, which I guess is the time everyone gets there? So many cars arrived right around the same time as me - I was worried. I also thought I had been there before, and I had - it's also the start of Passaconaway. I was so relieved to realize everyone else was hiking a different mountain. Anyhow, after a stop in what has to have been the cleanest portapotty ever, changing boots and being a little OCD I started off. 

It was a beautiful bluebird day - nice and cool in the morning, though it kept getting warmer throughout the day. The hike I did had a loop option, which I did going up Kelly and down old Mast road (which I felt was the right way to do it). The loop was about half the hike, there was a little bit at the start that was combined, and the last 2 miles or so are both on the same path. The walk up Kelly was so nice - it was a steady uphill, but not so hard that it was exhausting or anything. There was a creek next to the trail, everything was super green, the trail didn't have a ton of boulders on it, and the light was coming through the trees and looking shiny. For most of the hike up the trail lulled me into a false sense of security that it was going to be pretty moderate - ha! The last mile or so was pretty tough - I was getting hungry also, and so it just seemed to take forever. The worst moment of the hike was when I realized that although it was 8.1 miles, it is a loop, so that means it could be more than 4.05 miles up. Anyhow, I got up to the top and, although I had only seen one other person that day, there were three people and a very nice dog up there. And like a million bugs. I sat where they had been sitting, and it was really nice (except for the bugs), but I think I may have missed the nice view. Dope. I think I need to get the 52 with a view book if I'm going to do the rest of them, which I think I may.

I had a cheese and avocado sandwich on the delicious bread from bread obsession and an apple. But it was so buggy that I only wound up sitting up top for about 20 minutes. Which I knew might happen, so I was prepared to not be upset about it, which I wasn't. 

I thought the way down was going to be hard because I was kind of dying on the way up, but it was actually really nice. There were a few rocky areas, but for the most part it was all a dirt path, and it had switchbacks. The one down side to it was that there were 500 feet of elevation gain on the way down because the trail goes over a little peak. I thought that was going to suck, and it did. I was so glad when I was done with it. The way down was nice too, but I think I liked the way up more. 

I got back to my car and it was so so hot. I realized that it actually was pretty warm out. Which I should have know because I was sweating like a pig, and really grose. Anyhow, with all the bugs I turned the car on and the ac on and let it run while I changed my shoes and such outside with the door closed. By the drive back I was starting to get tired and stressed about the other drivers, but I bought some energy drink and a snack and held it together until I got home. Two thumbs up, would recommend!

Saving lives

I've done the Charles River swim three times now, and liked it less and less each time. The thing is that you have to swim a mile, and that's far for me. But they do have really nice tshirts. So, this year I signed up to volunteer on the safety team as a kayaker. And I rescued someone!

The hardest part of the volunteering was that you were meant to arrive at 6:30 am, which is really early for me. I just got a new folding bike (yay!) and so the plan was to ride the bike to the hatchshell instead of driving since it would take about the same and cost way less. Surprisingly I actually woke up at 5:30 and was ready to get up, so it wasn't that hard to leave at 6:10 and get there at 6:30. It's so much nicer than riding a blue bike - they are very convenient, but super clunky and heavy.

I was assigned to share a kayak with a lifeguard, and when I saw her standing on the dock I went over and introduced myself. We stood around together waiting for the safety briefing, but not really talking because it was just about 7 am. Then they took us by boat to where the kayaks are (I thought they were across the river, but actually they were at the community sailing place right next door). For some reason, though, I wound up switched out of the boat with the nice quiet lifeguard and being put in one with this other woman. We got in our kayak and instead of using her kayak paddle like a kayak paddle, she used it as a canoe paddle, doing 5 strokes or so per side before switching to the other side (Yes, I counted, because I was so surprised). So, of course we were zig zagging along, and then occasionally she would stick her oar in the water to steer. In my head I was like "and this is why I don't do team sports."

Anyhow, we got set up in our zone and soon the swimmers were off. The ones in front were so fast! It was amazing. And soon the big group was coming through. We were sitting and watching everyone when I spotted a swimmer just hanging out and yelling for help. And we were off - fortunately we were supposed to raise a paddle to get the attention of the safety boat, so I told the woman to hold her paddle up while I rowed. At one point she was bringing it down and I was like "lift it back up" because the last thing I wanted when someone was struggling was for her to take us zig zagging around. But then she was all "you are going too fast, you are going to hit her!" and slowing us down (I was not going to hit her, and even if I came close to her it would be better than having her drown). Anyhow, the woman was OK, she just had a cramp and wasn't feeling well. She grabbed onto the side of the kayak while the rescue boat came over. Another woman who was just tired of swimming but looked fine got in with her. So that was my save :)

A friend of mine was swimming and she was near the end of the pack. I found her and she was going a little off course - I wanted to spot her in, because there were plenty of extra kayakers so we could do that, but of course Ms. ZigZag couldn't help with that. I was so glad to get back to the paddle place and get out of that boat with her.

After my friend took me to Burlington because my car was in the shop there and she doesn't live that far away. But then it turned out that although it was about noon, my car wasn't going to be ready until like 4. It was really hot out and I didn't want to waste my Saturday, so I decided to ride the 12.5 miles home. I questioned my life choices for a bit, but actually it wasn't that bad - I had been thinking I would bike out to get my car, but decided not to because it was so uphill. But the way home was mostly downhill, which was awesome. Today I'm pooped.