Tag: hiking

March 6, 2025 – Do You See Me?

March 6, 2025 /

Early last week, I caught the crud. As a result, I took the whole week off. Trust me, I needed to because I could not breathe anyway. The photo below was taken the weekend before, when I was on my long hike. It was the first time I saw a game animal in the area that I have been hiking.

As I have been exploring the area, I see all of these great places that seem like ideal hunting spots. This is a research forest belonging to Oregon State University. As such, hunting is severely limited. I keep thinking that there should be an elk heard right there and I know that there are several in the area. Regardless, it makes me happy to see game. I just hope that I don’t have an unexpected cougar encounter.

I didn’t have a solid plan other than I wanted to go as far as I could before the weather started to change. Downpours were predicted to start around noon and unfortunately, I couldn’t leave until after 11AM because my wife wanted me to stop at the post office before I left. They keep extremely limited hours on Saturday only being open 11AM-1PM.

You might think, knowing all of that then maybe I should have targeted getting out of the house earlier. True, that might have been a better plan but by the time I got going and had breakfast it was 9AM. I really didn’t want to rush my training just so that I could make it to the Post Office in time. And my sickness aside, I need to have the mindset that I am going no matter the weather or other environmental factors.

True to forecast, it started drizzling at about 12:30pm. After about a half an hour, I stopped and re-arranged my pack to put my poncho on top. I told myself that if it gets much worse than this, I am going to put my poncho on. It never really got worse than intermittent drizzle until I was ten minutes from the car when it started actually raining. I figured I would suck it up and just get out of there which is what I did.

The final numbers on my hike was right at 10 miles in four hours. What I noticed is that each week I challenge myself, it gets slightly easier. From that I am gleaning, what I am doing is working. Was it hard? Absolutely it was. Did I feel like I wasn’t going to survive like on week one? No. I had to stop and catch my breath at times, my shoulders ached at points and my joints were ready to be done at mile eight, but I did it.

As I stated at the beginning, I didn’t have a real plan. The only real thought I had was to continue to explore this trail system that I have been working through. I wanted to take new routes and get familiar with all of the nuances. I had a rough idea that I was going to go to a new trail via a different route. My idea was to get to this new trail and go half a mile up the trail and turn around. By the time I got half a mile in, I wasn’t completely sure that I was on the trail that I thought I was on.

I looked at the map and I told myself that I should be meeting another trail within a couple of tenths of a mile. If not, I would backtrack the way I came all the way back to the car. As it turns out, I met the intersecting trail right where I expected it to be and so I carried on. The point I am making is that it is that desire to push a little bit farther, and then a little bit farther that is the mindset to get do more each week.

It is not like you are completely alone out there. As I was having doubts about my route a trail runner came by. If it came down to it, I would ask somebody as they seem to come around every thirty minutes or so. The area has hikers, bikers and horse riders. I have seen all three.

End Your Programming Routine: I keep telling myself that I have to embrace the suck. I distinctly remember shortchanging my half marathon training because I wanted and excuse to not do it. I literally wanted to not be fit enough to race. What actually motivated me to run was signing up. Once I had a date, I knew that I had to be ready. I probably will never be as ready as I like for this hike but I am making strides.

February 20, 2025 – For Pain and Gain

February 20, 2025 /

If you look closely, you can see that I made it to the snow line this week. That is not because I went higher but because the weather got quite a bit colder. I took the same general route that I did the week before for the first part of my hike and my goal was to measure if there was any effect of my struggle the previous week. I am happy to report that I could see minor improvement.

This was a celebratory moment for me. It means that not only did I make measurable progress but that it was a sign that I was going to make it. Don’t get me wrong, I have a long, long way to go but this trip was a sense that what I am doing is working. Trust me, I don’t really embrace the suck but I know that it is necessary for my goals.

Before we get too carried away, I want to report on the bike. I got the basement cleaned up and the bike is setup but I have yet to seriously use it (at the time of this hike). So, I can’t claim that made any difference at this point. The week after the hike I used the bike a couple of times.

I don’t really have a solid plan yet. Part of the reason for the bike is when I can’t get a walk in outside be it daylight or weather or whatever. Because I live on flat ground and limited distances I can go, I am thinking of using the bike in addition to walking. The goal is to bolster cardiovascular fitness with the bike.

Last weekend we were at the beach so I have not tested the bike work yet. I also do not plan on taking the same route every week. Remember my theory of goal setting, the joy is in the process and not the achievement of the goal. I want to get to know as much of the trail system as I possibly can which means different routes each week. It is the same reason why my daily walks vary every day. Otherwise it feels too much like walking on a track.

The good news is that at my stage of fitness, I don’t have to continue pushing boundaries like distance. Doing repetitive hikes and even shorter ones can yield benefit. I was looking at the data from my hike the week before and I saw that my heart rate went as high as 153. That is too much stress.

The conventional wisdom says that your maximum heart rate should be 180 – minus your age. That makes my max heart rate to be 130. For that reason, I made this hike shorter. I don’t know if I totally buy that but the reality is that I am out of shape and midlife, I probably should be mindful of my boundaries. There is also spotty cell phone coverage in this area. Getting medical help in timely fashion is an iffy proposition.

This is not a race, I am not timing myself and measuring improvement. I am measuring improvement by how I feel and my ability to keep on going. Putting one foot in front of the other will eventually accomplish the goal.

End Your Programming Routine: As I head out the door to these longer weekend hikes, I have dread. I hope to someday look forward to doing these and enjoying the experience but right now it is necessity. I can’t afford to skip many of these and expect to not pay for it on my PCT hike. As long as I can be confident in my fitness, I am looking forward to that hike but I have a ways to go.

January 16, 2025 – A New Year, New Gear Part 2

January 16, 2025 /

Meet my new pack. A brand new, 65L pack made by Gregory. As far as I am concerned, I am pretty brand agnostic. I guess to be totally truthful, I would prefer to support brands and companies that reflect my values and I bought this one without any research because it was the right size and fit the load the best of the ones I tried.

What I want you to know about packs is to go somewhere where people know what they are talking about. Yes, I bought a pack from a box store in the past without any sort of sales help. And if you are already an expert then that is fine. But this time, I went to a specialty store. I am not going to lie, it was REI and they do not generally reflect my values. That being said, they offer options and they provide help by people that actually do the work.

The first thing that they asked was have I been measured? Of course, the answer was no. I don’t remember the exact numbers but the results were the top end of medium and the bottom end of large. The reason this is important is that packs are sized both in what they can hold and the structure on how they fit on the body. Not only that, but different brands interpret S/M/L as exactly the same. Hence, go to a store that is knowledgeable about the product.

Another service that I got was having the pack roughly adjusted and a load added for each of the potential options. I was able have the pack optimized and walk around the store, including flights of stairs and see which one worked the best. You don’t get that from a box store or the internet for sure. Most of the other gear can be coped with but a pack is critical to be right. Hopefully, I made my point.

Another major difference between my 1990s, external frame pack and my new one is that the old one was designed to lash gear to the outside. That is where I put my sleeping bag, tent and pad. All bulky and heavy. For that reason, new gear needs to be considered to be put inside of my new pack. Everything, including sleeping bags are smaller today because they need to fit inside the zippers. So, the gear strategy is different than it used to be requiring evaluation of all of my old stuff.

A general rule of thumb is bags up to 25L are considered day packs. 30-50L packs are a couple of days and 50-70L are the week long size. Any larger than that and things are too heavy to reasonably pack. My current training pack is a 40L pack. I put some weight in it to give me something to lug around. I bought this pack with the idea that I would use it for weekend trips. Truthfully, I have used it very little since I bought it so it was almost new when I started training.

Incidentally, I was looking at the tag on my 40L pack and it was marked S/M. I have been having some problems with straps staying tight as I walk, While not completely uncomfortable, I wonder if that pack is actually too small for me. I thought the size denoted the capacity not knowing that they were built for body types.

One last thing to consider on packs. My two older packs are top loading. The advantage of that is that everything is well contained and they are considered to be able to hold more. Packs that can access the contents from the front are significantly easier to use. You do not have to dump everything to get to the bottom. I found with top loading options that the pack needed to be repacked every day.

I have tried to pack strategically but inevitably you should only be packing the things that you need. Therefore, everything needs to be accessed. This leads to dumping the pack every day and repacking. That is kind of a pain, I am hoping that this new, front loading pack is much more user friendly, but I will have to use it to be sure.

End Your Programming Routine: I have one more major piece of gear that I need to get and that is a tent. I am researching that now so more on that later. My plan is to keep using my training setup on a daily basis and to take my new pack out on some weekend testing. That probably wont happen until I have the tent however. Right now, I am just filling the new pack up with new stuff. That is my specialty.

January 9, 2025 – A New Year, New Gear Part 1

January 9, 2025 /

When I first announced that I was going to do this, I had over a year. Now I am looking at six months. I am no where near prepared with my biggest worry is my fitness. The bad weather, low daylight, holiday pre-occupation along with my summer interruption last year has really cut into time I feel like I need. This has to become the primary focus as I prepare.

I don’t really want to dwell too much that aspect here. I don’t find it that interesting to write or read. Even though I have a version of most of the gear from the early 1990s, I have a list of gear to get for my modern challenge. All told, I expect the gear-up to cost around $2000. While I could probably get-by, borrow or skip a lot of it. $2000 for a week’s worth of vacation doesn’t seem that unreasonable.

On the scale of continuity, safety follows comfort and then enjoyment. I do plan on getting a satellite beacon for emergency communications. Being of questionable fitness, you never know if I end up rolling my ankle or god forbid some sort of heart attack or even a snake bite. I definitely plan on doing what I can to shore up my fitness, but stuff happens like lightning strikes.

I know from my half marathon days that shoes are important. Recently, I have been getting pain in my hip and knee after my training walks. That is the tell-tale sign that my shoes have broken down. I not only need shoes now, but I need to find the shoe that I don’t want to throw off the cliff (you knew that was coming…). Conventional running wisdom says that shoes are good for about 300 miles before they start breaking down. This also means I will likely go through at least two pairs of shoes before this hike is in the books.

I have loved the heck out of Keens that I bought. I wanted durable, water proof shoes when I was delivering for Amazon. I wanted to step in puddles and not care. They have done that for years. I also like that I don’t have to untie them to get my foot securely in the shoe. But, I don’t like the sole construction. I have had to repair the soles multiple times and I certainly don’t want to have that worry on the trail.

While very comfortable, they also feel heavy and clunky. I tried on a new pair Keens at REI and they felt like an old friend. So, that brand is still on the list due to my four years of heavy use and comfort. I opted to try the Merrill Moab 3 instead. These are still waterproof but the sole looks like it has a propensity to stay stuck on the shoe. I just started breaking these in, so the jury is still out.

I definitely like the water proof aspect for my current training but that is a property that I probably wont need on the trail. Another thing that I like about the Merrill is that they make the same shoe without Gore Tex. So I could have summer and winter shoes that basically fit the same without the extra sweatiness and bulk.

I am not totally in the tank for a light hiker either. I tried on some trail running shoes in this session. Part of me thinks that I want more of a running shoe as I practice around the city and on pavement. The hikers seem to be more rugged but that comes at bulk and weight. Besides durability, I don’t think that hikers are necessarily better shoes for safety or stability. I do think they will provide more miles before breakdown. Soles aside from my Keens, I get no pain from walking in them all day long.

At my wife’s urging, I also picked up a couple pairs of socks. One is a synthetic and the other is a Merino wool. The added advantage of technical socks is that they wick moisture away from your feet. This would be from sweat or puddles. This makes for more comfortable feet and a must for an enjoyable hike. Given that I am going to have a limited wardrobe, probably two pairs of socks, Merino wool had the added advantage of extended odor resistance. This is less muss and fuss about that gear component.

End Your Programming Routine: I had actually planned on talking about all of my new gear but it turns out I had more to say about shoes than I thought I did. Next week, I will discuss my new pack and what I have learned about packs. Because of the pain I have been experiencing after my walks, I have been holding back on my walks recently. I have to correct that first if I am going to get my fitness ready in time. Very important when it is my first worry.

December 5, 2024 – Not Even Close

December 5, 2024 /

The first thing that we did on the day of our arrival was to go on a hike. This is called the ‘M-trail’ at the University of Montana. It is essentially a mile up a very steep hill. I was interested to test my readiness and progression. Plus, it is like a bonus training exercise which I have been pretty lax about lately with lack of daylight and poor weather.

The M-trail goes to a giant letter M on the hillside. You get a complete look at the college as well as most of Missoula. It was very popular as we probably encountered at least fifty people going up, down and waiting at the top. Some were running, some were dogs, some were students and others were families clearly visiting for the holiday.

I did it. I wasn’t wearing a pack and I did have to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. I am not claiming to be in good shape but I think some of the strain was that we started at 3500 feet to begin with. Then we went straight up. I felt OK and maybe a little tired by the time that we were done.

The way that I looked at it though, is that I need to be able to do this ten more times with a loaded pack. The section that I am planning on hiking has some 20 mile stints between water sources. Granted, it probably won’t be this steep but the starting elevation is close.

I definitely felt it in my shins, they were sore the next day. I am not sure why exactly but I think that it has to do with rotating the foot, toes up and heel down. I am thinking that stretching movement was the cause. I am not too worried about the temporary pain but it does make me wonder if I can keep that level of strain for a week.

Clearly, I need to push myself more. It is difficult because we have no elevation to speak of. I walk the dog with a weighted pack but even then, I am only going an hour or hour and a half at a time. When I was younger, I would have dealt with it. But, at my age I don’t recover as quickly. I also noticed that I have been having some arch pain. My wife thinks that it could be the beginnings of plantar fasciitis. That is also something that you don’t want to come up on the trail, miles from anything.

It was a good check to see where I was at with readiness. Clearly I need to do more and fortunately, I have time to keep at it. It those days that the weather is nasty and I didn’t get out early enough that I need to not lose because I don’t have much time to waste.

End Your Programming Routine: You cannot tell from the picture, but my wife is in it. I was kind of torn between staying with her and pushing myself. Ultimately, I decided to continue on and wait at the top if she was going to make it. Believe it or not, the trail does continue to go up. We stopped at the official terminus but multiple people we met kept going up. It makes me wish I had something like this for my training purposes.

June 25, 2024 – Ten Essentials

June 25, 2024 /

Back in my day… We were required to have two things to leave the campsite, a compass and a whistle. Of the two, the whistle is probably less obvious but possibly more useful. In case of getting lost, the whistle could be used to try and draw attention. It could also be used for self defense against animals or people. I still have one although I have never used it.

The compass kind of makes sense although I would argue it is one of those things that makes you feel better than actually helpful. A compass is really no good without a map and you really need a kind of sort of idea where you are on the map. Further, I have seen a lot of people doing poorly despite active practicing in orienteering.

Today’s Boy Scouts have a more sophisticated set of requirements than I had. The rule of safety is the Ten Essentials. It is not just Boy Scouts, but hiking guides, REI and others recognize the value of being prepared. I am going to cover what is exactly part of the ten essentials as I prepare to get ready for my PCT hike.

List vary slightly and in their detail but this is an example

  1. knife
  2. First Aid Kit (with bug and sun protection)
  3. Extra Clothing
  4. Rain protection or sun protection depending on the season
  5. Water bottle (filled)
  6. Flashlight or head light
  7. Trail food
  8. fire starters
  9. shelter, like a personal bivy
  10. Map and compass or GPS or Personal locator beacon

I do believe in making some modifications. For instance, I like a heavy duty garbage bag. It can make an emergency poncho, it could be part of an makeshift shelter and it can serve it’s intended purpose as a trash bag. They are cheap and light. A proper set of raingear adds a lot of bulk and weight that is likely not necessary in most cases. I would probably also add cordage like paracord. If you need to make a shelter or a splint, you are going to be super thankful that you had 20′ of cordage.

Another alternative to shelter might be a space blanket. I have a lot of them but honestly I have never used one. The have three principle advantages being cheap, light and reflective to help with being found. I carried one when I was in Boy Scouts and I have multiple in each vehicle just in case.

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned on any list that I looked at was signaling devices. I always carried a steel mirror along with the whistle. The theory being that I could flash an airplane or helicopter or even a far away ridge.

I don’t think that it is possible to have everything needed when needed. So for instance, having an extra set of clothes doesn’t make a ton of sense in the summer when the sun can dry you out but may be imperative in the winter to stave of hypothermia. My preferred way to handle this requirements is more like layers. I might bring an extra garment like a pull over or sweatshirt that can double as a single outer layer if needed.

One item that I have seen listed but mostly ignored is hunter orange. There are a hell of a lot of dumbass hunters out there. I have known some of them. There are also a hell of a lot of ignorant hikers out there. Typically those two worlds don’t intermingle and operate independent of each other. In Oregon turkey, bear and predator season start in April and some run through November. This would be prime hiking season as well. I like earth tones as well but maybe one of the spare garments should be hunter orange.

Water is obvious but food is very subjective. I don’t think you will ever carry enough food to matter if you really are stuck or lost. A short, temporary delay you will be fine skipping a meal. A broken leg where nobody knows where you are, I am sure you didn’t carry enough. I have a couple 2000 calorie bars that I take hunting with me that probably need to be replaced but that is my solution. I will often carry lunch as well for a day hike. Of course a multi-day hike you will already be carrying food for your trip.

End Your Programming Routine: I didn’t talk about all of the items but this could get out of hand if I gave my opinion on everything. Boy Scouts was one of my seminal experiences in my preparedness lifestyle. I always err on having more than I need within reason. I carry a bandana, fishing gear (also doubles as mending) and don’t get carried away with first aid. There is only so much you are going to be able to do in the woods anyway. Smart money says get help when you can. One last tip – keep a one shot of toilet paper. When you need it, you need it.