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.

Parkour Lockdown Challenge

I finally joined parkour - they have a $75 per month online membership which isn't a bad deal. They have noon workouts every day, and then geriatric evening classes Monday and Thursday. If I do 2 noon classes a week, and one geriatric evening class, that's $6 ish per class. I'm feeling so out of shape, I needed to do something!

Thursday I did my first evening class - there were only 3 of us there, and 2 instructors :). It was pretty fun, some jumping exercises. Our parking lot is being repaved, and no one is back there, so I did it outside. Today I did an hour and a half class, which reminded me a lot of crossfit. And of how out of shape I am. We did a 10 minute AMRAP that included 12 crunches (where your feet and head never touch down), 6 high plank-to low plank-to high planks, and then 3 burpees (one can never get away from burpees!) I did almost 5 rounds in 10 minutes, but I had to put my knees down on the planks after the first one. Then we did EMOM plank jumping jacks, which I can't do because of my toe, so I just planked. We started at 15 in a minute, then added one for each minute, for 11 minutes. I started with 15 sec of plank and added to it - I got to 21 sec and was done. So then I did wall sits and squats.

The sad thing is that is the less fun part of crossfit - I always liked the lifting more, and the WOD less. But, I guess you do what you have to do.

I was going to go hiking yesterday, either Garfield, Willey, or Sandwich Dome, but when I looked at the weather it was supposed to be HOT, like 90, with a possibility for thunderstorms. Also, it's black fly season. I could not force myself out the door. And, I'm so glad I didn't go - I saw someone posted that they were hiking and a huge thunderstorm rolled in, with giant hail - the white mountains definitely isn't the place I want to be in a story. Hopefully next weekend I can try again.

2 mile run/walk

I was at socially distant parkour on Sunday and we played this game that was basically red light/green light, and I kept getting caught because I was so slow, and breathing so heavy. I am fat and out of shape. Pandemics aren't good for fitness goals. I decided I have to try to do better, and so yesterday I went for a kayak and today I went for a run.

I am so excited that they opened the canoe and kayak place again! I've already been 3 times in the last 8 days :) First I went kayaking in Newton, then paddleboarding in Allston, then kayaking again in Cambridge/Boston. It's been so nice out, it was perfect on the water! This year you have to make a reservation, and I decided to get my own life jacket so that I wouldn't have to wear one that someone else recently had on (I felt OK about this expense, because also the rental ones often smell). I also cleared the dill out of my garden - there was soooo much. It was hard to pull it all, but I had to. It isn't really good once it gets warm out, and it shades the other plants.

Today, I decided that I would go for a run after work. I did a bunch of mapping, trying to figure out a good route, but in the end decided I would do a 2 mile run that's an abbreviation of my 3 mile run - the bridge is still out, and I wasn't sure I was up to 3 miles. And, I wasn't. I have some new paper surgeon's masks that I got for outdoor exercise in the city - I wore one of them, but it was still difficult to breath with it covering my face. After not very long, I pushed it down so my nose was poking out when I wasn't near other people. And then so my mouth was out too.

I made it less than a mile before stopping - about .8 mile. Then I walked a little, and then ran again, and then walked and so on. I ran more than I walked, but still it took 26 minutes and 27 seconds, according to my Fitbit. I did have to stop at a couple of lights, so maybe 26 minutes, which is a 13 minute mile average. Which isn't so bad.

I'm thinking about getting an online subscription to parkour and doing their online classes - they have a noon class every day, and then they also have two low impact evening classes. I've been ok about weekend exercising, but during the week I've been such a slacker!

Mt. Monadnock

I was going to do a 4000 footer today, either Garfield or Willey, but then I woke up at 8 am, not feeling inspired for a 10 mile hike. So, I went for Monadnock. I was going to do it last Friday - I have 5 Fridays in a row off (!) but then I woke up with a migraine last week, and didn't do anything. Part way through the day on Friday I thought about how I often get migraines when I'm sick, and had a little freak out. Fortunately my city now has free covid tests for anyone who wants, you just have to make an appointment - so I called and got one that day! The test itself was a little uncomfortable - they do shove a swab further into your nose than I knew they could put one. The woman who did the test was really nice, we counted down together from 12 as she twisted the thing, and I only teared up at 2 -1, and then it was fine. It all kind of ruined my weekend because I was sick Friday and Saturday, and then paranoid Sunday. But I got a negative test result on Monday, so all is good.

The one bad thing that happened is that I lost my map for Monadnock, so I had to go to the main park to get a new one. You have to make a reservation now, which is a little strange, and prepay. I hate the two trails that go from the parking lot there because they're so crowded, but when I looked at the map there were a few other ways to go that were a little longer, but I thought would be more peaceful, and they were!

From Park Headquarters I took the Parker Trail to Lost Farm Trail to Cliff Walk which goes over Bald Rock. Then I took Smith Connector to Ampitheather to the White Arrow Trail the rest of the way up. Definitely enjoyed! Good route up if you have to park at Headquarters. One of the guys going down said that he hiked it on Labor Day weekend and hardly saw anyone on it. Before I hit the White Arrow Trail, I saw two separate people going down, two dads going up with their tween sons, and a fast girl hiking with her parents, who had to stop at every trailhead. The White Arrow got busy, and then the top was packed. That place is always busy - once I hiked up with a meet up group for super moon on a Monday at Midnight, and there were a ton of people up there!

I decided to do a circle back, just to see how it went, and did Pumpelly to Red Spot (which was pretty hard, eventually I gave up trying to do my parkour moves, and slid down on my butt) to Cascade Link to White Dot. From when I turned off on Red Spot until I got to White Dot, I saw two guys going up, and that was it. It was a Friday, so less traffic than tomorrow I guess. Anyhow, as I was walking into the end, with my feet killing me, this trail runner flew past me. I have no idea how they do it!

I have 10 days at work until the furloughs go into effect. A few people shifted their furloughs a little, so they could be in for part of July, but for the most part we will be down to 10 people for the month. It will be weird.

Mt. Chocorua

It's Memorial Day weekend already - how did that happen? I've been itching to go hiking, and now that things are opening up again, I decided it was time. I decided I would drive from home to the trailhead without stopping, I wouldn't hang out at the trail head, I would stay 6 feet away from other people at the top, and after I would drive right home, or only stop in MA, near me. And that's just what I did!

I've driven past Chocorua a lot of times on the way to North Conway, and to other mountains that I've climbed. Every time I go up there, I look at it and think that it seems like a cool mountain to climb. It's pretty bald up top, and slabby. The peak is a rock that really stands out - it's bald and has a pretty interesting shape. It's not a 4000 footer, it's "only" 3475', but the loop hike I did was 8.6 miles, with 2700 feet of elevation gain (it starts in a valley), so it was harder than some of the 4000 footers out there!

Today was a perfect day for hiking - bluebird sky at first, and then these crazy awesome clouds came in when I was close to the top. I did a loop - the piper trail up, which is 4.2 miles and has some really cool slab to go up. There were a few spots with a snow monorail left, but no need for micro spikes (which I knew from other people's trail reports for previous days - thanks folks!). The first .6 mile I did in 11 minutes, and I felt pretty proud of myself and smug. The next turn off was .6 mile later, and I got there at 30 minutes. Then at was .8 mile to the next turn, and another like half mile to this cabin. I was really impressed with myself, because I got to the 2 mile point in an hour! But that's when things got dicey, and slowed down. The next bit to the cabin wasn't so bad, but then it was tough going, and my stomach alarm went off and I had to stop and eat something. In the end, it took me 3 hours to get up, which I felt pretty good about. Partly because there were switchbacks. I sat up top for about a half hour and enjoyed the view, and ate a cheese sandwich on this amazing honey oat bread that I've been making.

I sat looking at the view of the whites, and it was cool to know that I'd climbed the tallest peeks that I was looking at. Maybe this year, in addition to trying to do the last 5 solo, I will try to climb some of the subpeeks - I bet they'll be less crowded. There were a lot of people on Chocorua, probably a dozen passed me on the way up and the top was full. People were mostly keeping away from each other, it was a chill crowd (literally in some cases, there was a lot of bud on that mountain!)

I decided to do a loop because it looked like the downward part would be less steep, and I thought there would be fewer people going that way. I took Liberty to Hammond to Weetamoo to Piper, which is 4.4 miles - so just a little bit longer. It was super steep at the top, going down the first part took forever. I was using my hiking poles, and also trying to use my parkour moves, but the poles got in the way. Eventually I decided to put the poles away, and head down with parkour. I have to say, even though it took me 3 hours to get down, I still felt like parkour helped me to move faster. I got in some good tiktoks and definitely am better about trusting my feet and stepping on the balls of my foot instead of the heals.

By the time I was half way down, I was regretting doing an 8.6 mile hike for my first real hike of the season. Why don't I do a nice 6 mile, 2000 footer? My feet and legs were killing me! I wanted to just sit down and not walk any more - instead I tried to use gravity and run on gentle downhills so I could sit down sooner. One thing that I'm worried about is that I finally have almost grown my left toenail back - it fell off in a pool in Thailand in December, and it sooo close to being normal again. And it's really sore. If it falls off again, I'm going to be really bummed. Anyhow, it was a good hike, and I was so happy to see the parking lot, and my little Honda Civic.

There's another trail up the other side, Champney Falls, that's really popular. I think a lot of the folks today took that trail up - it's a little less elevation gain=2500 feet, there's a waterfall, and there are still switchbacks. It's 3.8 miles each way, 3.9 if you go to the falls (which I assume you should), so it would be almost a mile less than this route was. It's also an extra 25 or so minutes drive each way, it starts on the Kancamagus Highway (which is just fun to write). Probably a weekday hike one summer, if I ever have summer Fridays again (I bet they are going to be vacation days in the future).

Now that I'm done, I give it 2 thumbs up, but it's not an easy hike. Better for the second or third hike of the season. Final note, I made 8 full masks since I last wrote, plus cut a huge stack and did the first step in sewing them. No idea how many, I bet about 15. Anyhow, masks done, 129.