Whiteface fail(-ish)

Even though it's been hot and humid out, I really wanted to get a good hike in - I took Thursday and Friday off because I needed a nice long weekend. Today was the better weather day, so it was my hiking day! I debated what to hike with Washington, Tom/Field/Willey, Moosilauke and Whiteface all in the mix. In the end, I decided I wanted to go for the ledges, and the slightly shorter elevation and distance. Unfortunately, there were a few fails.

First, I headed out the door, feeling like it was too easy and I was forgetting something. About half way there, I realized that I forgot my hiking boots! I spent a little while trying to decide what to do - hike in my Chacos (bad idea), go home (waste of a good hiking day), go to the North Conway REI and buy new ones (my old hiking boots are getting worn down anyhow). Bingo! Of course, it added almost two hours to my drive up because I had to go 40 minutes past the mountain, try on all these shoes, listen to the chatty salesman (an look at a picture of his son - what??), pee, and then drive back to the trailhead. Buy the time I got there, it was almost noon - pretty late to start a 4000 footer, but it's a shorter one, and it's still getting dark late.

I headed out at 12:08 and had a lovely start to the hike. It's one of those hikes where you have a steady but gentle uphill for the first mile, then a more rigorous slope for another mile-ish. And then you pretty much go straight up the mountain. I took the blueberry ledge trail, which I loved at the bottom - slabby and wild blueberries that were in bloom. I had a few for snack. Someone had spent a lot of time on trail work, because the steep uphill had a lot of really nice stairs. I started out strong, but then, after about 45 minutes, started to fade on the uphill. Since I started later, I hadn't really timed eating right, and I was starving! I stopped and ate some Pringles - not the most nutritious, but lots of salt and calories. By this time I was sweating like a pig! My shirt was totally soaked, my shorts were wet, when I took my backpack off, the straps were wet! It was so gross. I was drinking water like crazy, and still thirsty. 

After my Pringles break, I continued. According to my Fitbit, I went up for about 3 hours. I did the fun climbing bits. But, I was so tired and hot! At one point I sat down and realized that my legs were wet and shaking. Yikes! I thought I was almost at the top, so I pressed on further, but then realized that the top was still a little ways, and that I had to sit down and eat. Fortunately there was a lovely viewpoint - I sat and had some water and slowly at a half a cheese sandwich on challah and a half a power bar. Even that didn't feel delicious, and I decided that this was my peek. A few minutes later a family that passed me said it was only like 20 minutes to the top, but I decided that at the rate I was going that would be at least a half hour up, and then I would have to go down as well. So, I made the decision to turn back. No fun, but also I didn't want to end up with a migraine.

The way down was so much quicker and easier. Eating gave me new energy, of course, but also I was able to use my ninja parkour on the way down. Having all the nice steps helped - the steepest parts were actually quite quick. I took a couple stops on the way down to admire the view and to eat an apple, but still it took 2 and a half hours total down, probably a little more than 2 hours walking. And, it was totally fun!

When I got back to my car I changed back into my Chacos and walked into a stream that I saw at the start of the hike to try to get my feet to de-swell a little. The shoes that I bought are trail runners - they are so light! I'm not sure they are enough padding though. I'm going to try them in the Fells and see how they work there - I really don't need boots there, but something more than sneakers would be nice. I tried on this other pair of boots that I didn't wind up getting because they had such thick soles, I felt like I was on platforms and wondered why they would do that. But then I realized that it would be good padding for the knees... I can bring the shoes back for up to a year, so I will give them another test with insoles.

So, not a perfect success, but way better than a day at the "office!"

Garfield, with parkour

Last night I looked at the weather in New Hampshire, and it looked really nice. Covid cases are low here, and so I decided last minute to head up and hike Garfield! I hiked Garfield once before, by myself in November 2016. That time the mountain was in the clouds, it was cold and windy up top, and I ate standing up - huddled in a grove of trees. It took me 4 hours up and 3 hours back down. I wore my micro spikes at the top. Today was much better!

I woke up on my own at 6 am, and was shocked because I never wake up that early. I decided to go back to sleep for an hour, though, because I wanted to be well rested. I got up at 7:15 (that's not an hour of extra sleep is it? But whatever) I was out the door at 7:30 and at the mountain at 10. I knew it was going to be crowded, and it was. I had to park a 5 minute walk from the trailhead - I hate it when I have to walk to my hike :). Seriously, that's probably an extra almost half mile there and back, on top of 10 miles hiking...

So, the things that were better was there was a beautiful view, the weather was good and I sat up there for almost an hour, eating and looking at the mountains and thinking how I had hiked all of the big ones... It was a little breezy and sunny, with pretty clouds, and right before I left, someone flew overhead in a glider. Also, even though I was doing crossfit then, and I certainly don't now, I did the hike faster! It took me 3 hrs and 15 min up and 2 hrs and 30 min down! So, I went from 7 hrs to 5 hrs, 45 min! Of course, I did get to sit up top and rest, which made a huge difference on my hike down...


On the way down especially, I used my parkour skills that I've been gaining to trust my feet and use gravity. Garfield was a good mountain to do this, because it's an out-and-back, 10 miles total, but only the last .2 mile is steep, the rest is pretty gradual, and it has switchbacks! Also, there are rocks, but you can see the ground some. So, it gave me a good chance to practice planning steps and using gravity. And, I was much better at it! Also, there are three stream crossings, which I used my poles to get across last time, but this time I just rock hopped and it was totally fine!

As I was going down, I saw this guy with his face against a tree, standing there with two girls and a dog. I was like "are you OK" and he said he was fine. Soon he passed me, and was like "thanks for making sure I was OK" and we wound up passing each other several times down the trail. It was kind of nice.

When I got back to my car my entire body was wet with sweat, and I ate a power bar pretty much without stopping. I drove straight home, fed the cats, made pizza dough, took a shower, cooked pizza, and ate the entire thing!

PS. That's Owl's Head in the photo to the left!

Ran a mile!

Actually, 1.1 miles, which I did in about 12 minutes, which is about a 10 min, 40 sec mile, which is way faster than it felt. It felt seriously slow. It may have been slower, but we are going to pretend. I was talking to one of my coworkers today, and she said that she runs two miles a day, but she use to do one mile a day. And I thought, I could run one mile a day - say 3 days a week. I mean, I wouldn't enjoy it, but also it wouldn't take that long and I could do it. So, we will see if I can. Day 1, check!

I have been doing virtual parkour, and it's so fun! On Monday we played "The Floor is Lava" or, as my brother and I used to call it "Keep Off the Floor." We were much more organized about it than my brother and I used to be, we started by planning one step - which for me was stepping onto a yoga block on the second highest setting (because I did yoga class right before - go me!). At first I could just picture the block turning over and me falling and a sprained ankle and not being able to exercise for months; but then when I continued to do it, it was actually fine. Then we added another step, which I did stepping onto my ottoman. Then we added more - I just got a new dining room table, and I had taken the legs off my Ikea table, and they turned out to be perfect parkour props. They are still lying on the floor in the living room so I can walk on them. The cool thing was that every time I tried a new thing I thought I wouldn't be able to do it, and I thought about getting rid of the yoga block, but by the end of the class it wasn't so hard!

I actually got my mom and dad's dining room table and chairs because my mom is moving to an assisted living floor. It's really weird going through her things and dividing stuff up when she is still here, it feels intrusive. And, since we are taking stuff, it sort of feels like we are stealing from her. (In fact, I told some people that my sister and I were stealing my mom's stuff, though of course it's not really true, it was always meant to come to us.) With the quarantine, we aren't able to visit her and we have to wear masks around each other, which is also weird.

I also got a nice computer chair, which I didn't realize I needed - but now that I've been using it my back is feeling so amazing - I didn't realize that it was killing me because of the chair! One of my cats, Tigger, had been coming over to me before and scratching and meowing, but I didn't know what she wanted - it turns out that she wanted her own seat! Now that I have cushioned chairs, she comes and naps next to me in the morning while I work.