Holiday Challenge Complete!

Against my realistic expectations, I managed to row 100,000 meters between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Even though I started two days late and took several days off in the middle for being sick.

And technically, I finished on Sunday and got to over 106,000 by the end of Tuesday 12/24. So I rowed more than I actually needed to. 

I didn't finish the challenge without some issues. A lot of my friends complained about rowing messing up their backs. While I don't feel my back got messed up, I could tell it was a lot more sore than usual thanks to the rowing. My biggest issue was with hamstring tightness, especially towards the end. My right hamstrings cramped up when I rowed 10,000 meters one day and never really loosened up after. It got to the point that I couldn't sit down for very long without my butt tingling on the right. And I'm pointing the finger at the hammies because the tingling was relieved if I put a ball under the hamstrings. 

Overall, I feel good about the rowing challenge. I'm not sure I could do the 200,000 meter version, but then again I want sure I could do this one and I did. 

Just Keep Rowing...

I took several days off of working out for this illness. Along with several days off of work. And days off of rowing. And yet... I'm still working on the 100K row before Christmas. The charity part of the challenge doesn't actually add up to all that much per individual person, but I'm more interested in doing it to challenge myself. That a bit of money will go to the Sierra Club if I make the 100K is just a bonus.

And it's looking like I'm going to be able to make it. As of the end of the day Tuesday, I'm just over 81K. And I know I can get another 5K on Thursday, and at least 5K on Saturday and Sunday. And I'll be doing CrossFit workouts in around that which can add meters (Monday's certainly did). This is completely doable!

Which means, I guess, that I could have potentially done a lot more than 100K if I were well. And if I started on Thanksgiving instead of waiting until two days later. Oh, and if this were a more typical year, where Thanksgiving fell earlier in November, that would probably help quite a bit as well.

Could I get to 200K, assuming ideal conditions? And without owning an at-home rower, which I think would make it pretty easy to reach that kind of goal because it's just a matter of making time in the seat. And, of course, with more time between Thanksgiving and Christmas...

It could be possible, but I don't think I'll be going for that next year. It's all about incremental goals with this one. I'll see how far I can get this year and then set a higher goal for next year. When I'll have a whole nother 2 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas to work with.

100,000 Meters!

I've decided to try and do the 100K meter holiday challenge from Concept2. It's a simple challenge. Row, ski or bike erg 100,000 meters between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I started on November 30th and in just 9 days, I'd managed to get to 50K, mostly by being kind of crazy.

See, I set a goal of doing 30 minutes of rowing on Saturdays and Sundays, then going on the ski erg for another couple thousand meters, depending on how I felt on the particular day. And then another 30 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays during my exercise release at work. Plus whatever rowing I'd end up doing at CrossFit and boom. 50K in 9 days of that (from 11/30 to 12/8).

And then I got sick. I haven't actually done a single meter since 12/8. But I know that I can do 50K in 9 days, and I have more than 9 days until the 24th. So as soon as I stop excreting mucous all over the place, I'll be ready to get on the rest of that 100K.

Home Exercise

During the Open back in October, I experienced a regression. In 2018, I was able to do handstand push-ups, but here in 2019, I couldn't get a single rep during the workout. I wanted to get myself to the point where I could do a strict handstand push-up, so I was neglecting holding onto the skill at kipping that I had somehow figured out. So it went away and was gone.

And while I was talking about that with my buddy, I mentioned how I didn't like to do any workouts at home because I live in a studio apartment and that meant sweating up some part of my small living space. She agreed that that didn't sound ideal.

And then I went home and decided that I was going to do the Power Abs program and I was going to do the workouts that didn't require a pull-up bar right at home, preferably in the evenings.

I'd snagged Kari Pearce's Power Abs program during a brief promotional period over the summer when it was offered for free. I got it for free for two reasons; number one being that I am a cheapskate, and number two being that I did not truly believe that any program, no matter how advanced and scientific and calculated, would give me a six pack in 30 days. I've just got too much padding, and I'm not ready to optimize my diet for fat loss. (Spoiler - I was right about that.)

I didn't do the program when I first got it because I didn't know where I could fit it in. I really didn't want to work out in my apartment and get all sweaty there. It didn't seem right to try to do it at Arbor, and I didn't fancy going to the rec center every day for just ten minutes. I decided that doing the program would help me get over the whole not wanting to work out at home thing. And I'd also get a chance to improve my core strength. ...And maybe I'd lose some fat by doing an evening workout in addition to a morning workout.

I took measurements and pictures for before and after, because there was a contest going for the best transformation. I thought about sending in my photos, but when I had gotten through the 30 days my photos didn't really have a discernible difference. I mean, I did lose 3/4 of an inch around my waist, and I felt stronger, so something happened, but it wasn't six pack abs.

Working out at home in the evenings was not as difficult as I'd thought it would be. Some days were harder than others, especially the ones where the workout included a set of 80 burpees. On the first day, I managed to tear up my elbows on the carpet - after that I used a blanket over the carpet to prevent such issues in the future. I mostly did the Level 1 movements, which are scaled versions of the Level 2 movements, such as knee push up instead of regular push up and bending the knees for straight legged movements.

So, I didn't get a six pack. But that wasn't what I set out to do. I set out to do a 30 day workout program at home and change my mindset of where and when I can exercise. I accomplished that. (And lost 3/4 of an inch off my waist.) Now I just need to figure out what to do at home next.

Yes, that waist on the right is a whole 3/4 of an inch less in circumference :) 

CrossFit Open 20.5

I watched the 20.5 announcement at home, and I just had a feeling that something was up when the first movement announced was 40 ring muscle ups. I was right; This workout of 40 ring muscle ups, 80 calories on the rower and 120 wall balls was different from any other Open workout that has come before it. Because in this workout, every athlete was free to choose their own rep scheme.

So for those of us who don't have ring muscle ups, or maybe only have a few, we are free to complete the calories and wall balls and not worry about the muscle ups. The scaled version was the same for the calories, had a lighter wall ball and substituted chin over the bar pull-ups for the ring muscle ups. I figured it would be just as painful either way, so I went Rx, with the 14 pound wall ball. 

I really dislike wall balls, and I was not looking forward to 120 of them. At the Friday night workout, we talked about strategy and how to divvy things up. For those who were close to getting a first ring muscle up, it was advised to try and get one in the first five minutes, and then, if one was got, hurrying up to get through the row and wall balls - it wouldn't make a difference for your score if you got 180 reps and one of them was a ring muscle up; someone who did 200 reps and got no ring muscle ups would be ranked higher.

Several of us tried practicing muscle ups, but no one who hadn't already done one got one. I can do a ring pull-up, but I don't have the strength to get through the transition, and I also, technically, don't have a ring dip, so I probably wouldn't be able to push myself to the finishing position if I did get through the transition. I know I can't do one now, but I am determined that I will do one someday.

For the workout, I decided that I'd take 8 rounds of 15 wall balls and 10 calories. 15 wall balls is a doable set for me, and I prefer 8 rounds to 10. I wasn't feeling very well (again) that night, so I decided to do a trial run but not actually complete the workout. I got through 3 of the 8 rounds in a little over 5 minutes, so I believed that I would be able to finish the workout when I did it on Sunday. Afterwards, we all chatted and hung out, and I am going to miss that class. I hope they do it again next year.

On Sunday, we were back to having two heats, so my friend and I got to judge each other. She did the scaled version and came pretty close to finishing. She was doing 10 rounds of 4 pull-ups, 12 wall balls and 8 calories. Oh - one of the annoying things about the workout was that the rower was supposed to be reset after each set, so you couldn't have any rollover calories. At least the judges were allowed to reset the rowers so the athlete working didn't have to worry about it.

When it was my turn, I executed my plan. I intentionally started with wall balls so that I would be fresher on the first set and so that I would finish those first. I went unbroken on the first 5 sets - 1 set more than I had hoped for. On the 6th set I broke at number 11, which was irritating. So on the 7th, I decided to break intentionally at 10, and then do another set of 10. That way, on round 8, I got to just do a set of 10. It was kind of nice to be able to re-figure my plan mid-workout.

On the row, I just pushed as hard as I could. I can sprint the rower for very short periods of time, but for this workout I didn't want to burn myself out on the rower. So I didn't go as fast as I possibly could; I just tried to keep a decent pace. Well, until the last round when I didn't have any more wall balls to do. Then I let it rip, finished up, and collapsed.

I felt pretty good about the workout, and the Open overall. Even though I couldn't replicate my handstand push-ups from 2018, I am stronger and more skilled than I used to be. The journey isn't in a straight line, and that's okay.

Judging time! Not that there's a whole lot to judge on the rower.

On wall balls, I need to look for proper depth in the squat and the ball getting high enough. 

There goes my ball; It's right on the 9. 

Row, row, row your Concept2....

I'm imagining that I'm going gently down a stream. 

CrossFit Open 20.4

I wasn't looking forward to 20.4 after 20.3. I wasn't feeling great about the fact that I didn't do better on the repeat of 18.4. But then I watched the announcement, and I started to feel better. Not because I thought I could complete the thing, but because I had nothing to compare it to. 

Well, I panicked at first, because it was box jumps, and I'm pretty slow on those. But then I looked at the movement standards and found that step ups were allowed. Step ups, I can do! The workout time was capped at 20 minutes, and in that 20 minutes, there was a lot to do. 30 box jumps, 15 clean and jerks at 65 pounds, 30 box jumps, 15 clean and jerks at 85 pounds, 30 box jumps, 10 clean and jerks at 115 pounds, 30 one legged (pistol) squats, 10 clean and jerks at 145 pounds, 30 pistols, 5 clean and jerks at 175 pounds, 30 pistols, 5 clean and jerks at 205 pounds (women's Rx weights and movements). 

I knew that the chances of me doing a single 145 pound clean and jerk were small, but I also was pretty sure I wasn't going to be doing very many (if any) pistols, so I was aiming to complete the first half of the workout as fast as I could. I had a goal for this workout, and it was attainable. 

The Friday night class was a revelation. As one woman put it to the instructor, most of us were going to be able to do pistols, but we didn't think that we could. And she was quite right. I actually had her especially to thank, because she demonstrated a method of doing pistols that I could do! 

See, I thought I couldn't do pistols, because I couldn't hold one leg out straight and do the squat on the other leg. But what I could do was bend my free leg and hold onto my foot in a kind of pretzel shape. And it wasn't super difficult on my right leg, but my left leg was a bit weaker. 

I decided to go ahead and do the workout that night to gauge where I was with the heavier (for me) weights and the pistols. Usually, I don't go first, but this time my partner didn't want to go first because he wasn't sure he was going to go at all. So I went first. The 30 step ups were about what I'd imagined. Tough but doable. Then came the 65 pound clean and jerks. I started with a set of 5 and then did singles because I was a lot more tired than I thought I'd be. 30 more step ups was almost a rest, and then came the 85 pounds. I took those a lot slower, but I got through them and went on to my next 30 step ups - last 30! 

It was at this point that I was unsure. I completed that last set of step ups in good time, a little over nine minutes in. 115 pounds was my one rep max for a clean and jerk - admittedly an old PR, but still I had to do 10 of them here. I failed on my first rep, because I was trying to do a technique that one of the coaches had told me to try, not letting the bar get lower than my shoulders. But for whatever reason, I can't lift heavier with that technique yet. Probably lack of practice. So I went back to the technique that works for me, which does involve letting the bar drop a bit down below my shoulders so that I have a better angle at punching it up and over my head. 

And with that technique, I got through the ten reps with time to spare for trying pistols. 

Over the course of about 5 minutes, I got through 9 pistols. More than I'd ever done before in my life. I was stoked. This felt like a win, even though I was nowhere near completing the workout. 

My partner did end up trying the workout and he also got some pistols, so we were both happy with that. Actually, everyone who did the workout was pretty happy. 

I decided to go again on Sunday. I've got a friend who I usually partner up with for the Open workouts so we can take turns judging each other. But the coach decided that there would only be one heat so we couldn't do that this time. I was left scrambling to figure out who I could get to judge me who wasn't already judging someone else.

And then a couple came in who were going to go at 10 am, and I rushed over and asked if one of them would please, please, pretty please judge me. And that's how I ended up with a very good judge for my workout. She asked me what my goals were. I wanted to beat my split time for completing the 3rd set of step ups, and to get at least one more pistol than last time. 

She did a really good job of coaching me to those goals. I beat my split time by nearly a minute, didn't miss any of the reps at 115, and I ended up with a total of 11 pistols, when I had despaired at getting back to 9 with 6 completed and about 2 minutes left in the workout. She buoyed me through it and helped me beat my score. 

20.4 was such a high note that I almost wished it were the end of the Open. But there was one more workout to go... 

An 85 pound clean and jerk.

Pushing it on the step ups.

The 115 pounds comes from the floor...

...gets to the shoulders...

...and then overhead!

CrossFit Open 20.3

Most years in the Open, there is a repeat workout. And this Open was no exception. Although Dave Castro did mix things up in that this repeat was not happening on the same week as it did originally. 20.3 was 18.4, which was a workout that I had done in the past, and hoped to improve upon. 

There was just one small problem. I have been avoiding doing kipping handstand pushups in the last year or so because I am convinced that it would be better and safer if I trained myself up to the point where I could do one strict before I worked seriously on kipping. Back in 2018, I was able to do kipping handstand pushups. I got 12 of them at my second attempt of 18.4. 

But I've gained weight since then, and I haven't been working the movement. I was dreading the attempts, because I remembered on that second attempt that I completely lost the ability to do them and had to be coached through technique until my body remembered what to do. 

At the Friday night strategy class, I decided to try something a little different and brought out a yoga mat for the handstand pushups. I figured the thick mats were a bit too squishy and I don't particularly like putting my hands on the plates (in order to put an ab mat under the head, the hands must be raised with weight plates so that the head goes down to the level of the hands). 

In practice, I managed to get a few reps off. I can, in fact, do handstand pushups. 

But when it came time to get them done after 21 reps of 155 pound deadlifts... I just couldn't do it. I could go through the motions, but my arms didn't have enough oomph to finish the press up the wall. I tried and tried and tried, but I couldn't get lock out with my arms. 

I tried to hold my head high after that, but I felt deeply disappointed in myself. I was supposed to be improving. I'd been doing CrossFit 20 or more times a month for over 2 years and I regress on handstand pushups? 

That emotion was likely my downfall. It led me to going in on Saturday during the open hour and working on handstand pushups. I was convinced that I just wasn't getting the motion right, and that I needed to relearn how my body can do them. In retrospect, I think I was exhausting myself to no good end, since I didn't end up getting a single rep on Saturday or on Sunday when I redid the workout. 

One good thing did come of me going in on Saturday though. My friend was there, and I convinced her that she should do the workout Rx instead of scaled, because she can do handstand pushups. The deadlift weight is heavy for her, but she can also do that. So on Sunday, I got the joy of judging her through her first Rx Open workout, and seeing her get a good number of handstand pushups. 

When it was my turn to go, I was determined to at least do the 21 deadlifts at 155 pounds faster than I'd ever done them before. On Friday, I'd started doing an 8 - 7 - 6 rep scheme, but gave it up after the set of 8. I ended up at 1:23 for the deadlifts, and I figured if I didn't give that scheme up, I could probably get under a minute. 

I pushed through, and while I couldn't get near one of my other friend's incredible time of 23 seconds, I did beat a minute with a time of 56 seconds. 

And then I attacked the handstand pushups. And I gave it my all for the remaining 8 minutes of the workout. And all I got for my effort was a really sore head from falling down after each of my attempts. I got close a couple times, but I couldn't get it. Based on how sore my shoulders were for days afterwards, I probably would have been better off not practicing at all on Saturday and giving myself a chance to recover before Sunday... 

I had to really work at not being disappointed with myself. It helps to put that emotion into the drive to get stronger. If I want to be able to do handstand pushups, then I need to get strong enough to do them strict so I can practice kipping and continue to become more skilled. I know what it took to get a pull up, and I know that it wasn't impossible, though it seemed so before I started CrossFit. 

My friend can deadlift 155 pounds, yes she can! 

I did try. I tried very hard.

I can also deadlift 155 pounds. Pretty fast, too. 

Gosh, this picture makes it look like I did a rep... but I'm just hanging out at the top. 

Another angle on the lifting. 

Up it goes. 

CrossFit Open 20.2

I really liked that 20.2 had weights and movements that I could do. I have no illusions about putting up a competitive score, but I like being able to strive at the Rx version of the workout rather than perhaps excelling at the scaled version. I'm pretty slow, so I'd rather have my score depend on weights and skill than speed.

20.2 was as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 4 dumbbell thrusters, 6 toes to bar, and 24 double unders. When a workout has a lot of toes to bar, I usually scale to hanging knee raises, since I can't string toes to bar together very efficiently. But 6 is not that many to do at a time. And I'm finally at a point with my double unders that 24 isn't scary. I'd say, I'd probably be comfortable with sets of 30, even. Maybe 35. 50 still gets me nervous though.

The dumbbell thrusters were the only questionable part. It's only 4 reps, but women's Rx weight was two 35 pound dumbbells. I know that I have gotten that much weight overhead before, in a prior open, but a thruster is different from a jerk.

At the strategy class, I got a chance to try out the dumbbells and they were heavy. But I could lift them. Up above my head. So I was going to do my best at Rx and get a really good workout. One thing that they recommended for speed on the thrusters was to take the dumbbells to the shoulders with a kettlebell swing type movement, nice and smooth. Several of us taped the bars to protect our hands and help our grip during the toes to bar.

We were joined by a visitor here to do the open workout. I ended up pairing with her to take turns judging. She went first, scaled. She did run into a snag because none of the jump ropes were quite the right length for her (a fellow height-challenged person). But other than that, she rocked it, moving smoothly through the hanging knee raises (a real ab burner) and the thrusters (two 20 pound dumbbells was the scaled weight for women).

She also did a bang up job judging me, if I do say so myself. The hard part for me, as anticipated, was the thrusters. Those dumbbells got so heavy, and it was hard for me even to lift them onto my shoulders. I didn't want to pick them up because I knew how hard it would be. At one point, when they were overhead, my left wrist wobbled and collapsed a bit. But my toes to bar were steady singles and I managed to get through 8 sets of 24 unbroken double unders, so that's cool. My total for that attempt was 8 rounds and 24 reps (4 thrusters, 6 toes to bar, 14 double unders).

This workout was hard, but not so hard that I didn't want to try it again. I felt like I could get more rounds, 10 to be exact. That's an average of two minutes per round. Surely I could stick to that pace for a mere twenty minutes.

On Sunday, I first judged my friend, who also did scaled. She blasted through an amazing 23+ rounds, and I was in awe. I told her my goal for the workout and she agreed to nag me through it.

The major change that I made to my workout on Sunday versus Friday was in how I addressed the dumbbells. I am just not strong enough to swing those dumbbells right up to my shoulders. In the interest of keeping moving and not messing up my lower back, I switched to a two step technique. First, I deadlifted the dumbbells, then I did a hang clean to get them to my shoulders. Slower, but safer and more efficient for me. I also invested in some wrist wraps, because my left wrist was really sore from that bobble and I didn't want to lift those dumbbells overhead without some support.

And those changes made the difference. Or the fact that I'd done the workout once already and I almost always do better on a repeat. I got my 10 rounds with about 10 seconds to spare.

I'm so judgmental ;)

Such heavy dumbbells!

It's nice not to work out alone. 

We are twins, you can't even tell who is who. 

Toes, prepare to meet bar. 

My form could use some work - it would be better if my body were straighter. But for now, this gets the reps done.

CrossFit Open 20.1

I didn't sign up for the 2019 Open back in February because I wasn't feeling like I could do my best at that point. I pretty much do worse every year in the Open, rankings-wise. And unless the workout is a straight up repeat of one I've done before, it's really hard to gauge my own self-improvement. I hadn't been running very much at that point in the year, and I also had a cold for a good two weeks during that time.

I decided to do the 2020 Open even though things haven't changed all that much from February for me. Okay, I have gotten stronger since then, what with the Spartan training that I did. And I've been running again, which helps get my lungs in better shape for these challenges. And I have a much better attitude toward the whole thing right now. I'm just going to go out and do my best.

To that end, I signed up for Arbor CrossFit's Open strategy class, Fridays at 6:30. The cost was not exorbitant, and I liked the idea of being in a group of people focused on doing their own bests. Not that that doesn't happen on Sundays, but not everyone at Arbor is signed up for the Open (or even for the Fall League challenge at Arbor), so it's a different energy. Just another workout for some folks, while others are striving to do their absolute best on this test.

I was a bit nervous before the first one, because what if these serious people were too serious for me? But I didn't linger on that worry and I'm glad I didn't, because it was all great people, most of whom I knew well already.

The class went well. I learned a new strategy for bar-facing burpees and did some practicing for the workout. Some people actually went ahead and did the workout that night, but I didn't feel like doing it twice. The workout was 10 rounds of 8 ground-to-overhead (snatches or clean and jerks) and 10 bar-facing burpees with a 15 minute time cap. The Rx weight was 95 for men and 65 for women, with a two foot take-off jump over the bar required. The scaled weight was 65/45, with a step over the bar allowed rather than a jump.

I knew that for me the burpees would be the slowest part for me, and that slowness would carry over whether I was lifting 65 or 45 pounds. A 65 pound snatch is a heavy snatch for me at this point, but I got a chance at the strategy class to try out the weight, and I was able to lift it. By doing one rep at a time, I should be able to do my best for 15 minutes.

I had no illusions that I would finish the workout, but that would have been true scaled or Rx. So I chose to do Rx and test myself that way for this workout. In the strategy class, those of us who were not completing the whole workout went through 3 rounds. In those rounds, I worked out how to do the new burpee strategy, which involves a half turn in standing up and while it does have a two foot take-off, it doesn't always have a two-foot landing (which is okay). I also noted that my time for 3 rounds was a bit over 7 minutes, which gave me a good goal for the real thing.

On Sunday, which was my birthday - thanks Dave Castro for giving everyone burpees for my birthday - I signed in to the 8 am class to go and do my test.

But I wasn't in such a hurry that I went in the first heat. I needed to get someone to judge me, and, luckily, there were a few people there to watch and cheer, one of whom I was able to convince to judge for me. I told her my goal was to get 6 rounds and not stop moving.

I knew I wasn't going to finish; not only are my burpees slow, but the 65 pounds for a ground to overhead is pretty heavy for me if I do a snatch and moderate if I do the slower clean and jerk. But I figured 6 plus rounds would be in my reach if I could keep myself moving for the whole 15 minutes.

Those 15 minutes passed fast! And painfully... but I managed to meet my goal and get 6 rounds plus 8 reps, thanks to some great encouragement from my judge. I stayed on to cheer and watch others do the workout, though no one else needed judging.

And as I watched others doing 20.1 at my gym, I felt a welling of tears in my eyes. My body has done more than I ever expected of it. And I have no reason to be ashamed of my body. If you've never felt ashamed of your body, then you might not understand why this felt so profound for me. I have never had the body that I was "supposed" to have. I've never been thin or skinny. I've never been athletic and toned. I have always been on the heavy side, and curvy, and padded. And my family was more likely to chide me for being overweight than be supportive of what I actually was or happy with what I could actually do.

I tried my best. I did my best. I didn't quit. And that is what matters.

I started with snatches.

But 65 pounds is not an easy weight for me.

I stayed steady on the burpees.

And kept up the snatches as long as I could.

That was a good lockout overhead.

But I had to switch over to clean and jerks around the 3rd round.

Yeah, that's about what I felt like at the end.

WOW - Bear River August 2019 - Day 2

For the second day of the trip, we planned to split up into two groups. One would work their way up the trail and do general maintenance, as there were plenty of places on the trail that could use it. The other group would go back to the stream crossing and fix up the existing single log bridge into an official multi-log bridge. I was very clear from the start that I wanted to be in the bridge group. I wanted to see how such a bridge was built, what made it work best and how we would direct the trail to the new route. It sounded more exciting to me, so I volunteered to be the group photographer for that group.

Plus, I wanted to get pictures of the beaver eaten trees on the other side of the stream crossing.

We set off at a brisk pace. I probably would have walked a bit slower, but the endurance runner was in the lead and setting the pace. She and her boyfriend had done the Queens River Loop in less than a day, running, and I knew just how much work that would have had to have been.

We weren't going so fast that I missed this benchmark (which I had missed the day before).

It's not like it was easy to miss!

I made sure to get some before pictures of the existing bridge so we'd have proof of what we'd accomplished by the end of the work day (which would be about noon so we'd all have time to get home).

Sure, it's crossable, but it's dicey.

Gnaw marks!

They almost chewed through this one.

They got these ones pretty good.

This is the old bridge, from the other side (it isn't visible from the approaching side).

The first step in our rebuild was to align the existing log so that it went directly across instead of at a slant. That involved clearing out brush and mud to make seats for either end of it. And there was one bush that was particularly pernicious. It had a very thick root dug into the bank, and I whacked away at it with a Pulaski. Another girl gave a few whacks, but then moved on to something else. Swinging a Pulaski is hard work. 

When I got through the initial root, I saw there was more root going in a perpendicular direction. I was more determined than ever to get it out, so I kept on swinging, thinking that this is why I do CrossFit - so I have the strength and stamina to do other random stuff like chop a bush out of a bank. The other women asked if I needed a break, but I told them this bush was my white whale and I wanted to see it out. 

Of course, when I finished, I had to get someone to take a photo of me holding my trophy.

The corpse of my "white whale." Picture by Carrie Holmes. 

There wasn't as much crosscutting to do on this day as the day before, but I persuaded someone to take my camera and get some pictures of me actually sawing.

That's me on the right, using a real crosscut saw. 

We sawed it good.

Once the new piece for the bridge had been cut, all of us picked it up and carried it over to the stream crossing to place it next to its buddy. The log was heavy, but together we were able to get it in place.

Two log bridge - but not done yet.

That's the ticket - the branches have been stropped off and the trail has been redirected. 

After we finished with the bridge, we worked on making sure that the trail from the bridge joined up sensibly with the trail that came from the old bridge. This involved chopping up grass and laying out some branches and logs. We could have spent another hour there getting it just right, but we were running out of time, so we left it with just enough markings to show the way.

On the way back, we came across the maintenance crew and learned the term, "bump on by." It's used to alert someone that you are coming by on the trail so that neither your tools nor their tools injure anyone. Back at the trail head, it remained only to take down tents and head out.

Luxury sleeping conditions.

I chose to join a caravan on the way out since the forest service woman had said that the road was shorter going out that way, if one were headed for Idaho City. I figured staying in a group on an unknown road would be safer with my sedan. We all made it to Idaho City safely, and then, well, I've already written about the adventure that happened next.

WOW - Bear River August 2019 - Day 1

I enjoyed my first experience with trail maintenance back in June so much that I just had to do it again. This time, I'd plan on staying the whole weekend instead of bailing out early because of prior commitments. And I'd go in with a little bit of experience in how the whole thing worked and what was going to be expected of me on the trail.

I drove out Friday evening after work. As luck would have it, I had driven out this way for a backpacking trip just the week before, so I knew where to expect the road that I needed to turn on. A good thing, because there were only two signs, and they had to be placed with maximum strategy rather than maximum aid to drivers unfamiliar with the area.

The first part of the drive was one I've taken many times - it's the route we take to the Queens River trail head through Idaho City. So I know the roads well enough to take them with ease. When I got to the turnoff, I almost went the wrong way, but one of the signs showed me that I needed to turn left very soon after getting on the road.

Then came a bit of a scary drive. The road was narrow enough to make me hope that no one would approach from the opposite direction (no one did), but the views were pretty enough to make me want to stop and take pictures (I didn't). I kept an eye on the odometer, but I was still feeling pretty nervous as I continued to drive and didn't see anyone. But as the road descended from the pretty views into a river valley, I finally saw the second sign and a group of cars parked at a not-very-well marked trail head.

I pulled into the line of cars and then went over and said hello to those who had arrived before me. I only knew the trip leaders from last time - everyone else was a first timer. I got my tent set up - this time I took our car camping tent and the air mattress so I could sleep in luxury, rather than the backpacking tent that's easier to set up, but much smaller.

Women continued to arrive as the sky progressed from dusk to dark. Two didn't come in that evening, and we hoped that they weren't lost - it's not as if they could have let anyone know if they decided not to come; there's no cell service out there. We went to our respective beds, after, perhaps, finding a quiet place to answer a call of nature.

Yeah, that was the major drawback of this particular trip. No pit toilet at the campsite.

I was pretty cold that night. I tried to tough it out, but I ended up going to the car and getting the down blanket that now lives in the car because it's too stinky for indoors. Stinky it may be, but it serves as an effective barrier to the cold and boosts the performance of my down quilt.

The next morning, I got up and got myself ready to go. I had packed my day pack before leaving home, so that was ready. I caged some hot water to make an herbal tea and ate my banana and energy bar breakfast. We gathered around for the gear and safety lecture around 8. The representative from the Forest Service had not yet arrived when we finished, so we started up the trail without her.

Bear River Trail is quite pretty.

I got to try my hand at chopping with an ax. I got one lucky blow in, and then I couldn't hit the darn thing again, so I ceded my tool to someone else to try. When we reached a tree that had fallen across the trail, we worked on getting it off and the Forest Service woman arrived with a surprise. Rather than doing general trail maintenance, as had been our plan, we would be going to a specific spot to work on a bridges.

So we set off for those spots - but we ran into a large log across the trail. About half of us stayed back to use the crosscut saw on that while the rest of us continued to where the bridges needed to go. I was in the group that went ahead; the trail itself is pretty nice, and the morning was cool enough that it wasn't a burden to hike along - even in the boots that I hadn't worn since the last trip in June since I switched to trail runners for backpacking.

The first spot where a bridge was needed was pretty obvious. The trail looked like it continued to follow a ridge, but it was actually supposed to turn to cross the river a quarter mile away. I could see how there were already some logs laid across the boggy grasses, but those logs were themselves buried in grass and difficult to see.

The old bridge, buried in the grass and not extending to dry trail.

While a few of us took a break, a few others, including myself, went ahead to the river crossing to see what was needed there. A beaver dam had complete drowned the trail at the river crossing to the point where the original bridge wasn't even visible from the trail anymore. A log downstream of the dam made for a makeshift bridge, which I crossed along with the Forest Service woman. I was charmed and amazed by how many fallen aspens had tooth marks on them (which I at first mistook for tool marks).

The decision was made to reroute the trail at both spots, but we'd focus on the bog bridge first. I started with digging out some bushes. See, rather than try to make the trail be where it had been, curving away from the ridge, we were going to punch the bridge out to the ridge at a right angle. There were bushes in the way, so I and another woman started by trying to clip and uproot them while others worked on digging out the grass where we'd lay more logs.

That day involved a lot of crosscut saw use. The last trip, I didn't get an opportunity to  use the crosscut, but this time I got as much as I could handle of it. We needed so many logs to make the bridge! Once a suitable log was found, it would get cut into lengths, and then we'd carry the lengths over to the bridge and find another log.

Gotta whack these bushes.

Needs more logs!

Yes, like this one.

I did find time to play around with the digital microscope on my camera.

I enjoyed the physical work, and getting to use the crosscut saw. I beat a strategic retreat right before lunch to find a place to dig a hole, and then rejoined the other women trying to stay in the shade. The day had turned quite hot, and we all needed to pay attention to that with how hard we were working.

We finished the bog bridge a bit after three in the afternoon. On the way back, I hung out at the rear of our walking train. One of my new friends was pushing a bit harder just to keep going, and I wanted to make sure she made it back okay. I know about being left behind, and I don't like to let others feel that way if I can help it. After all, she was out there in the woods. That's hard core whether you have to walk slow and take rest breaks or not.

Bushes gone, logs all the way.

Someone kindly took this photo of me - lucky it's so far away so you can't see how dirty I am.

One more view of the completed project.

Pretty, yes. Hot, oh yes. Where are the clouds??

And it was really, really hot.

I thought about going for a dip in the river when we got back, but I ended up just doing a face-wipe bath instead. I didn't want to stand anymore, but I don't own a camp chair, so I brought over the bin I was using for my food to sit on. Slowly, time for dinner came around. And we put out quite a potluck spread.

More flowers.

This is a hole under the trail. It's going to need maintenance sooner or later. 

Almost back to the trail head!

The two women who hadn't shown up the night before had indeed gotten lost, but they found us on Saturday. Dinner was burgers and brats, along with salads and fruits and chips and cookies and banana bread and veggies and all sorts of deliciousness.

This isn't even all the food; it's like the appetizer table.

My luxury tent, front and center.

When someone went to bed, I got to borrow her camp chair, but I didn't stay up too late. Everyone was a bit tuckered out from the work, and the hot day had turned into a chill night.