9.0 mile hike: Silver Lake

Ahh, the holidays. I hadn't been indulging too badly, but I had been sitting on my butt an awful lot. I got back on the scale and...it wasn't good. Not too bad, but going in the wrong direction. Time to get back on the wagon.

I hit up the YMCA yesterday for some time on the rower, stair master, and treadmill. I know some people can just get on one machine and go for a long time, but I am not one of them, so I rotated machines. The stair climber kicked my butt. Legs felt OK, but my cardiovascular conditioning leaves much to be desired. Not unexpected, but not good. I stayed on that thing for just 10 minutes and even then had to take a break in the middle to catch my breath. Borrowing Jeff's iPod helped drown out the other people, so maybe I can make the gym thing work for me. Weights are set up in my home gym in the basement, but I've mostly done bodyweight stuff down there so far. It gets me sore enough for now.

Today I had the whole day free and decided to load up the pack and take it for a walk. 

I did 9 miles (this 4.5 mile trail twice) with 25 pounds on a nature trail and didn't feel too bad until the last mile when I started dragging and my feet started hurting more. I got to try out my new Sawyer Mini water filter along the way, including the adaptations I made to make it gravity fed so I don't always have to squeeze it. Parts of the stream were ice-covered, but there was a convenient area just under a little bridge that had free flowing water so I could use my little dipper thingy to get the water (separate post on water system forthcoming!). I only got about a half a bottle since I mostly just wanted to try out the system, but it worked! Flow rate was slower than I expected, but I just gave it a squeeze to speed up the process.

Every time I go out, I try to learn something or try something to see if it works. Here's what I learned/tried during this trip.

Lessons learned
1. I can get my pullover wind shirt off while walking and without taking the pack off.
2. The ZPacks hip pockets I added to the pack have a reputation for being difficult to close one-handed. I found it's best to hold the bottom of the clip tight against the pocket with my ring finger so it's more or less stable and then use my other fingers to guide the clip to the right place. I think it would be easier if the bottom part of the clip was solidly attached to the pouch, so I may modify it so it is.
3. Payday bars from last summer are tough and stale.
4. My water filter/gravity filter mods work.
5. I had my torso adjustment right the first time (I did a mile with it a bit longer and it wasn't as comfortable).
6. The wind shirt goes a long way toward making chilly temps more comfortable, even with just light layers underneath.
7. I really like the shoulder strap pouches from ZPacks.
8. I'm still questioning my pack choice. It's comfortable but heavy. I'm having trouble pulling the trigger on the ZPacks Arc Blast, but I need to decide soon so I can commit to my current pack and start trimming things off it to lighten it or order a new pack so I can put some miles on it this winter.

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When I got home, I tried out a trail smoothie recipe of Carnation Instant Breakfast, dried milk, PB2 (powdered peanut butter) and a cup of water. Dry weight was a little over 3 oz, and it had 18 grams of protein, which is good for me after a hike. I'm aiming for 100 calories per ounce on my trip, and this is a bit shy of that, but it should be close to that mark when I use dried whole milk instead of non-fat. I just poured the water in and shook it up. The PB didn't mix in very easily, but I didn't mind the chunks.

Even better was this post-smoothie drink. Can't get this one on the trail, but it's nice to have at home!

Two Brothers Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale

Camp Coffee: Trader Joe's Instant

Status: 80% In
Weight: 12 grams each packet
Mods: None
Alternatives: Vinacafe or espresso powder in Carnation Instant Breakfast  (too gritty)

I like my coffee in the morning. I never drank coffee much until we lived in Utah where coffee was "naughty" and where people who liked it really knew about it and could help a coffee newbie like me learn to appreciate it. So now I like a nice Americano when I can get it and do just fine with some locally roasted stuff in my Mr. Coffee the rest of the time. I really don't know whether I will want coffee first thing in the morning on the trail, but I think I will like the ritual of it, so I've been on the hunt for the easiest decent instant coffee I can find.

I do have a French Press for my Jetboil stove, and while it's nice when I have plenty of clean water for clean-up and a good place to dispose of the leftover grounds, I can't see myself messing with it day after day. Plus, if I'm having some good French Press coffee, instant creamer just doesn't cut it.

For my bicycle tours and other travel, I've tried making my own coffee packets out of Starbucks Via with a bit of sugar and instant creamer, but while Via was better than some of the alternatives, it still wasn't satisfying enough, and pre-mixing the creamer and sugar with the coffee left the coffee kind of stale. Plus, it was just kind of a pain in the butt.

A few weeks ago, though, I picked up the Trader Joe's Instant Coffee packets that already have the cream and sugar in them. Cheap. Light. Not bad.

Well, they aren't bad as long as you put only about 6 oz. of water with them. They also aren't bad mixed in with Vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast, which I plan to use on trail sometimes so I can get at least a few vitamins. Good enough for me for the trail. The only other kind I'm going to try is the
Vinacafe Vietnamese Coffee, which has much better reviews than the TJ's packets in terms of how strong the coffee is, but I haven't ordered any of that kind yet to test it. I'll let you know which one wins the coffee packet wars!

Edit: New alternative! My husband got me a nice burr grinder for Christmas, so the other alternative is grinding my own coffee on the lowest espresso setting to get espresso powder, which I can drink in the Vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast packets I plan to take. Not ideal in terms of texture, but that would get me my caffeine! Update: This one is a no-go. Taste is ok, but the texture is too gritty for me to really enjoy. I want to enjoy my morning coffee, so this option is out.

I'll also take some tea for warming up in the evenings, but tea selection is less important to me than coffee selection...

Jello legs and abs so sore it hurts to sneeze...

I haven't said as much about my diet/exercise progress because I didn't do such a great job of focusing on that in the past month. However, I'm back in business now that I'm less busy--walking more with the pack, lifting and doing body weight exercises in my basement, eating my veggies. I'm down around 5 lbs. now but there's no more time to waste if I really am going to have a negative pack weight.

Today I did body weight squats, some ab work, calf raises, supermans (lower back), and a few other exercises before work. My legs were all jello-like when I got done. I walked to work and then walked to the grocery store and back. On the way back, the pack was 33 pounds, which is uncomfortable and more than I will carry on the trail, but we were running low on a lot of things, and I threw in a bag of apples at the last minute. The good news is that now I know what that weight feels like and am motivated to get more weight off my body and out of my pack.

We'll see how the legs feel tomorrow and the day after.

The Gym.
I used to really like the gym. In grad school, my apartment complex had free memberships to a nearby gym, and I used it at least 3x per week. With my schedule, I could go in the early afternoon as a mental break between classes and studying. I took a weightlifting class and got strong. It was great. Then the free memberships went away, I moved to a different part of town, my classes and research took up more and more time, and I let my fitness slip. Big time.

I really want to like the gym again, but as I use my current membership less and less, I realize that I just don't like it so much. There are a lot of kids around, including high school kids who think that sitting on a weight bench talking to their friends is a good way to use their gym time, and one too many well-meaning but ultimately annoying people who want to "help" me in the weight room. One guy told me "for sure" I was using one piece of equipment wrong (I wasn't)...not that he used it, but he saw it on TV at the Crossfit Games. Dude. Not the same piece of equipment. Not the same exercise. Not the same muscles worked. Not any of your damn business. Most people do mind their own business, but I'm realizing that I like lifting in my own basement better even if I can't do some things because of limited equipment.

There are two things keeping me from canceling my membership, though. One: It's the only place nearby to swim that doesn't require a long-term contract, I kind of like swimming now after I took some lessons last winter, and it could be decent cross training (though I'm not a very good swimmer, so this benefit isn't as good as it could be). Two: I live in a freakin' flat area, so even if I walk a lot of miles outside, I'm not getting the leg workout I'll need to do well on the trail. I can get to some hills or long sets of stairs on weekends, but I really should just get into the gym and use the incline on the treadmill and the stair climber thingy during the week. So...I'm going to keep the membership for now, but I'm planning on canceling it before I get on the trail and using the money to build myself more equipment in my basement instead.

Gear Selection Philosophy

In hiking circles, the acronym HYOH (Hike Your Own Hike) is used over and over again to remind people that the decisions other people make may or may not be the decisions you make on your hike. HYOH means that you should decide your own distance, pace, and style. HYOH means you should also get to decide your own gear, including its weight and comfort, though certain hiking forums might seem to indicate that unless you buy the latest/greatest/lightest that you're doing it wrong.

Gear for me is about compromises between weight, comfort, and money, and those things are always in tension. I thoroughly enjoy researching my way through that tension and seeing which compromises result (really... since my first long bicycle tour, gear research has been a hobby). On the money side of things, I'm just going out for a few weeks, so I don't want to devote huge sums of money to buying the latest/greatest/lightest gear. If I were doing a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail for something like 6 months, I'd probably spend a little more to get my pack weighing a little less. For this trip, though, I'm shelling out the most money for things I didn't have (like a 1-person tent) and selectively upgrading a few things. On the weight side of things, I like taking advantage of newer materials and technologies that result in UL (Ultralight) gear, and some of the UL stuff is just so damn cool! I'll take some UL things with me, but I'm not willing to spend a bunch of money to save an ounce here and there when I still have a lot of extra body weight to take care of. I'm also aware that I'll carry more than is absolutely necessary because I'm traveling alone and believe in being able to get myself out of most pickles by myself. There's also another hiking saying that the more you know, the less you have to carry. I'm no survivalist, and when I hit the trail, I'll still have some backup gear that other hikers wouldn't carry because they have more knowledge and have made different compromises.

Comfort is the last big factor and the one where HYOH is most relevant. To some extent, backpacking is about deprivation. As an admirer of minimalism, that appeals to me. Backpacking consists largely of 3 things: walking, sleeping, and eating. Minimizing pack weight makes walking more comfortable but may make sleeping and eating less so since you might not carry a cushy sleep set-up (or a pillow) or a stove when you're trying to minimize weight.

I know from my bicycle touring that I am willing to carry a bit more than some people in the name of comfort. I'm sure my husband will attest to the fact that I can get a bit grumpy if I don't have good sleep, so I carry a warmer (slightly heavier) sleeping bag, an air mattress, and a small pillow (I've tried every fake-pillow known to campers--including dirty clothes, a jacket, a blown up water bladder, etc.--and none of them work well for me). I know this is a good set-up for me, and while I could get the weight down by buying new versions of what I have, what I have is good enough. I'm also a bit grumpy when I'm too cold for too long, so I err on the side of warmth and may take an extra layer or so that someone else might not (see rain pants below). I also find great pleasure in eating, so I'm taking my stove. I cannot live on pop-tarts alone.

Anyway...

All this means is that my gear should not be your gear. This blog is no ultimate gear list or best gear list or any other kind of gear list to emulate. There are thousands of other gear lists online, and some of them do purport to be definitive. My gear will keep evolving as the tension among those three big factors shifts. Future trips will probably see less and lighter gear as I keep upgrading things when necessary or when I get good deals. I know some of my stuff is a little on the heavy side, but so am I. The gear won't determine my success or failure on the trail, but it's certainly fun for me to research it!

Rain Gear

Status: 80% In
Weight: Jacket--386 grams, Pants--216 grams
Mods: None (yet). Will adjust hood cinch on jacket if I take it.
Alternatives: DriDucks or Frogg Toggs. They are lighter but bulky, less reliable, more prone to damage, and less stylish (which I don't normally care about, but I do like plain black rain pants for wearing in public). Other lighter alternatives cost a lot more money, which I think I'd rather spend on other things.

Want to see some people argue on the internet? Go into just about any hiking forum and ask about rain gear, especially rain pants. For this trip, I'm using what I've got, which is some heavy but warm rain gear. Part of the reason I'm sticking with what I have is that I know I can use these with some thermal layers if it is miserably cold and wet. Some of the worst weather to hike in is 33 degree rain. Snow is drier, so it's better if it just snows. The rain gear I have is pretty warm, so I know I'll be ok with it if there's some nasty spring storms on the trail.

Jacket
Patagonia Torrentshell Women's XL

I got yellow so I could be visible while riding my bike in the rain. I heard bears might like bright colors, though, too. Thankfully, they don't seem to pay as much attention to color in wooded areas.

While it stuffs down into its own pocket, at over 13 oz, this is no featherweight. The newer versions of this jacket are a couple ounces lighter, and I've used it enough to know it's going to do what I want it to do. It has big pit zips under the arms for ventilation, and it's big enough to fit over all my other layers if I need it to. I could lose close to 10 oz by switching to some of the uber-light jackets out there, but at $200+ for the lightest ones, I'm just not going to do it. ZPacks has this UL cuben fiber jacket if you are starting from scratch with your gear and have a lot of money. This jacket is definitely weightier than I'd like, but I guess I just need to hit the treadmill a bit more to make up for it!

Pants
Rain pants are a subject of much discussion on those hiker forums I mentioned earlier. At the moment, Rain Kilts are all the rage. However, I use my pants for insulation, too, and wear them when I'm doing laundry. I don't think a see-through kilt is going to cut it for that. Lots of people go with Frogg Toggs or Dri Ducks or something similar. I got these pants when I switched to a recumbent bike and figured out that the seams in the crotch weren't taped. Recumbent bicycles expose your nether regions to more rain than regular bikes, and showing up to work looking like I'd wet myself meant a trip to the store for rain pants. The only problem was that we were living in a desert and they weren't particularly easy to come by. Since I have bigger hips, I really need to try on pants before I buy them. These Hi-Tec ones were what I found. I think they were $20.

They are close to 10 oz, but they really are waterproof, even in heavy rain. These plus the wool tights I always take on trips will keep me plenty warm down below freezing. Hopefully it won't be that cold, but I'd like to be prepared. The rain kilt linked above is only 2 oz, and their rain pants are 3 oz (and just a little more than $20!) but I'd like some chance of staying mostly dry if it gets that cold. My legs don't sweat much, so I don't worry about that as much as some people.

Dirty Girl Gaiters

Status: 99% In
Weight: 36 grams
Mods: Added shock cord through top seam to make them adjustable
Alternatives: None. I'm committed to these! I guess the alternative is no gaiters, but these are worth the weight to me.

So, the bad thing about going with lightweight trail runners is that there's nothing keeping dirt, rocks, sticks, etc. out of the top of your shoes. Enter Dirty Girls: http://www.dirtygirlgaiters.com/

Light, low gaiters can keep some of that gunk out of your socks and shoes and, more importantly for me, keep you from having to stop to get little rocks and stuff out of your shoes on a fairly regular basis. They hook to your shoelaces in front and attach to the back of your shoe with a little bit of velcro.

The Great Internet kept bringing up this brand as the best lightweight gaiter option, so I knew I wanted to order some, but it took me a week to figure out which pattern I wanted. I decided on this "Rocket Scientist" pattern, but Shaggadelic Blue and Why Bee Normal were close behind in the running.

This past summer, I got to see Saturn and its rings through a telescope near the top of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai'i. It was the unexpected highlight of the trip for me, so I went with this pattern.

I have chubby legs, so I had to order a custom size so my circulation wouldn't be cut off at the ankle--most people who buy these are super-hardcore trail running types with apparently scrawny ankles, so I'm glad they offered custom sizes. More recently, I realized that these wouldn't stay up if I was wearing shorts instead of pants, and they were a little loose with pants, too, so I added a bit of shock cord through the top seam. Now I can adjust them using the little cord lock you can see above. I got the elastic and cord locks with a recent order from Z-packs, and I love it when little customizations make something just a little bit better for me!

These come in at  36 grams for the pair (including my modification), or just a bit over an ounce. If nothing else, these are worth it for me to keep some of the ticks away from my ankles. I got bit by over 100 little nymphs right at the front of my ankles from a nest of ticks I accidentally walked through during a hike this fall. My pants and shoes were treated with permethrin to keep ticks away (more on this later, too), but my socks weren't. I'll sure as heck be spraying these down before I head out in the spring to try to avoid that issue.

Feet: Starting from the Ground Up

If there's one thing I'm really worried about in terms of my ability to complete my trip, it's my bum right foot. Most of the time, it works just fine, but I have some history with it being an absolute PITA on occasion. The first time I remember there being a problem was in my first or second year of grad school. I'd been working out regularly with free weights and was probably about as healthy as I'd been since high school. I was strong, and while I still wasn't much into cardio, I was right in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height.

I woke up with such pain in my foot one morning that I was sure I'd kicked the wall in my sleep and broke my foot. After hobbling into the student health center, though, I had my diagnosis: Plantar Fasciitis. Great.

I guess my case wasn't too bad, though, because it went away after a month or so of diligent stretching and such. I must have blocked it out of my mind, too, because when I had a similar pain after a very long walk a few years later, I totally forgot about the previous incident and again went to urgent care convinced that I had broken my foot somehow. Diagnosis: Tendonitis. Great.

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Somewhere in between those two incidents, I had purchased a sweet pair of La Sportiva hiking boots during a trip to Montana. My left foot felt great in those boots. However, my right foot always felt like the arch support was in the wrong spot. I tried Spenco and Super Feet insoles. I later got new cycling shoes, too, and had the same problem. I tried to fix it in those shoes with some SOLE insoles that I could put in the oven and mold to my foot. I tried those insoles in my boots, too. Still, my right foot was never 100% comfortable. The arch support always felt like it was too far forward, and I figured that my arch was just too tight or misshapen because of my earlier foot issues, so I went back to using super-padded running shoes for everyday wear and walking. No major pain issues, but lots of minor discomforts. Discomforts (and a very time consuming job) that meant it was more comfortable to stay home sitting on my butt than getting outside and walking or getting to the gym and working out.

These are now my snow shoveling boots...

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I was getting chubbier and decided to go with the nuclear option. I joined a CrossFit gym. It was a good one, with smart trainers and a willingness to work with an out-of-shape person who could barely run. I loved the weights part of CrossFit. I learned to like rowing. I still hated running. I also hated paying so much money per month. I suspended my membership while I traveled one summer and just never went back. I later tried a cheaper CrossFit box, but it was clear that the trainers there were not nearly as good and that they were mostly interested in working with people who were already very athletic. I left after just a couple of sessions.

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Looking back, the one really, really good thing that first CrossFit gym did was convince me to get out of super padded running shoes that put my heel way up above my forefoot. Working on deadlifts one day, I thought I had maxed out on the weight I could pull. They had me take off my shoes, added about 20 pounds to the bar, and I was able to pull it without any more difficulty than the previous lift. I went out that afternoon and bought some flat shoes that looked like something from the 1970s. I have never gone back to padded shoes with a higher heel, and my feet feel much, much better.

About 7 months ago, I picked up some New Balance Minimus trail running shoes and did more research on foot biomechanics. My feet were finally comfortable in shoes. I took them on a 5 mile hike, paying attention to landing mid-foot and taking shorter but more frequent steps. No pain. I immediately went and bought a second pair since they aren't durable enough to last for too long. I have one dirty "trail" pair and one "road" pair for everyday use. They are awesome.

I'm now committed to going with lightweight minimal shoes whenever possible (my asymmetrical arches=problems with any arch-support shoes I try). If I hadn't found these shoes, I wouldn't even be thinking about this backpacking trip since I couldn't conceive of walking that far in uncomfortable shoes. I'm still fine-tuning my footwear and trying out some similar shoes, so stay tuned for a future post on that process!