Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Little Queens River Training - Day 2

Since I was hydrating through the afternoon to try and make up for getting behind during the day's hike, I got up a couple times during the night to answer mother nature. It wasn't too dark out as the stars were bright and the sky was clear.

I tease Ambrose that he's guaranteeing us a summer free of rain because he really wants to see how our new tent does in the rain. So far, despite forecasts as high as 80% for rain, we've avoided it.

We were up before the other camp even began to stir. And when I write we, I mean Ambrose woke me up after he made coffee. I think I'm always going to be a night owl at heart, but I'm getting used to these early awakenings for the sake of backpacking.

Our breakfast was no-cook, Spam singles and a bagel. I saved part of my bagel for the hike back and helped Ambrose strike the tent. We headed off before the sun touched our campsite.

A very convenient crossing spot. 

I felt very safe crossing this, but I can't vouch for Ambrose. 
We hiked together down to the swampy pond and then to our first ford of the morning. Now, I know that the water temperature couldn't have changed all that much from the previous morning, but apparently crossing before the sun has been up for any significant amount of time is cold. Very cold. Bitingly, painfully cold. I had a bruise on the inside of my leg from a box jump attempt and it was only that the pressure of the water was making it throb that convinced me my legs hadn't gone entirely numb.

The swamp was probably bitingly cold too.
Once we were across, I wasted no time in getting my socks and shoes back on. I also voiced an idea that I'd been playing with about the next crossing. Since it was so deep, and it would be less than an hour to the car from that point, I asked Ambrose if he thought it would be a horrible idea to ford it in boots.

Now, generally I'm against getting water inside boots. If you still have a lot of hiking to do, or another night to spend out, you are going to have wet, stinky feet for the rest of the trip. Maybe that's okay for a solo trip, but when you have to share a tent, it becomes a matter of courtesy to try and avoid such things.

However, I have gotten boots wet before, partly for speed, partly to help break them in, and always within an hour of the car. Ambrose admitted the idea wasn't bad and that he might do the same (he also has new boots).

We hike towards the sunshine.

Not bad for maximum digital zoom. 

I might have sped ahead, but it was still relatively early in the morning, so I stayed behind Ambrose. I didn't look around very much, focusing instead on not tripping him with my trekking poles or stepping on his boots.

My view hiking behind Ambrose.
We reached the last ford of the Little Queens and paused for a snack before the crossing. Again, I watched Ambrose cross first, though I followed a bit before he finished and ended up having to wait for him to clear the bushes at the far side before I could emerge. The water didn't feel quite as cold when my flesh was protected by layers of clothing, but I was glad to get out and get moving.

And moving quickly. I made it to the car in under 40 minutes.

Hello sunshine!

Oh, and we saw a snake. Snake butt shot!
I only had to wait about fifteen minutes for Ambrose to arrive at the trailhead, by which time I had given myself a cold rinse in the river and changed into driving clothes. We drove off feeling that we'd accomplished a nice bit of training and acclimatization. Whether we'd be ready for the next trip, which we planned to start with a 13+ mile day... that remained to be seen.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Little Queens River Training - Day 1

Even though we did more dayhikes that we normally do in the off season this year, my husband and I are still ramping up the length and distance of our backpacking trips. After spending the night only about a mile from the trailhead in Sheep Creek, we upped the ante to a hike 5 miles out into the Sawtooth Wilderness for a relaxed overnighter the next weekend.

Ambrose putting our permit in the box.

By now, we've done this first section of the Queens River Loop trail, going up the Little Queens, enough times for it to be familiar. I'm never at my best first thing in the morning, so I decided to hike behind Ambrose to start. I also was feeling extra fatigued, possibly due to allergies or allergy medications, so sticking with him wasn't too hard.

And, as a matter of fact, Ambrose's hiking speed has increased since last year. Instead of it being a chore to stay behind him without stepping on his boots or hitting him with my trekking poles, I was able to walk in a comfortably low gear behind him - at least on the short uphills and the flats.

More not-morel mushrooms.
And if I had to stop for any reason, such as taking pictures or a pit stop, it wasn't hard to catch up with him after.

Catch-up speed time!

I was feeling more tired than usual, possibly a bit dehydrated considering I hadn't gotten up even once to go to the bathroom the night we spent at the trailhead. So we took it easy and got to the first ford about an hour after we started.

The water was not so high as to be impassable, but it was close. And it was freezing. Okay, not literally freezing, but the water was very cold. We took off our boots and socks before crossing. I rolled up my pants legs while Ambrose let his get wet. I wore my sandals for the crossing and he used his new gym shoes, because they're lighter than his sandals.

I watched Ambrose cross and decided on my route based on how high the water was on him. If the water is low enough, I can go almost straight across, but with the water so high I decided to go up the bank on my side before angling across. This did mean, however, that I had to walk straight into some bushes.

I made it across, but the water came so high that it collected in my upriver pants leg, even though it was rolled up over my knee. After I got out of the water, I hurried to dry my feet off and get them back into the warmth of socks and boots. Ambrose offered to let me go ahead, but I wanted to stay and see how he did on the first challenging uphill section of the trail.

Pretty flowers.
Just before we started up the hill, I needed to take a pit stop, so Ambrose went on ahead. I caught him easily enough, but then he surprised me by not stopping at all as he made his way to the top. Yay! Soon after that, we stopped for a snack, sitting on the trail and listening to the river roar by below us.

Burned, but recovering.
As we hiked on, I was pleased to note how the areas with burned trees were recovering. The dirt was filling in with the greens of grasses and flowers, and I'm sure there were baby trees still too small to distinguish themselves from bushes.

But not all the burned areas had come that far yet.

Lots of dirt, but with signs of hope.
And this was around where I finally got antsy. Ambrose kept stopping and I just wasn't up for extended periods of standing around. So I set off on my moderate pace, which quickly left him behind. I arrived at the next ford and began to prep, though I wouldn't cross until he arrived.

When he did, he pointed across the river. I had been looking at him (and a ground squirrel that had crawled out very close to me), but I turned and saw another hiker getting ready to cross. This guy did not have trekking poles, so he walked upriver a bit before taking his pants off and crossing. I crossed and thought to greet him, but he was too far upriver. And Ambrose crossed to me before the guy crossed to him, so we just waved at each other before going our separate ways.

Once Ambrose was safely across I headed out to the Scenic Lakes trail junction. I knew that this junction was well marked and all, but I can't forget the Snowslide Lakes so easily. So I planned to wait for him there.

More flowers!

I trusted Ambrose to take the right path at this junction ;)

These orange beauties were quite striking at a distance, brilliantly orange.
I made good time to the Scenic Lakes trail junction and settled in to lay down under the tree on which the sign was fastened.

Large cairn, easy-to-read sign - Okay, I knew Ambrose wouldn't miss this one. 
It was nice to have some quiet time to myself. I didn't need to do anything like I would if we were camped. I just lay there, looking up into the tree's branches and listening to the birds. One bird in particular was singing quite quickly. It made me think of "Flight of the Bumblebee." I saw (and heard) someone do that on a xylophone when I was in high school. That's some skill.


Eventually, I heard voices and sat up to look around. A couple of guy hikers were coming down the trail. I said hello when they passed and one of them responded with a polite, "How are you?" It was at least spoken in motion so I had a cue not to take it seriously. As they walked off, I heard, "It should be right here." And I wondered if maybe they were looking for the trail to Scenic. But they were gone before I could decide to speak up.

A few minutes later Ambrose walked up. The guys had asked him for directions to Scenic, so they were coming back. Ambrose and I hiked to the crossing of the Little Queens, noting with disappointment that the best camping spot had already been taking by a large group of tents. We hunted around for a spot and finally dropped our packs just to get some food. At this point, we were both hungry and thirsty. And that made us cranky. We ate and then took the ground cloth in hand to find a better spot.

I wanted to cross to the other side of the river to camp, but there wasn't a place we could easily ford and Ambrose was stubbornly insisting on staying on the side where we were. To my eyes, there weren't any good spots on that side of the river, but we finally found an adequate place and went back to get the packs.

But by the time we dragged the packs back to the chosen spot, the food had kicked in, improving both our moods. So we ended up crossing the river on a very convenient fallen log and finding a decent spot there. Ambrose set up the tent and I filled all our water bags.

The trail to Scenic heads up that-a-way.
I thought we might go exploring up the trail to Scenic, but since Ambrose wasn't going to go and I was more tired than I expected, we just hung out the rest of the day at our camp. I read and kept a lookout for the campers across the river, but I ended up not seeing them. Ambrose had a yelled conversation with one and found out that the area within a mile of Scenic was still snowed over, which is why they were camped down here instead of up there. They also had dogs with them. Ambrose said they looked like bears they were so big.

And so the day slipped away. We ate dinner and then I read some more before falling asleep.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Beyond 6125 - Sheep Creek Training

The last weekend in May was the first one that my husband and I went on an actual backpacking trip. Truly the first trip of the season - our shakedown trip.

We drove out to Sheep Creek on Friday after I got off of work. We hiked out one mile along Sheep Creek and set up our new backpacking tent. The plan was to spend two nights there, taking a nice long day hike on Saturday.

Looking down towards the Middle Fork on the way up to Sheep Creek.

One of my last glimpses of Ambrose until he made it to camp.

Some genius decided to completely ignore the established fire pit in favor of digging a new one right where I would normally be pitching my tent. Grrrr!

The new tent! A Hexmid Duplex by Z-packs. Expensive, lightweight and, so far, awesome. Also my sleeping pad is inside and the not strictly necessary groundcloth Ambrose made from birdseed bags is underneath.
I was glad, though not surprised, to see that the spot near the creek was available. Even when summer is in full swing, we don't often see people camped in this area. The new fire pit, about five feet from the old fire pit, was annoying, but I got the tent set up started before Ambrose joined me.

Once the tent was up and our gear arranged for the evening, we settled in to get some sleep. And I found spending the night in that tent to be, if anything, a bit too warm. Certainly warmer than I expected, considering it has mesh areas that don't get covered.

In the morning, there was no set wake up time, but Ambrose tends to be an early riser. And I knew that once the sun hit the trail it would be unbearably hot. So we ate breakfast and set off. Ambrose was planning to hit 6125 while I would continue on the trail rather than turning up to that peak and then heading back. It was to be a chance for me to explore trail on my own as well as increase the distance of my day hike.

Somehow, I had forgotten how horrible the first couple miles of that particular trail is.

Either that or it's gotten worse.

Although the sky remained blessedly overcast, the steepness of the trail caused me to soak my clothing with sweat within minutes.
Yay clouds!

It really is steeper than it looks. 

I do like these wild roses. I think that's what they are. That's what I'm calling them.
I promised myself a pack off break when I reached the ridgeline, where the worst of the uphill would be over. And when I got there, I enjoyed taking a few moments to sit on the dirt with my pack off and eat a caffeine powered gel. Not to mention I had a pretty nice view.
Not a bad view... oh, look!

Deer!
The trail seemed to elongate as I hiked on, although my pack was relatively light. I just didn't remember how long it meandered before the cutoff to 6125. One point of entertainment was a family of raptors. They had built a nest within sight of the trail and were advertising the fact by constantly screeching at me.

I wouldn't have even noticed this if the birds hadn't been so vocal. 
And then it was time to strike off into the unknown. Well, unknown to me.
Trail untraveled by my feet.
Part of the reason that we never went down this trail is that it goes downhill, and the last thing we wanted to do after humping up to 6125 was lose elevation and then have to turn around and climb back up. So, I had the impression that this would be a downhill trending trail and set off with that expectation. Still optimistic, I took a moment to record some pretty birdsong.


And then the trail gave me a little surprise.
This was supposed to be all downhill!
Despite my expectations, there were a few steep hills to conquer on my way down to Corral Creek.

At least the map was honest about the intermittent nature of Corral Creek. My first sight of it was a dry bed with ample vegetation. I was a little concerned that I'd have to turn back and make do with the water that I was carrying.
Heading down to Corral Creek.

There may have been water here at one time.
But as the trail flattened out, I heard the telltale trickle and spotted enough water to continue on. The creek was very shallow, so it would be a pain to get water into my squeeze bag, but I could do it. Worst case scenario, I would use my small Nalgene bottle to scoop water into the bag, dirtying the bottle, but I mostly drink from my bladder anyway.
There's water!

Oh, and the sun came out for a bit 
I hiked on until the trail forked and then checked the time on my camera. I wanted to stop for lunch no later than 11:30am and turn around after eating. It was about 11:15am, so I turned down the fork, crossing a wide spot in the creek, and explored another intermittent creek.
I have no idea what that chopped wood is doing there.

This seemed like a good spot for lunch.
I didn't go far before sitting down in a meadow to eat. Peanut butter and jelly in a tube on tortillas tasted very good after the morning's exertions.

I tried to pinpoint my location with my map and compass and did what I consider a satisfactory job, although I'm not quite certain that I didn't go off my map. The trail fork that I followed definitely wasn't on my map, but that didn't mean it wasn't in the area that the map covered. It might be a new trail.

Or I might have been kind of lost.

Creek crossing
After I ate, I headed back to the creek crossing. I figured I could fill my water there more easily than the narrow spots upstream. I could, but it wasn't because of the wide spot - I found a "waterfall" about 10 inches high that allowed me to angle my bag and fill it almost all the way up.

On the way down, I'd made sure to go slowly, because I didn't want to take longer going back than heading out. On the way back up, I stepped more quickly. I wanted to get back to the tent and relax. By my reckoning, Ambrose should be well on his way back by this point and I wanted to see him.

Heading back to 6125.
Not long before I reached the 6125 cutoff, I heard the rumble of motors. I watched for a good place to step off the trail, and, when I saw a motorcycle ahead of me, I stepped off and waited. Two rode by and I felt just a tiny kernel of bitter hatred at the way motorcycles create awful, horrible, no good for hiking single track on these trails.

But then I moved on, eager to take another quick break at the 6125 cutoff.
Yup, the birds were still hanging out.
At this point, the clouds began to look a little more threatening. I swore I felt a few drops on my arms, but it could have been sweat. Still, I hurried my steps as much as I could down to the saddle.

And then I had to remember that no matter how much I hated going up that steep trail, I hated going down it worse.

The possibility of falling is omnipresent. The rocks are like ball bearings and the trail is often ground down to the width of a motorcycle tire, forcing me to walk heel to toe. Oh, and the one down side of the new tent is that it uses trekking poles instead of tent poles, so I only had one for the day hike.

I am pleased that I only almost fell once, despite my hurry.
I almost motored right past this surprise.

A very long snake, though not a rattler. 

It slithered off uphill. 
As I wound my way down the trail, I thought that I heard Ambrose hooting. But that would be silly. He was surely already at camp by now, right?

Wrong!

In the distance I saw him, and, seeing him, knew I could catch him.
And I did!
So I made it back to camp about ten minutes ahead of him and proceeded to be a total slug for the rest of the day.

The next morning, we took our time striking camp and then hiked out.

All in all, a successful shakedown backpack.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Pull Up Update - 5 Weeks

On May 29th I completed the fifth week of the pull up training program that I received after attending the workshop at Arbor Crossfit.

I have not, yet, done a pull up without assistance.

But I do believe that my grip is improving. I can see the callouses building up on my hands. I can feel my back aching as I discover new muscles.

I think it's easier to do a green band assisted pull up than it used to be. But I'm not entirely sure.

I'm not sure if I'm mistaking hope for progress. Although I have increased the weight that I'm using for my bicep curls. And I have made my barbell assisted pull ups more difficult by raising the bar and lowering the box. And I have felt like the motions of the pull up are coming together in my body, as if my body is finally understanding how to do the movement and is now only waiting for my strength to catch up.

So I will press on. I will keep trying and keep building up strength. I told one of the coaches that I wanted to get the pull up by July. He insisted that I'd get it before then, which I thought was a nice dream. But honestly, I did expect to get it in five weeks of focused training. I'm a little disappointed that I'm not there yet.

But I'm going to take that disappointment and use it as a tool. I know what I want. I have a plan. And, if after week 10 I'm still not there, then I think I have the resources to help me figure out how to modify the plan and reach my goal.