T.C.'s Blog

My John Muir Trail hike

2008-09-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm about 1/3 done with the trip journal. Look for the entire thing online soon. Thanks for your patience. :-)

T.C.

Preparing for John Muir Trail Thru-Hike

2008-08-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

It's August 17, 2008.

8 months of training has gone by.

10+ months since I first decided to do this hike after reading about it Backpacker magazine.

8+ years since I first read about lightweight, long distance backpacking in Ray Jardine's book, Pacific Crest Trail HIker's Handbook: Innovative Techniques and Trail Tested Insutrction for the Long Distance Hiker

Tonight, it's only 5 days away...!

ABOUT THE TRAIL

The John Muir Trail is about 220 miles, or 340 kilometers.

It goes from the heart of Yosemite to the top of Mount Whitney (then a few more miles to the Whitney Portal trail head).

If you've ever started hiking at the Happy Isles trail head in Yosemite, you may have noticed the mileage sign say (see photo in link) - "Mount Whitney, via John Muir Trail, 211 miles / 340 kilometers" - that's the one!

Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in the lower 48 states of the USA at 14,505 feet / 4,421 meters high.

The hike stays above 8,000 feet nearly in its entirety. It's an endless, sawtooth series of ups and downs - see elevation profile.

I think I'll have some good views!

MOTIVATIONS

I've logged a few hundred training miles, and had a lot of time to answer the question, "why?"

I don't think I have answer yet - I'll get back to you at the end of the hike.

But it probably lies somewhere between "Because it's there" (George L. Mallory), and, "Because I want to." (T.C.)

MY HIKE

I'm going to try to do this in 10 days. That's about 22 miles a day.

I'm using mostly new equipment - lightweight, minimalist set. This is in comparison to the more traditional backpacking I've done since 1995 with heavier equipment and at a slower going pace.

As I've noted, much about this lightweight backpacking - now commonly termed "ultralight" - came from a book by Ray Jardine that I read about years ago.

I'm not, and I hate trying to be a weight freak for the sake of saving weight, when it comes to gear. You can see the rough gear weight listed in the last blog entry. The key, really, is every ounce saved translates to extra distance hiked with less effort!

PICKING UP FOOD

This past weekend Sally and I drove down to Florence Lake and dropped off a bucket full of food - my resupply package that I will pick up at Muir Trail Ranch.

So I'll only be carrying 5 days of food when I leave Happy Isles in Yosemite on Friday, Aug 22.

I'll arrive at Muir Trail Ranch hopefully Tuesday Aug 26.

I hope to be on the summit of Mount Whitney Sunday morning, Aug 31.

I hope to be seeing Sally in the afternoon on Sunday, August 31, where she will have a big hug and kisses, my flip flops, clean underwear and a dry shirt, and something cold to drink all waiting for me!

TRAINING

For the first 5 months of this year, I trained for my first triathlon with Team in Training. By May, I've lost 15 pounds and was in good aerobic shape.

In June, July, and August, I spent a lot of time logging miles around the bay area.

The most important goal of training was learning. I needed to make sure I have tested every aspect of the hike - gear, clothing, food preparation, nutrition management, muscle fitness, speed, injury... I wanted to have very little number of unknowns when August 22nd rolled around.

The training hikes started with a 16 mile day hike at Rancho San Antonio.

Then I logged many miles and Saturday nights at Henry Coe, Sunol Regional Wilderness, near Carson Pass (Highway 88 in Tahoe), and finally a 56 mile weekend at Big Basin (see the previous blog entry - Skyline to the Sea Yo Yo).

Key things I got out of the training hikes -

Lost some more weight
Built up quite a bit of hill muscles - I can feel the difference on the bike now, too
Built up callouses and muscles able to handle 20+ miles a day
Figured out what I need to eat and how often a day to keep up a 2.5 miles per hour average speed
Made sure I have the mental discipline to continue to put one foot in front of the other, mile after mile
Found some edible recipes with the Asian twist that may last me 10 day
Made sure I can survive on the gear that I have

FAQ's

I've had quite a few questions in the past few weeks - just want to share my thoughts:

Q - What about bears? What about ____ animal?
A - my food is in a bear proof container, all 2.5 pounds heavy, the heaviest item in my backpack. I am not tasty enough for a bear otherwise.

Q - What about water?
A - I will have a water filter and there will be a lot of water sources when you walk north-south in the Sierras (the water drains east-west).

Q - Are you going to carry a GPS?
A - No. My topo maps are not high enough in resolution for a GPS to be of any help. I'm an experienced navigator and I will have my compass. The trail is well marked and popular.

Q - Are you bringing a cell phone?
A - No. There is no signal, and there is no benefit even if there was a signal. The way to manage the hike is to not get into a position where you would need a phone conversation to get out of trouble. That ability comes from training and experience.

Q - What if you get injured?
A - All the training hopefully means no injury. Since the trail is well traveled, I will rely on others to get help for me should anything happen. I will be able to send email from Muir Trail Ranch near the half way point.

Q - What will you eat?
A - each day I will have

4 meal bags - each meal bag is 2/3 cup of Minute Rice, 1/4 cup of dehydrated ground beef, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, 1 handful of dehydrated spinach, and either some curry flavoring (S&B medium spicy) or some Knorr leek soup.
6 to 8 powerbars - new Energize flavors are really tasty!
3 servings of Cytomax
1 serving of Endurox R4 Recovery
2 fruit bars

Q - How will you cook? Clean?
A - I have a tiny stove and a 10 oz. metal pot (cup) in which I will boil water. The water goes into the meal bag - a quart sized Ziploc Freezer bag - warms the food for 10 minutes and I eat directly from the bag. When I finish eating, I zip up the bag, roll it up and tuck it in my bear can, and there is no other cleaning (lest you count spoon licking as cleaning).

Q - How will you shower? change clothing?
A - I will look forward to dips in cool, high alpine lakes. Hopefully, the quick dry clothing (mostly runner clothing / fitness clothing) will not be too gross after some rinses.

Q - What boots? What socks?
A - New Balance trail running shoes. Thorlo Trekking socks. I've definitely discovered that a hard-soled hiking boot directly contributes to sprained ankles - balancing a stiff sole on an uneven trail is like wearing high heels - I've had zero sprained ankle wearing my running shoes during all my training hikes!

Q - Who are you hiking with?
A - No one else.

Q - how heavy is your gear?
A - about 14 pounds of gear on my back. About 3 pounds of clothing + shoes on my body. Exactly 4 pounds of water (2 quarters). About 2.5 pounds of food a day, max of 5 day at a time. So max weight is less than 35 pounds at full load.

Skyline to the Sea yo yo

2008-08-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I yo-yo'ed Skyline to the Sea (S2S) - that's hiking 56 miles in 2 days!

A few years ago, I was googling info about S2S looking for a hike, I came across Felix Wong's page about his yo-yo of S2S - http://felixwong.com/2002/07/skyline-to-the-sea-trail/

I thought, that's INSANE!

At that point in my backpacking career, 8 miles a day was a lot, let alone 28.

Now that I am training for a John Muir Trail (JMT) thru-hike of 220 miles in 10 days, I put this in my training schedule as the final big training hike... This is the big test!

MY HIKE - LOGISTICS

In order to avoid any parking hassles or unknowns, I booked 2 nights of camping for Friday night and Saturday night at Big Basin headquarters. It's quite costly ($25 a night). I didn't have a drop-off / pick-up ride that weekend, so I had to throw money at the problem.

Friday afternoon I got to the park early to check-in on the camp site. This way I had a place to park on Saturday and Sunday without worries.

ABOUT SKYLINE TO THE SEA

Skyline to the sea is a 28 mile route in the Santa Cruz mountains in the San Francisco / Bay Area. It goes roughly like this:

Distance / Place
0 mi / Saratoga Gap, intersection of Highway 35 (aka Skyline Blvd) and Highway 9
7 mi / Waterman Gap, near intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 236
16 mi / Big Basin Redwoods State Park HQ
20 mi / Berry Creek Falls
28 mi / Waddell Beach (the sea!) right at Highway 1

I say roughly 28 miles because a) GPS refuses to work for most of the hike, given the copious amounts of very tall redwood trees in the namesake park b) I really did not feel that the distance from HQ to Wadedell Beach was 12 miles, based on my hiking times both ways c) there isn't a USGS quad with this trail clearly marked on the map, so there's no way to get an accurate measurement using mapping tools that I have.

The hike climbs from sea level to 2,500 feet in elevation at Saratoga Gap. You can see this elevation profile for the S2S trail run, but note the trail run has an extra loop and a distance of 50 kilometers (30+ miles). http://www.pctrailruns.com/SttS_Elevation_Profile.htm

MY ROUTE

I don't know who defines what a "yo-yo" has to be.

For me, as long as I covered the entire trail in both directions (on consecutive days), that's good enough for me.

I ended up deciding to hike from HQ to Saratoga Gap and back on day 1 for 32 miles, and HQ to Waddell Beach and back on day 2 for 24 miles. I did this mainly for two reasons: risk reduction and parking. For risk reduction, I was not sure if I can do the whole 56 miles, so this would provide a way for me to turn around back to my car should problems arise. As for parking, there's no night parking at either end, so that was out of the question unless one had a drop off ride.

In the end, while I'm super happy that I finished, I somehow feel my route didn't really feel like "skyline to the sea." I did not have to satisfaction of reaching the sky nor the sea at the end points. May be one day I'll try to do it again from one end. Or all 56 miles in one day... someday.

GEAR

I was going with my final JMT gear / equipment / food list - minus the 2.5 pound bear can

11 pounds - Pack/Gear on back (full backpacking gear!)
3 pounds - Clothing/shoes on body
4 pounds - food for 2.5 days
4 pounds - 64 oz of water
22 pounds - TOTAL

DAY 1 - SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2008

HQ to Saratoga Gap (16 miles) and back

I set off from HQ at 7am from the Blossom Creek Campground, a short walk to Skyline to the Sea trail.

I decided to go up hill first, since I wanted to do the the longer leg the first day.

The GPS basically does not work for the first 45 minutes with all the tall redwood trees, so I turned it off. I always have this on during training to keep an eye on my speed - so this time I will have to write down my times. The location function on the GPS is pretty much useless in my training hikes and the JMT for many reasons: a) I'm on super well defined trails b) I have a topo map c) I don't have a map that has coordinates, nor do I care to have carry those.

Before starting, I didn't really each much of my breakfast - see later section on food to see what it was - I put the cooked breakfast in my backpack and ate it after about an hour of hiking.

The 5 miles or so up to China Grade Road went by pretty fast. I remember hiking this part with Sally a few years back. There is only about a 1 mile section in the whole 16 miles - leading up to China Grade road - that's out in the sun. The rest of the hike was in trees and quite cool.

After China Grade road, you are close to Highway 236 all way up to Waterman Gap. The scenery is quite nice, a surprise. With the marine fog in the trees and the sun overhead, the light rays were spectacular in the forest of thin, tall trees.

I was relieved that there was water at Waterman Gap. I should have checked with the park during the week to get clear info on where was water. At Waterman Gap, I sat down for a 1/2 hour break, aired out my feet, cooked another standard issue meal, remixed another 32 oz of Cytomax, and headed out to Saratoga Gap.

The trail from Waterman Gap to Saratoga Gap was basically right next to Highway 9. So the whole time you hear cars and motorcycles go by. It also crosses Highway 9 a few times.

There is one spot where the trail crosses on Highway 9 but is poorly marked, at the Cheesebough Scout Camp. Once you cross the highway, follow the obvious dirt road for about 50 yards, where it forks off in 3, from left to right - dirt road back down hill to the scout camp (with a camp sign and map), a gated trail of the open space preserve, and the skinny trail just below and in the same direction as Highway 9, and that's the Skyline to the Sea.

One issue with this segment is water. I would hike 7 miles from Waterman Gap to Saratoga Gap, turn around, and hike 7 more back to Waterman Gap. I wasn't too sure if 64 oz was enough for all that distance.

Fortunately, the hot dog man is there when I got to Saratoga Gap! I was elated. I had a hot link, a hot dog, and an ice cold bottle of water. I would have cooked another meal without the hot dogs. :-) There were many bikers, cyclists, and tourists about. Took a 30 minute break and dried out my feet again while enjoying the dogs.

Hiked back to Waterman Gap and took another long break - cooked a meal, refilled water, dried out, sat down and elevated my feet, and relaxed for 30 minutes.

At this point, I've hiked 23 miles for the day, my longest ever. I felt good, because from there the final 9 miles were mostly downhill. No foot problems at all - I think the secret is looser socks that don't bunch your toes together.

Back at China Grade Road again, I sat down for a 10 minute break. At that point, I hiked 27 miles for the day. I just hiked a marathon!

The last 5 miles turn out to be a little challenge. The elastic gripper of the liner on my running shorts began to really irritate my crotch. I guess this never walked this long in a day to discover this problem. I kind of pulled my shorts down a few inches, baggy style, so the liner rested lower on my thighs.

Little did I know that little adjustment would spell big trouble for the following day.

Anyway, at around 6:30p I arrived back in HQ.

I cut out of the trail about 0.1 mile early and made a straight line toward the concession shop - I deserved a beer, a bag of Funyuns, beef jerky, and a super tasty Odwalla Super-C Strawberry Smoothie after 32 miles of hiking!

CAMPING SATURDAY NIGHT

Now, even though I had my bivy and my sleeping bag, I decided to just sleep in my car (back of the Suburban) for the night. Reasons:
a) dude, I just hiked 32 miles, I could care less
b) I just hiked 32 miles, did I mention?
c) I can change in my car before camping and the next day, without having to go somewhere for privacy and not scare off the little kids in the family camp ground
d) I didn't really care to test my JMT gear tonight - it's been tested enough - I wanted a comfortable sleep in my thick old car camping sleeping bag
e) I felt REALLY silly sleeping on top of the picnic table at a family campground in a bivy.

If anyone wants to give me crap for this not being a true yo-yo because I slept in a car... eat my shorts. Ray Jardine sleeps in a motel if the PCT crosses near a town.

About the only clean up work I did was rip out the irritating liner from my shorts. Tomorrow, I will go commando!

I had a good night sleep. I slept like a log, unlike the previous night.

DAY 2 - SUNDAY AUGUST 10, 2008

HQ to Waddell Beach (12 miles) and back

I was enjoying my sleep and didn't get out until 8am.

Surprisingly, I felt very little, if any, soreness.

It's a quick 0.8 mile uphill from HQ, then all downhill for the rest 11 miles to the beach.

Trouble started as soon as I started downhill. I did not notice the night before, but the 5 miles of baggy-shorts hiking chaffed the CRAP out of my inner thighs. It was really painful.

So there I was on the side of the trail with my hands in my pants... putting on moleskin on my inner thighs. I cut up two pieces of moleskin about 3 inches by 4 inches each.

But in about 5 minutes, they both started coming off. Too much sweat in that area. It's still painful.

I had a whole roll of moleskins - so I took what I had left, cut it in two, and applied the two 3 inch by 6 inch pieces to my inner thighs again. That's all the moleskins I had. If this failed, I'm kind of screwed as far as remedies go.

This lasted about 15 minutes before the sweat kicked in and the moleskin started to peel. CRAP!

I tried to hike with the pain, but at all times I'm thinking, damn, this is mile 2 of 24. I'm not going to make it.

Then I remembered a trick I figured out a while ago with a shoe blister - I pulled off the moleskins and will put them on my shorts instead, right where a maxipad would usually go, not that I'm an expert. The moleskin would cover the sides of the shorts where the seams is rubbing against the irritated inner thighs.

So there I am on the side of the trail with my shorts pulled low and both hands in my crotch....

Fortunately, this worked. And being at 8:30 in the morning, nobody called to report me to the park rangers.

The hike down to the beach was uneventful. I didn't eat a meal as I usually would, thinking I can try to hike 12 miles downhill without eating a meal but just subsist on Powerbars and Cytomax. It didn't work that well - I was going slowly on the last 4 miles despite the trail being a flat, wide dirt road.

I got to the Rancho Del Oso Office of big basin and took a long break. Dried off my feet, cooked a meal, stretched out, refilled water, remixed Cytomax, and enjoyed the beach breeze in the warm sun. Being able to do that on a park picnic table is a real treat!

I rested for about 45 minutes and packed up to hike down the few hundred yards down to the beach.

Crossing the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) took what felt like forever.

I went down to the beach, got my finger tips wet in the Pacific Ocean, and turned around to walk back to HQ.

This section is another water management challenge. There is no water in the entire 12 mile segement except at Rancho Del Oso. I gulped a whole 30 oz or so before I left Rancho Del Oso and refilled. So I'd hike the 12 miles with 32 oz of water and 32 oz of Cytomax.

I read on one map, "Do not drink from Waddell Creek" - the creek you hike parallel to for about 8 miles - "due to contamination by reclaimed water." There are a couple of camp sites mid way, I wonder if that warning was real or not. I wasn't really desperate enough to try.

The 12 miles from Waddell Beach to HQ is mostly flat, except for a 1,000 feet or so climb near the end near HQ.

A little into the hike back up, my crotch moleskin stopped working. I think the irritation is jsut too great after 50 miles of hiking. But after a while, basically, it went numb, and I ignored it.

It got really hot towards the end, especially up the climb. The air was still and I felt like I was enveloped my a pool of sweat.

I didn't really care to stop to eat as I did going down - I figured I will subsist on PowerBars again. I did pretty well speed wise - pacing the cytomax and power bars, I was felt I went up this whole uphill 12 miles faster than I did going down.

I practically ran down the last 0.8 miles back to HQ.

I had to walk the extra 0.1 mile to make up for the early exit yesterday.

The Funyuns and the Odwalla were extra tasty this time!

THE AFTERMATH

The chaffing on my inner thighs looked terrible. It's red, swollen, and painful. Fortunately a little cooling overnight and it scabbed the next morning.

I'm happy I was able to yo yo the Skyline to the Sea.

I did not feel any soreness on Monday, which was amazing.

I know I'm ready for my JMT hike!!!!!!!

POST SCRIPT - FOOD

1 serving of my standard meal bag for my JMT hike goes something like this:

quart sized freezer Ziploc, with
2/3 cup of minute rice
about 1/3 cup of dehydrated ground beef
a couple handful of dehydrated spinach
some pine nuts or walnuts
either S&B curry seasoning or Knorr Leak Soup mix

on trail, mix in 1 cup of boiled water and wait for about 10 minutes and serve.

The most beautiful thing is trash management - close the Ziploc, lick my spoon clean, and I'm done!

General Creek camping adventure

2008-07-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Sally and I camped at General Creek on Saturday - we were nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes. This is a long post, but it's a great story.

The adventure began Saturday morning.

TC and Sally were to each hike a different trail and meet up. TC was hiking a longer trail to train for the JMT hike.

TC's route was: Echo Lake -> Aloha Lake -> Dick's Pass -> Velma Lake -> PCT junction with General Creek trail (21 miles)

Sally's route was: Sugar Pine State Park -> 4wd road in Park -> General Creek Trail -> PCT junction with General Creek trail. (7 miles)

THE HIKE, FROM TC'S POINT OF VIEW

The scheduled portion of the 21 mile hike went well - I started at 7am and ended at the Junction around 5:30p. I was testing some new food/nutrition setup and it worked well. At this point in my training, I am now certain that for these long hikes, it's all about having eaten sufficient calories, and often enough, to maintain the energy and speed.

After 21 mies, I was very much looking forward to a yummy curry dinner and a break. Probably around mile 20 I was making noises hoping Sally would hear me and come and meet me :-).

But Sally was not at the junction. So I went down General Creek Trail to find Sally.

General Creek trail has two sections and is the shape of an "L" - the upper 3 miles section from where I started, and then a 4 mile section on a "4WD road" to the park / highway 89 / Lake Tahoe.

Within the first 15 yards, I got really, really worried. I needed to find Sally ASAP.

"SALLY!" I bellowed every a few yards.

The trail was quite faint, covered in vegetation, and extremely hard to follow. If not for the few rock piles or broken branches, it is pretty much impossible to follow. There are occasional tree markings (the letter i carved into barks), but they were hard to spot in the shade.

The worst, though, is the mosquitoes swarm. Depending on the spot, there's usually what sounded like 50 mosquitos on my head net (fortunately I had one) - I use the Outdoor Research Bug Bucket and it works wonderfully well. But that's just the bugs on my head.

I had my running shorts on, so needless to say, my legs were covered in mosquitoes. As long as I kept moving it was not too bad, but if I stop, they have enough time to get in the bite. I was swatting them off my legs the entire time.

Also any part of my shirt not "loose" was a great parking place for mosquitoes - at the end of the day I had about 50 bites on each shoulder.

My hands were bit pretty well, so I pulled down my sleeves and cinched the opening shut. This made for doing anything with your hands pretty difficult. At one point, I snapped the lenses off my sunglasses, had to pick them up, stuff it in my side pocket, dropped the topo map on the ground, panicked and told myself "DO NOT LOSE THE MAP TC!" (in this trailess jungle). Man that was a scary moment.

At no time after 5:30p did I ever feel like I was not being ENVELOPED by mosquitoes. It was BAD.

I lost the trail at least 2 or 3 times I can't recall anymore. At least the route was simple, which was to navigate down the canyon hugging 1 side of the mountain. Since I really could not stop to orient (mosquitos + thick tree cover), nor was it really that fruitful to look for the trail, I pretty much headed straight down canyon.

I'm 100% sure I'm going the right direction, but, I just didn't know where Sally was.

I was quite worried she made it up parts of the trail, and is hunkered down in her tent waiting for me. She did not have the stove or the water (the creek was DRY) to have dinner. She would survive, but it would be a miserable night. I wasn't sure if I told her I had my bivy, so may be she's looking for me thinking I'm shelterless.

Every 10 or 15 steps I bellowed, "SALLY!" to see if I get a response. Other than the mosquito buzz and bird chirps, I did not get a response. Sound doesn't carry far in this thick forest. I couldn't really stop for more than a second to listen - I would be bitten alive.

I found a clearing with some light breeze on a ridge, where I was able to stop for about a minute to regroup (at all times, stomping my legs furiously to ward off mosquitoes). I put away the disassembled sunglasses. I put on my windbreaker as a 2nd mosquito layer. I had enough time to turn on the GPS to get an altitude reading and determined that I was 200 feet too high above the trail. I had a view of nearby mountains was able to determine my location and know I was only about 1 to 1.5 mile away from "bend" in the trail, where the 4wd road was.

I made my way lower - whacking through bush, downed logs - and found a faint trail. There are the "i" signs on the trees - excellent!

But then I see some tracks leading up trail. A million thoughts went through my head -

"Damn, I passed her when I was off trail. Shit."

"I'm not sure these are human prints, nor her prints."

"There's no WAY she would find this trail up to this point. There's no way she wouldn't have turned around."

I determined that Sally is too smart to be stuck in this mess. So my only course is to go down the trail more to find her. Still, every 10 or 15 steps I would bellow out, "SALLY!" hoping to hear her.

I lost the trail several times, but around 7:00p or so I was near the bend of the "L." I crossed the first of the two streams - a stagnant, festering pool of mosquito breeding heaven. Once I cross the trail became rather distinct and I followed that onto a small ridge, heading down into the second crossing.

Light was begginning to fade at this point. I had suffered countless bites. My throat was dry and in pain from yelling. My feet were past numb in pain (blisters + narrow shoe) - it's mile 24 and i haven't eaten or drank in about 5 miles. I don't know how many bloody scrapes from branches and brushes I had. I forgot how many downed logs I crawled over.

I just know I needed to get to that "4wd road" and I'll probably hunker down for the night. And I hoped and hoped that Sally already hunkered down, and that I did not pass her already, or that she turned around.

I came upon the 2nd crossing and the trail all but disappeared into dense, riverside plants. This one actually had a small flow of water, but I hate getting my feet wet. The crossing had also 3 or 4 awkwardly downed trees across it - I climbed onto one and slipped off, fortunately landing with a firmly planted foot on some rocks instead of some injury. I tried the different paths but each one ended in dense foliage. Again, i decided to just just head up toward the road instead of hanging around to find the path - the mosquitoes were having a party!

Somewhere out of the air I thought I heard someone yell something. I stopped, and said, "Sally?" (instead of "Sally!") and I heard her respond. I can't quite make it out but it was her voice and she was saying "I can hear you" I think.

I was elated. I kept screaming. I told Sally to keep making sounds so I can just head toward hear.

I swam through about 20 yards of dense bush and saw her in a small ridge about me. She was covered in her mosquito net - looking like an alien. But I found Sally!!!

I was so relieved and happy.

THE HIKE, FROM SALLY'S POINT OF VIEW

To be added by Sally in detail. But in outline form in TC's words:
* late start due to traffic
* confusing map
* lots of mosquitos
* impossible to find the upper part of General Creek Trail
* so Sally decided to camp near the "bend" of the "L" to wait for TC - smart decision!

AFTER WE FOUND EACH OTHER

The hugs were brief as mosquitos were still swarming. We pitch the tent quickly in a somewhat doable not-too-uneven spot. We dove into the tent, shoes and all and with backpacks and bear can.

"Get the fuck in! Forget the shoes!"

We zipped up the tent and spent 15 minutes squishing the 20 or so mosquitos that came in (attached somehow). A piece of mole skin helpped plug a little hole on the side of the tent.

We can't exactly push against the tent (especially the netting parts) since sometimes mosquitos bite through the tent.

"We are in jail, Sally."

We had about 1 quart of water left - we drank about 1/2 before going to bed, and saved the the 1/2 for the next morning. There was no water for cooking (nor do we want to risk burning a hole in the tent), so we each ate a fruit bar and called it a night. In the morning, we each had a fruit roll up for breakfast.

About 4 dozen mosquitoes camped on the tent all night. There was constant buzzing.

I had to pee in one of my gatorade bottles - going outside was an option only in absolute desperation. Sally somehow managed to hold off for an entire 12 hours.

At dawn our tent netting was cleared of mosquitos. I was excited. We have a window for escape!

But as soon as I sat up and made a noise, they all came back!

"Shit!"

The only option we had was to wait until sunlight was out, which should (we hoped) temper their activity. Luckily, around 8am, the sun hit the tent and most (not all) of the mosquitos were gone.

We made ourselves bomb proof (I still had shorts) and ran out side, stuffed everything together and started down the trail.

Given a combination of lack of food, water, and blisters, it took me 3.5 hours to hike those last 4 miles. At least the bugs went away after about the first 2 miles.

Food, shower, water, and rest were much enjoyed at the end of the hike.

Lessons learned for next time: 1) contingency / turn-around plans and agreement 2) wear pants!

It's too hot today

2008-06-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

I need to pack for the weekend.

WHO IS READING THIS?????

Tuesday Night Track Workouts

2008-06-18T13:05:00.001-07:00

Sally and I managed to get out to Foothill yesterday for the inaugural Tuesday Track workout.

We got in alltogether 2.5 miles of jogging/running/walking, and some good stretching and strength exercises.

My chest and abs are sore today.

Stuipd eVite has a bug - I can't schedule a recurring event for this !

Jira

2008-06-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

My team uses Jira at work to manage and track all the issues. It's really powerful and configurable.

I wish I can use it for tracking my projects outside of work - home, hobbies, or other life event management. But it's $1,200! :(

John Muir Trail Thru-Hike

2008-06-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

I am training to thru-hike the John Muir Trail in 10 days. It is 220 miles, going from Yosemite to Whitney, elevation ranging from 4,000 feet to 14,495 feet. You can see the scary elevation profile here - http://www.pcta.org/images/elevation_new.jpg

I am trying to become an ultra-light backpacker - 22 miles a day.

Have been doing training trips for the past weekends. This past weekend I walked 25.5 miles at Henry Coe, averaging 2.9 mph the first day and 2.25 the second. Had a lot of equipment problems - blisters, hot spots, sleeping bag too thin, food too much, mosquitos. Worst, though, my right knee (old injury) tightened up the second day, hobbling me for the last 7 miles or so. Coe is a lot hotter than the sierras, I think, and there's water only every 5 miles or so, so those parts do not compare well for training.

I forgot my spoon. Had to eat out of a plastic bag by squeezing food out. Very ghetto.

I think this weekend I got the framework set. I'll start at 6:30a in the morning, hike 4.5 hours in to cover the first 11 miles. Within that first 4.5 hour, take a break around the half way point to remix sports drink and eat a power bar. When the first 11 miles are done, take a long lunch break to recuperate, for about 1-2 hours. Then start at 1pm and hike another 11, following the same morning break downs. Finish hiking around 5pm. I'll have 3 hours or so before it gets dark to eat dinner, rehydrate, trim my nails, clean up, and get ready for a restful night. Oh boy I'm going to sleep like a log every night, once I have all my equipment issues sorted out.

My legs feel pretty good muscle wise - just the knee thing to figure out. I think I pushed too hard on Saturday at 2.9 mph.

Food wise, I'm working out the details and recipes but I think I have a plan too. I'll have each meal in a quart sized ziploc bag, WITHOUT the starch. I'll have the starch separately bagged - one big bag with about 3 cups of minute rice a day. I'll adjust the amount of starch for each meal according to how I feel. Also I'll have lighter, mostly carb means in the morning and lunch, and have a heavier, protein and fat meal for recovery at night.

For water, sports drinks are a definite welcome when you are drinking filtered water and eating bland food - the tanginess is nice. I'll end up with two 32oz bottles for water, and will have end up using about that much per 5-6 miles at the worst. I'll have enough sports drinks to cover that need, plus, a 16-32 oz portion of recovery drink for the evening.

Next big test will be 4th of july weekend - I'll see if I can cover about 20 x 3 = 60 miles in 3 days - also up in tahoe altitude.

It's a blah Friday

2008-06-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

I feel like blah. I need to start training again. Need those endorphins.

Who reads this crap? May be Sally does. I can't expect anyone else on EARTH to give a crap. I will be glad if no one does read this - it means everyone has better things to do with their time.

My new Personal Record - 2 blog entries in 1 day

2008-06-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

Never imagined this moment back in the college days when we used VT100 terminals to operate computers.

Who wants to read a blog?

2008-06-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

I can barely get people whom I pay, or people who pay me, to read stuff I write.

I'm going to go backpacking this weekend. Try to get two 15 miles day in with full gear. Hope it's not too damn hot.

My first blog ever

2008-06-11T18:42:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the 21st century, T.C.