Hiking with Kat
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- Jan 12, 2010
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After the usual car spotting and a few hours of sleep we started from Appalacia at 4:35, this was an AMC trip and 19 of us started.
Event Paprika can't wait to get started.
Headed up Airline and then followed Watson Path to Madison.
Watching the sun rise on Airline.
About to ascent Madison, our first peak.
Looking on to Washington, still a long way.
We ascended to Madison Springs Hut and arrived at 8:30, still in time for coffee cake and drinks. Shortly after leaving the hut we ran into Lilly who asked us which was the way to Washington, which seemed an odd question, but we pointed her in the right direction.
Mount Adams certainly seems impressive, it was the only new 4000 footer for me on the trip, number 33.
Looking on toward Jefferson, we would have to walk over one of those snow fields and convince the dogs to now roll down the slope.
At Edmonds Col we lost our first team member, one of our party turned back rather than continue. This was really the last place this was possible from.
At this point I started to feel really bad, I was surprised as I thought I was in pretty good shape, but I started to get cramps and felt exhausted at the summit.
I took it really easy going up Mount Clay and felt somewhat recovered. The weather was amazing today, we started out in 53 degree temps and I don't think it got over 60 until the final descent. A light vest was the warmest thing I ever needed to work. Did need lots of sun block and bug dope.
On the way up Washington we meet up with Lilly again, turns out she was from New York and had driven up for a travers, but her party had left without her. Even though she was a Yankee fan we adopted her and she hiked the rest of the trail with us, so we were back up to full strength again.
I climbed up Washington at a pretty good pace but nothing to brag about.
The summit was so crowded that I chose this location for a picture.
We got to the summit restaurant at 2:30 and planned on a 20 minute break, but that quickly stretched to over an hour. I think it was a good rest for most of the team.
At this point I was feeling so bad that all the food just looked terrible. I realized I hadn't eaten more than a few snacks during the day, I just didn't seem to be able to eat anything. I managed to get a banana and some Gatorade down.
Another of our party decided that they had had enough and took the hiker shuttle down.
We hiked down to Lakes, after the long break I had really stiffed up and at this point I decided that if I was going to finish I needed to take dramatic action, so I look the loop around Monroe while the rest of the group went over. Definitely disappointing, but I've been over Monroe a number of times and I didn't want to be out till midnight.
Looking back at Monroe as I waited for the rest of the group. Joe and I had earlier had a discussion about what it meant to finish a traverse, his opinion was if you started at Appalacia and finished at Crawford Path you had done a traverse. That was some consolation to me, especially with lots of miles to go, but I was still disappointed.
At this point something happened that took me a long while to understand. As the group arrived I took off and hiked Franklin and on to Eisenhower about 5 minutes ahead of the rest of the group.
All of a sudden I was really feeling good, I continued on to Pierce feeling really strong and about the best I had all day.
As we started to get lower some nice wild flowers appeared.
As I was moving along I started to wonder what had given me this second wind. It was certainly nice to stretch my legs rather than hike at the groups pace, I'm never been much of a follower, and I certainly felt I had something to prove to myself, but that really didn't amount to much of an explanation.
At this point I realized I had done something on this hike that I had never done on a long hike before. Back at Madison Springs hut I had added two tablets of Camelbak Exilir Electrolyte Enhanced Hydration Supplement to my bladder. It had been recommended by another hiker and I had tried them on a short hike. Since I had Gatorade at Washington I did not use any more the Exilir.
My guess is that for some reason this supplement had messed up my absorption of nutrients and that after it passed out of my system (things tend to rather fast) I got an immediate hit of energy.
At any rate it was nice to feel good again.
Of course things were not to end up as well as they had been going, on the way down from Pierce I slipped on a rock and ripped up a blister on the ball of my foot. I tried to tough it out for about 10 minutes, this wasn't going to work, so we wrapped it in duct tape and I hobbled on down.
We finished a little after 9:30, happy and satisfied with our effort. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day or better company. I felt good enough today to mow the lawn, but the real test will be how well I play at golf league tomorrow night.
Event Paprika can't wait to get started.
Headed up Airline and then followed Watson Path to Madison.
Watching the sun rise on Airline.
About to ascent Madison, our first peak.
Looking on to Washington, still a long way.
We ascended to Madison Springs Hut and arrived at 8:30, still in time for coffee cake and drinks. Shortly after leaving the hut we ran into Lilly who asked us which was the way to Washington, which seemed an odd question, but we pointed her in the right direction.
Mount Adams certainly seems impressive, it was the only new 4000 footer for me on the trip, number 33.
Looking on toward Jefferson, we would have to walk over one of those snow fields and convince the dogs to now roll down the slope.
At Edmonds Col we lost our first team member, one of our party turned back rather than continue. This was really the last place this was possible from.
At this point I started to feel really bad, I was surprised as I thought I was in pretty good shape, but I started to get cramps and felt exhausted at the summit.
I took it really easy going up Mount Clay and felt somewhat recovered. The weather was amazing today, we started out in 53 degree temps and I don't think it got over 60 until the final descent. A light vest was the warmest thing I ever needed to work. Did need lots of sun block and bug dope.
On the way up Washington we meet up with Lilly again, turns out she was from New York and had driven up for a travers, but her party had left without her. Even though she was a Yankee fan we adopted her and she hiked the rest of the trail with us, so we were back up to full strength again.
I climbed up Washington at a pretty good pace but nothing to brag about.
The summit was so crowded that I chose this location for a picture.
We got to the summit restaurant at 2:30 and planned on a 20 minute break, but that quickly stretched to over an hour. I think it was a good rest for most of the team.
At this point I was feeling so bad that all the food just looked terrible. I realized I hadn't eaten more than a few snacks during the day, I just didn't seem to be able to eat anything. I managed to get a banana and some Gatorade down.
Another of our party decided that they had had enough and took the hiker shuttle down.
We hiked down to Lakes, after the long break I had really stiffed up and at this point I decided that if I was going to finish I needed to take dramatic action, so I look the loop around Monroe while the rest of the group went over. Definitely disappointing, but I've been over Monroe a number of times and I didn't want to be out till midnight.
Looking back at Monroe as I waited for the rest of the group. Joe and I had earlier had a discussion about what it meant to finish a traverse, his opinion was if you started at Appalacia and finished at Crawford Path you had done a traverse. That was some consolation to me, especially with lots of miles to go, but I was still disappointed.
At this point something happened that took me a long while to understand. As the group arrived I took off and hiked Franklin and on to Eisenhower about 5 minutes ahead of the rest of the group.
All of a sudden I was really feeling good, I continued on to Pierce feeling really strong and about the best I had all day.
As we started to get lower some nice wild flowers appeared.
As I was moving along I started to wonder what had given me this second wind. It was certainly nice to stretch my legs rather than hike at the groups pace, I'm never been much of a follower, and I certainly felt I had something to prove to myself, but that really didn't amount to much of an explanation.
At this point I realized I had done something on this hike that I had never done on a long hike before. Back at Madison Springs hut I had added two tablets of Camelbak Exilir Electrolyte Enhanced Hydration Supplement to my bladder. It had been recommended by another hiker and I had tried them on a short hike. Since I had Gatorade at Washington I did not use any more the Exilir.
My guess is that for some reason this supplement had messed up my absorption of nutrients and that after it passed out of my system (things tend to rather fast) I got an immediate hit of energy.
At any rate it was nice to feel good again.
Of course things were not to end up as well as they had been going, on the way down from Pierce I slipped on a rock and ripped up a blister on the ball of my foot. I tried to tough it out for about 10 minutes, this wasn't going to work, so we wrapped it in duct tape and I hobbled on down.
We finished a little after 9:30, happy and satisfied with our effort. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day or better company. I felt good enough today to mow the lawn, but the real test will be how well I play at golf league tomorrow night.
