Death By Mountain: Avoiding Death By Diet

Sick!

2011-11-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Just before Halloween I got sick. Very sick. This is notable because I used to get sick a lot before Death By Mountain, but after working on diet and exercise my susceptibility to sickness had nearly vanished. In the grand scheme of things I wasn't nearly as sick as I used to be, but I was sick for a long time. I was miserable for most of a week, bedridden for a day, and still coughing two weeks later (which is today).

My daily walking has plummeted. Just before getting sick I had been pumping out 10k steps per day, but while being sick I've averaged only a few thousand. I hope to rectify that soon.

My weight seems to be easily kept at 15 pounds lighter than what it used to be. With more care and more exercise I should be able to bring it down even more.

Weight lifting hasn't been going well for me. I hurt one of my hamstring attachments, and that is preventing a lot of progress for me. Being sick has also hurt me a lot.

Oh well. Life goes on.

Running

2011-10-14T00:14:00.000-06:00

My attempts to run earlier this year met with dismal failure. Even the few hundred yards at a time I attempted in couch to 5k were unsustainable.

Yesterday, to kill time, I was going to walk around Clark Field a few times. Instead, I started running around it. I ran around it four times without stopping. I did the same run tonight.

Things are looking up!

Life

2011-08-16T10:09:00.000-06:00

I'm unemployed now. Lack of work and funding. You'd think I'd be hiking more, but I'm not! I need to work on that. Tomorrow I hope.

I am losing weight though. Mostly through dietary changes. I've become very frugal in eating. I eat less overall, but a greater proportion of vegetables and much less meat.

I suppose I should talk about depression. I like to eat when I'm depressed. Now that I've been a week without work, I feel significantly less depressed. I always knew I was unhappy at the job (it was the work I was doing, not the people) but I think I was more unhappy there than I really knew. Now I have worries about what am I going to do with my life, but I'm not gorging myself on fatty or sugary food every day. My chocolate consumption has gone way down. Money will be a problem though, eventually.

Mesa Trail Recap

2011-08-05T08:38:00.000-06:00

I have a lot of rambling to get to my point.

I've been hiking up Mesa Trail since about the mid 1980s. I think it is the second best trail in the Magdalena mountains. When I joined Search And Rescue the litter carry practice was to carry a real human up Mesa Trail. Thankfully, I was sick and couldn't go that day. I've been thankful ever since, actually.

Also, Mesa Trail might not be the name of this trail. Matt's GPS showed that the other trail was called Mesa Trail. And someone had nailed boards across the "gate" to Mesa Trail. It used to be a little boxlike non-turning turnstyle to keep things like cows and motorcycles out, but that was gone. Now it is just a hole in the fence, and someone nailed boards across it. There was no sign saying it was closed, and the side-gate wasn't locked, so we just went through the gate.

All my years of hiking up have taught me things. Going out and hiking it without recently prior hiking experience is quite painful. It is a short trail (to where I normally stop) of less than two miles. A bit steep. And normally my first time or two onto it is a pain fest. I'm too out of breath to hike up, my legs are quickly too sore to hike up it. I can't walk the next day because I'm too sore from having walked up it.

And now I ramble! I've been weight lifting for a couple of months now. Medhi, whose 5x5 plan I'm following, says squats are the main exercise. Squats can hurt. Interestingly, the places that squats hurt are also some of the prime hurting-places for having hiked up Mesa Trail. It's like stepping up a trail is somehow similar to lifting up your whole body with your knees.

So yesterday, with months of weight lifting behind me, but fifteen months since my last hike, I hiked up Mesa Trail. I plodded on steadily. I didn't become out of breath. My legs didn't scream at me. We took no sit-down rests, the only substantial stop we made was so that Brad could fish his Gatorade bottle out of his pack. If not for that, it is likely that I could have hiked non-stop to the top, which isn't what I'd expect after a broken ankle and fifteen months of not hiking up things. The only time that has happened is when I've made hiking up Mesa Trail a routine occurrence. But this time I just jumped right in and it was easy. I have every reason to believe that weight lifting is what made this easy.

There were some problems hiking up. The rains have brutalized the trail. What used to be a smooth dirt path is now a rocky and painful rut. I was wearing five-fingers, and this was the most painful terrain I've every tried to walk on. At the top I had some terrible foot cramps. Walking around on flat ground after getting back to Socorro was hard, and I limped a lot because of how knotted my left foot was. This morning isn't bad. I can feel that I was mean to my feet yesterday, but I'm able to walk around, which is good. My left ankle also has some pain in it, but it got a work out too.

We hammocked at the top, as always. I took a few pictures. Despite saying I needed to take a lot of pictures, I didn't. The hike down was painful because of my foot cramps. If my feet were in better shape then it would have been pretty easy to get down.

Mesa Trail

2011-08-04T15:11:00.001-06:00

Heading up Mesa Trail tonight. I packed 8.63kg for the trip but added a couple of things that probably weighes half a kg. Camelback, junk bag, two hammocks, rain parka, rain pants, camera, M&Ms, figs, GPS, hat, trekking poles, and a camp towel.

Hiking Tomorrow

2011-08-03T13:13:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow I lift weights, then I go for a hike. Mesa Trail. It might be #13, but I really can't remember. Maybe 13 is the one that comes off to the South and lands up the road a bit?

It's the second nicest trail in Water Canyon. Copper Canyon is definitely the nicest. The trail that cuts around the back side of South Baldy could be really nice, but it's too short, and I consider it part of Copper since it connects up and is often used in conjunction with Copper Canyon.

When I joined Search and Rescue back in the mid 1980s it was Mesa Trail that the litter training was held on. The team put someone in a litter, and then carried that person up the trail to the top. I was thankfully unable to attend that day, and it was apparently the last time they were that hard core about litter training.

I hope and plan to spend more time taking pictures on this hike. It's the one thing I constantly regret on these hikes: too few pictures. And I often take a lot, but there is a huge difference between the wow of being there and the blah of what the camera captures. It always looked so much better in person, and the pictures suck. Practice will help though. I'll get better at taking pictures.

Sunday should be another hike. Probably Mesa Trail again. It's a nice trail.

These hikes should provide me with some major spikes in my pathetic pedometer logs. I made a webpage for my daily step history. pedometer graph

Reflection On My Ankle

2011-08-02T14:23:00.000-06:00

Reading over the past year of updates was interesting. Today, and recently, I'm annoyed by my ankle because it still seems weak compared to my right, and the range of motion is restricted. But when I read what it was like after the bolts came out and I was finally allowed to walk on it then it seems like I've made so much recovery. I have recovered a lot, really. Yoga can still hurt it, but even that is getting better. Downward dogs, for instance, are quite doable now.

Two Good Reads

2011-08-02T08:27:00.000-06:00

You Walk Wrong: http://nymag.com/print/?/health/features/46213/
How To Transition Into Barefoot Running: http://www.runbare.com/446/how-to-transition-into-vibram-five-fingers/

Hiking, Eating, Walking

2011-08-01T08:50:00.000-06:00

Last night was a good walk. Despite feeling like my core strength has been doing well, I felt sore in my core after the walk. Obviously I'm still not doing enough to keep it strong. More walking will help, as it will require me to hold myself upright. On the other hand, my core could have been sore because of all the stooping I did to cook my okra stew. Oh, and there is also the fact I did squats, overhead presses, and deadlifts, yesterday, all of which I could feel in my core.

Turkey Creek needs to happen sometime soon. The prospect of going to do that will certainly motivate me. I need to hike up Mesa Trail soon, to find out just how bad off I am. I'm sure I'm pretty bad off.

Walking

2011-07-31T23:49:00.000-06:00

The rain inspired me to go for a walk tonight. It was a nice walk. There are a lot of frogs out. Big frogs too. They grow quick once the water comes I guess.

I'm at El Camino now. It's dead. There are just three people here talking about sex and dating at Tech. They make it sound easy.

My pedometer has certainly gotten a good baseline of how lazy I am. But today and yesterday were good days, in that they were high points in the graph. The lower heat and the fact that the mountains are open again should be motivating to me.

The fries here are terrible. I suspect they just cleaned out the grease.

My weight has been not so good. Lower than what I think of as my natural weight, but not really falling. My rain gear fits a bit tighter than it should. At my peak exercise, before the crippling surgery, it fit better than it does now. More walking will probably help that.

Short Time No Post!

2011-07-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

My eating habits have varied from good to bad. Sometimes I just stuff myself full of fat and carbs because fat and carbs are delicious. Sometimes I eat carefully and choose good for me things that are still delicious.

One problem I've sunk deeply into is monotony. It's not that I'm eating the same single meal each say like I used to, but my adventuresomeness has faded drastically. I'm trying to fix that. As well as trying to fix my poor food choices.

I have, for starters, stopped going to the gelato shop for cookies. It's not really that I don't want the cookies, but that they have successfully waged a war against customers to the point that I'm just not willing to go back. For a while, then the war was just a skirmish, I wore earplugs to go in there. But they just kept upping the volume of the music. The time I tried to eat something there the music was so loud that people were having to raise their voices to be heard talking. The last time I rode my bicycle past the building I could clearly hear the music through the front windows. And the end result is that I don't eat cookies anymore. So I guess their terrible music selection and volume knob that goes to 12 (one more than 11) worked out well for me.

I'm making a concerted effort to keep up on my fruits and vegetables again. I'm making a concerted effort not to eat french fries again. I've been trying to eat fish more.

And I'm trying to remember to cook new things that I haven't cooked before, or haven't cooked in a long time. Two nights ago I made a chicken and mushroom dish. The mushrooms were fried until they started to brown, the chicken was pounded flat, and the sauce was made from garlic, balsamic vinegar, and "dijon mustard". The dijon mustard is in quotes because I made it myself, and it wasn't really quite right in terms of the recipe. But it tasted good.

Tonight I plan to make spaghetti with tomato sauce. I have roma tomatoes from Tom Hyden. He only had a few, but the people ahead of me in line passed them over. I find it baffling, really. I'd be hard pressed to think of any tomato recipe I know that doesn't call for a roma toma as the best possible tomato to use. They are firm, meaty, and low in seeds.

Tonight my spaghetti sauce will be made from them. Though I'"m still unsure if it will be raw or cooked. Either way,. I have a pound of tomatoes to make it from.

Every Friday, for several weeks now, and continueing tomorrow, I've been making Pho. The goal is to get good at it. I use Andrea Ngyuen's recipe as written about my Jada's Steamy Kitchen website. I'm getting better. I think this week should go pretty well. I plan to cook the broth a day ahead of time (tonight) so that I can properly defat it.

Long Time No Post

2011-07-14T08:34:00.000-06:00

There had been an anniversary hike to the Turkey Creek Hot Springs scheduled for May 21 of this year. But the Gila was on fire, and the area was closed. Since then, everything has closed. Even the river is closed, so I can't even hike on the sand next to the water.

I am however, make to weightlifting. The thing that led me to all this. My hydrocele made itself known when I started weightlifting in 2009. The hydrocele caused them to find my blood sugars. And those made me try to become healthier. So here I am.

The surgery to remove the hydrocele was crippling. I should have just told them to chop it off rather than fix it. Oh well. Live (in pain) and learn.

Weightlifting has been going on for some time. Day one, we lifted the bar with no weights. It was a bit hard. We started lifting in late May of this year. We started with a pure strength program, StrongLifst 5x5. It is a pure strength-based program that just builds strength. One person hated it the entire time because we were building too much strength at 5 pounds per workout-day, so we recently switched to a more endurance based program, but still following the core exercises of the 5x5. The same person still hates it because he thinks we are doing too much endurance each workout day. I think he would be happier not lifting. I'm not sure which program I like more. I felt I wasn't doing enough work on pure 5x5 to make me feel accomplished, but I liked how quick the sets were and how easily we were progressing in strength. With the endurance sets I like that I feel sore afterwards (something I seldom got from 5x5) but it does take a while to do the workouts.

I bought a pedometer a few weeks ago. So far, I'm not aiming for any goal, though when I bought it I had said my goal was to outdo someone else I know who has a pedometer. I need to start walking for a goal soon. As it is, my steps counts varies wildly per day, depending on what I do.

I should mention that I'm tremendously stronger now than I was this time in May. And I like the feeling of being strong.

I guess that's a good catch up post.

Death By Frisbee

2011-03-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

For weeks now I've been going to Yoga on campus on Monday and Wednesday. Each time I've left it, I've noticed people playing ultimate frisbee. I used to play ultimate frisbee with the campus club. Back in 1982. I don't think I've played since then. With the couch to 5k thing, I've found myself feeling really good. Ultimate frisbee requires running and walking, and some throwing, and it's fun. So I showed up about 17:00 yesterday to see if they were there, and they were. I tossed the disc in a circle with them for a while, then joined a game. Wisely, no one passed to me, but I did try my best to block. I can barely run, so I wasn't effective at blocking either. But it was a hard work out for me, and I enjoyed it a lot.

In the end, it was far more painful than what Brian has me do. I was a little worried I might have hurt myself. My ankle made some weird pops and felt really sore. I strained the inner thigh muscles on my right leg pretty badly. But, it all passed. If it is swollen today, I can't really tell by looking at it.

The group meets Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 17:00. I think I'll plan on being there to play on Thursdays. The Mondays and Wednesdays are in between Yoga and Couch, so perhaps I'll just take pictures of them for a little while on those days. They also play on Saturdays at 13:00, but not this Saturday as they will be in a tournament in Las Vegas.

Couch To 5k again

2011-03-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did my second couch to 5k. I was a little surprised I made it, not because of the first, but because of my lunch. Lunch made me feel bad.

But I made it. Brian got back from Albuquerque in time that he made it too.

I wore the five fingers again. I put the left on first, and it was tight. My foot was swollen. But the right foot was swollen too when I put that one on. Interesting.

On the first day, but the end of the first 60 seconds of jogging, my left foot hurt. It was the hurt of tired, the hurt of having overworked weak musclles. I made it all the way through last night without that hurt being nearly as intense. I improved a lot in two days, which I expect given the way things havce gone for me.

I'm supposed to do it again tomorrow or Saturday on my own. I might very well do it twice before Monday comes around again. It's a 20 minute work out, and not hard, and I like the way it makes me feel, even if I do complain a lot about the sore muscles.

In other news, I'm wearing shoes again today. Myheels are getting too dry, and wearing shoes has proven to be easiest way to moisturize them.

Yesterday's yoga made my left arm numb. It's sadly common for my arms to go numb if I exercise my shoulders. And yesterday's class really hit the shoulders hard.

Couch To 5K

2011-03-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did day one of the Couch to 5k. It was five minutes of walking, which I was able to do at a normal person's walking speed, then we alternated running and walking for 20 minutes. All told, it was at least 2100 meters.

My foot rather quickly discovered that it was weak. Very very weak. But I managed to do it all. I started out up front and by the end I had migrated half way back to the middle group.

I wore my five-fingers. I want to learn to run barefoot, so why not start learning that as I relearn to run. I limp today because of mild soreness. Very mild soreness. I expect that tomorrow will be a bit worse. And tomorrow I do it again.

Good news?

2011-02-22T10:44:00.001-07:00

Since the start of 2011 I have good news. I can stand on my toes! I can also walk almost as fast as normal people can walk.

I made a new years resolution: to go on a five mile run.

Starting Monday Dr. Borchers is doing a "Couch to 5k" program that I definitely plan to attend.

I'm in yoga classes two or three times a week now, depending on the week.

The Mountain Isn't Coming To Schlake

2010-11-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

I started this because I went to to the doctors office about a cyst, and after the blood tests they felt that I didn't have two months. I had more blood tests. My lack of progress has receeded quite a bit. I still feel amazingly better (for instance, I've had a minor couch recently, but I'm not bedridden and deathly ill as in previous years), but my numbers are bad. Something like spontaneous pancreas failure bad. I shall have to work harder, and eat better. Dr. Borchers has chastised me in the past about my love of chocolate chip cookies. I guess, though, that I should never give him the chance to do that again. Last night, instead of going out to eat because I'm lazy, I stayed home and ate cooked greens (though with a bit more bacon and bacon grease than I know I should have) and a soup of beets, beet greens, chicken broth, and egg noodles. Today I'm probably still in deep trouble despite my wonderful meal last night, but at least I have frightening fluorescent orange urine. My breakfast today, rather than a burrito purchased in the Hispanic Food Triangle, I'm eating green leafy vegetables. For lunch I have carrots and a cucumber. Hopefully I can be strong.

An Update Is Needed

2010-11-04T22:56:00.001-06:00

I haven't posted because I've had little good news to share. News is still bad, but it is sharable news.

My third-grade nurse (who had to remove a pencil eraser from my right ear) felt that seeing a physical therapist about my ankle would help. My surgeon didn't send me because he thought I'd recover on my own through my activities. Overall, however, the problems and pains have been problematic in my own eyes.

When I had my appointment today Kelby was surprised at how much mobility I had in my ankle. I still get the feeling that I'm much more recovered than the average fat and lazy person would be, despite how fat and lazy I am. I think my ankle is in terrible shape, but I measure it against my right ankle, which is in great shape. But given his reaction to my condition, my surgeon was probably pretty correct about how well I'd do on my own. I'm just not happy enough with my own progress.

Long pointless meandering story short: I have physical therapy now, twice a week, and he's going to be aggressive with me. I like that. Today I had to do multiple exercises to exhaustion. The one felt like exhaustion would never come, but when it came it was fast and painful. In yoga I do standing poses on one foot to strengthen my ankle. In PT I stand on one foot and trhow things against a wall then catch them again. I think PT is harrder. In yoga I have to be still.

The actual referral to PT lists "wants to run" as my reason for needing PT. Over a year ago I was on tack to go running with Dr. Borchers, but my surgery killed that idea.

Walking Sometimes Happens

2010-10-08T14:30:00.000-06:00

I've gone on a few walks since I last updated. Nothing major. Nothing as long as what I've posted about. More often short walks about a mile long. The walks haven't been bad, but for the past three weeks I've been doing therapeutic yoga, where therapeutic means torturous. Of course, since I judge the success of an activity by how badly it messes my ankle up afterwards, the yoga is a clear winner for helping me. I'm definitely making a lot of progress from the yoga at the expense of being crippled after the sessions. The last session on Sunday hurt my right foot too, so I've been limping on both of them. (It was a massive toe cramp.)

I feel like I'm on the cusp of being all fixed. Stair don't quite work out like they did before this happened, but they work out pretty well compared to how they have been working out these past few months. Walking sometimes happens naturally and fluidly. I did a little left-footed warrior-3 in yoga. (I flailed around like a tentacle covered Lovecraftian windmill though.)

Jogging!

2010-09-20T23:42:00.000-06:00

Tonight I went out for about 1/2 a mile walking. I did two warm up jogs of maybe a handful of yards each. Then, about the 1/4 mile point, I jogged for 100 steps. It isn't far I know, but I'm certain my ankle will tell me it was a terrible idea tomorrow. I'm also certain that my ankle will improve a lot by next week because of the pain I caused it.

No pain baby, no gain, no pain no gain.

Walking: harder

2010-09-14T22:17:00.001-06:00

It is harder to walk tonight than it was last night. I obviously did some good on that last long walk, but I need to wait before I try again.

Not Walking

2010-09-13T22:27:00.001-06:00

I need to go to Wal*Mart. I know I can walk that far, but I just walked last night and it was hard to walk today. I don't think I should taunt the ankle by being so hard on it twice in a row. So I think I'll bicycle there.

Walking: hard

2010-09-13T06:55:00.002-06:00

Well, the walk paid off in pain. I can barely walk today. There isn't any swelling this morning though, which is good.

A Longer Walk

2010-09-12T22:24:00.002-06:00

I took a longer walk tonight than the last one I posted about. Not much longer though. It went much better for me than the last walk. My ankle hurts now though, but there is almost no swelling.

.275 decamiles!

2010-08-28T23:41:00.001-06:00

I walked .275 decamiles tonight. Around the middle I really thought I was about to collapse because my left leg just wasn't able to hold me up. But it got better. I did rest some though, at El Camino, a little more than half way through my trip. We'll see if I can walk tomorrow now.

Walked

2010-08-22T22:03:00.001-06:00

I walked 11 decimiles tonight in a single burst of walking. It's a three-month record for me!

It started out painful, but as I approached 1/2 a mile I felt warmed up and my foot didn't hurt much. As I neared 3/4 of a mile my foot was hurting again, so I abandoned plans to walk further and headed for home. Overall, I'm happy.

Stitches: Out

2010-08-12T21:43:00.002-06:00

I go back in four weeks for another check up, but as of now my stitches are out. And I have athlete's foot on that foot. I was also told to stop jumping. Jumping isn't normal so I shouldn't be doing that. He expects me to have full mobility back in about eight weeks.

Ankle Strength: You Don't Notice It Until You Are Missing It

2010-08-12T08:57:00.000-06:00

Stairs are dangerous for me. I've spent some time trying to go down them on both feet very slowly, and I think my problems are entirely in ankle strength. I seem to have the range of motion to step down, but no physical strength to do so. I can't lift my own body weight onto the ball of my left foot. I can't even stand on my left food. Jumping is right out. All of these things seem related to ankle strength.

Showering: Allowed

2010-08-03T14:06:00.000-06:00

I'm down to adhesive bandages on my leg. I'm told I can shower as long as I don't soap or scrub the wound, and I dry it carefully before rebandaging it. In nine days the stitches come out.

I have basically no inversion or exversion of the ankle. My dorsal flex and extend seems poor to me. The docotor didn't care about the first two, and didn't seem concerned about the last two.

Walking

2010-07-31T00:16:00.000-06:00

I had my surgery. It went well. I was awake for all of it, though a little loopy. Now I'm trying to learn to walk again. It hurts. My ankle feels very strange when I twist my foot back and forth. I'm missing quite a bit of range of motion. The last time the doctor checked it, a little over two weeks ago, he said I wouldn't need physical therapy. Hopefully I still won't when he checks it again on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll be allowed to shower soon.

Surgery!

2010-07-28T23:47:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow morning I have surgery again. It will be back to the crutches for me I'm told. But my ankle will be free moving, which means I'm close to walking again.

Microbes

2010-07-18T22:03:00.000-06:00

The NY Times has an interesting article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13micro.html

If you've paid attention to medical science then you've probably noticed that it mostly operates on fear and ignorance. My mom once asked me why doctors wouldn't tell her about herbal remedies. My answer was that Christianity had demonized the witches, and medicine has continued to carry that torch. Years back I saw a scientific paper on detecting pregnancy. Some amazingly smart "scientist" had discovered what everyone has known for thousands of years (the Greeks were the first to writ it down). But now that a paper had been written on it, it was actually real.

So anyway. The what-if question. What if diabetes is just a problem with intestinal fauna just like that woman in the article had?

Back To My Old Weight

2010-07-18T09:28:00.000-06:00

I weighed myself recently. The big metal boot and the Teva added some extra weight to me, but I don't think I'm looking for pound-accuracy. I'm back up to just under my pre-Death-By-Mountain weight. In the past couple of weeks I'd noticed I'd gotten bigger. It's been seven weeks of a broken ankle, and so that isn't too surprising. Hopefully I can send it back down in a few weeks when I'm allowed to walk again.

More on my ankle

2010-07-16T03:23:00.000-06:00

One bit of good news is the physical therapy. Lots of people have been telling me to make sure I do my physical therapy because if I don't I'll never recover that lost movement. When one person told me I had a long and painful PT ahead of me I brazenly said that no, I didn't, it would be easy. He told me that was a good attitude.

Yesterday the doctor had me show him my range of movement in my ankle. After which he said that there was no reason to send me to physical therapy. I don't have as much movement in the left ankle as I do in the right, but I have quite a bit. And once those screws come out I expect it will be even better.

They are making me get a physical for this surgery. I asked why I didn't need a physical for the last surgery, and they told me I had had one because I wouldn't have had the surgery without it. They were insistent that I had one, and that I couldn't have had surgery without one. And I'm very positive I didn't have one, because I'd remember it.

I'll probably be awake for the next surgery. It is pretty minor. It has to happen in the OR though, it is too involved for an office visit.

2010-07-15T16:53:00.003-06:00

That was a really long appointment.

My calf has shrunk. My leg is really dry and flaky.

The next surgery is two weeks from today. After that, I should be able to walk without the giant metal boot anymore.

2010-07-15T07:30:00.002-06:00

In a little less than eight hours I'll be at the doctor again. I've been out of the cast for about three weeks. It has been seven weeks since the surgery. It is my sincerest hope that the giant metal boot will come off today (and stay off). I hope to be able to shower soon. I hope to be able to start physical therapy. Going on long walks isn't very viable now because of how badly the boot rubs on me. Bicycle riding will be easier with out it as well. I hope to have the second surgery soon. The sooner the better.

Four Mile Bicycle Ride

2010-07-11T11:48:00.002-06:00

I started riding a normal bicycle yesterday. It wasn't so good at first, but it got better. Today I went out for a "long" ride. I headed to Macey Center, then to Wal*Mart, then home. By the time I got to Macey my arms were hurting badly. I'm sure I'll regain that conditioning pretty quickly. I tried to ride without hands to alleviate it, but I haven't done that in a month and a half, and I was using a squirrely bicycle, so I gave up on riding that way pretty quickly. I made it about four miles at least (1/2 mile form my house to the plaza plus 1 mile from the plaza to the gym makes 3 miles overall round trip, plus the extra distance to Macey and I took a longer way home, so I had to be getting up near 4 miles). This will be easier without the boot.

Weight: Gained

2010-07-10T11:20:00.002-06:00

I've gained weight recently. Considering how "well" (poorly?) I've eaten in the past week, I guess I expected this. I need to get back on track.

I rode a two wheeled bicycle today. The first 400 meters were great. The next 400 meters weren't so great, but it wasn't painful. My ankle just felt weird. I stopped for breakfast then. The 800 meters back home felt just fine. I'll need to go out and ride more not that I can.

I can't really pedal fast because the giant boot is in the way, and my foot isn't straight on my leg anymore, but I can pedal.

Slowly recovering

2010-07-07T19:02:00.001-06:00

In about a week I visit the doctor again. I'm hoping that my next surgery will follow shortly thereafter because once I have the surgery I can start trying to regain my range of motion in my ankle.

(Almost) One Year

2010-06-20T20:11:00.006-06:00

[I wrote this because my computers clock was off (a GMT versus MST problem) and so daily image archive viewer showed me the wrong day; it's actually tomorrow.]

It has been one year since my first Death By Mountain hike. Not a great year. I was very motivated right up until the surgery. Then I was bedridden for months, then I was unmotivated. As of today, I still have a broken ankle and I'm not allowed to walk or even drive.

I get around town in a recumbent hand pedaled tricycle that I borrowed from Warren. I get my cast off on Tuesday. Hand trikes are hard to ride because I'm weak in the arms.

My first post-accident yoga class is Tuesday as well. We will see how that goes in a giant plastic boot.

Overall I'm better off than I was a year ago. My change in diet rid me of illness, seasonal allergies, skin infections, and much of my happiness. I miss eating fried potatoes and chocolate as my primary diet. But, I used to be bed-ridden from illness for a week at a time several times a year, and it hasn't happened once since making the change. I used to devastated by allergies when the junipers bloomed, but this year my eyes itched a little. I used to have recurring problems with flesh eating bacteria on my bicycle seat and legs, and they have gone away, and I used to have infections on my fingernails, and they have gone away too (except when I binge on sugar).

Uphill and Downhill

2010-06-09T08:23:00.002-06:00

Up until I broke my ankle my primary method of transportation was to ride my bicycle. With my broken ankle I'm not medically allowed to even drive, so for a little while I had to get rides everywhere. I still get rides, but I borrowed a recumbent tricycle with hand-cranks so that I'm not totally dependant on other people. The most amazing thing I've learned is how "hilly" Socorro is. I've learned this because it doesn't take much of a hill to suddenly make hand-cycling very hard.

In other news, I had a terrible reaction going on under my cast, but I assumed the pain and discomfort was a normal part of having had surgery after a broken ankle. I had started to get hives though, and they didn't go away with diphenhydramine. I went in to the clinic, and they gave me a cortizone related shot. It hurt a lot for the rest of the day. Serious pain, and I wasn't able to sleep either. But now, my ankle has about as much discomfort as it did before I broke it. I get those hives from Juniper, but a single diphenhydramine cures them for an entire year, and juniper season is long gone. I'm worried it is the staples, or the screws. I have the staples until the 22nd. Some of the screws have to be removed or I'll never be able to walk again, but not all of them are coming out. I'm kind of creeped out by the idea of metal inside my leg and I would really like it all out. But I suspect that the surgery to get that all back out would be just as major as it was to put them in, and that's a lot of trouble to go to.

Failure

2010-06-06T11:27:00.001-06:00

I was very gung-ho to get back to this, but with a broken ankle it's all ground to a stop again.

Surgery Today!

2010-05-27T08:59:00.001-06:00

I have surgery today. The little bone has torn free of its ligaments and needs to be bolted to the big bone. It also needs a plate bolted onto it and four screws in addition to the big bolt.

Summary of weekend

2010-05-24T12:23:00.003-06:00

I slept in a bed last night. The night of rest has given me a lot of confidence and strength on the crutches. But on to the summary.

Friday night me, Lewis, and Brad arrived at Turkey Creek. There was someone camped where I usually camp, and after a short search no other camp sights showed promise. So we headed across the three river crossings. The deepest was barely three feet, which is quite a bit better than the Forest Service had warned us about on their website. We made good time up the canyon and were about 300 meters from the hot springs when I fell in a hole in the stream that was full of slippery algae. I twisted side to side several times trying to hold my balance with me trekking poles. One pole broke and then I spun around and pitched over face first. Then I couldn't walk. In the morning I still couldn't walk, so I wrote out a note with all the info I knew SAR would need and sent Lewis out. He found a forest ranger and handed over the note. The forest ranger said it was the best first contact he'd ever seen because all the info he needed was there. I didn't expect any SAR to arrive until midnight, but a team showed up before dark. They had just had a rescue in the area and were all there and packed, so it was a fast roll out for them. They stabilized my leg, put some ice on it, and we hunkered down for another night out. Sunday morning it was quickly established that I couldn't walk even with the crutch. So I crawled. Mostly on my stomach. When the stream was deep enough I floating and crawled down it. Sometimes when the ground was stable I hopped on on foot holding onto Lewis and using the crutch they had brought up. Eventually I reached the mule team. I was put onto a mule, and thankfully not tied to it, and led out to incident base.

Death By Mountain: Failed

2010-05-23T23:52:00.003-06:00

I didn't die out there. I did have to crawl for six hours to the mule rescue team because they couldn't reach me. Not allowed to walk, drive, or bicycle in the meantime. Showering seems too hard so I'm staying dirty.

My Pack

2010-05-21T14:42:00.004-06:00

2x Nalgene 2.24kg
2x bigger Nalgene 3.30kg
Fresh cherries 1.08kg
Pair of Leki trekking poles .37kg
tp .14kg
toothbrush and ziplock bags 0.04kg
headlamp .23kg
Tell All by Chuck Palanhiuk .33kg
sunscreen .15kg
silnylon full of food 2.29kg
Gila map .10kg
Waterproof digital camera with spare battery .18kg
2 pack towels 0.06kg
rain jacket and rain pants .78kg
hammock .59kg
water filter .43kg
silnylon tarp .21kg
stakes and rope .11kg
junk bag .99kg
bivy .56kg
smartwool long unerwear .36kg
sleeping bag in silnylong bag .76kg
backpack with gps attached 1.68kg

16.7kg total. About 37 pounds. Of which 5.5kg is water.

Packed?

2010-05-20T16:30:00.003-06:00

My pack weighs 8.8 kg. I'm using a 35 liter Gregory pack, and it seems quite empty. It has no water in it yet.

The pack I used to use for this was near 150 liters, and it weighed about 4kg when it was empty. When full, I often carried about 27kg of stuff.

Packing

2010-05-20T15:32:00.002-06:00

Packing for tomorrow's departure.

I bought food, somewhat along my traditional diet, and somewhat along my updated diet.

450.8 grams of almond M&Ms, 2420 kcal
544.3 grams of dark chocoalte M&Ms, 2730 kcal
85 grams of smoked salmon, 120 kcal
296 grams of pink salmon, 280 kcal
283 grams of 100% whole grain Wheat Thins, 1260 kcal
326 grams of turkish apricots, 720 kcal
340 grams of unsalted roasted peanuts, 2040 kcal
425 grams of golden raisins, 1430 kcal

In addition, I have some almonds and some Tasty-Bite lentils I was planning to take in addition to what I just bought. On the other hand, I see that I just bought exactly 11000 kcal of food. I need to eat Friday night (probably at a restaurant), Saturday, and about half of Sunday. Now, I do know that I used to eat 5000 kcal per day, but I don't think I do anymore. So I should probably cut back on what food I have here. It adds up to 2750.1 grams plus the packaging. I can probably cut back quite a bit on what I bought to take with me.

Yoga: hard

2010-05-18T21:44:00.002-06:00

I realized today that despite what Brian said, I think my yoga is supposed to hurt me. It's what I asked for. I'm not going in to relax, or to meditate. We do that, but I'm going in with specific goals, and those goals involve pushing myself.

Today for instance we continue pushing against my hips and hamstrings. We also wore out my abdomen. We did a bridge variant that trapped me upwards and left me physically unable to lower myself to the ground to get out of it. Kind of bizarre really.

I think my feet will be ready to hike 8km on Saturday morning.

Yesterday's Walk

2010-05-17T07:21:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I headed out to hike around North Baldy. According to my GPS I made it 154 meters into my hike before I turned back. It was warm and sunny where I parked my car. I went up the grassy hill, and down into shaded woods on the other size. And snow, I should mention the snow. And I learned just how poorly Vibram Five Fingers do in the snow. If it had been perfectly flat I could have hiked, but I was on the side of a hill, and all I could do was slide off. I turned back pretty quickly.

I went over to the Timber Peak trail which I've never hiked. I have mountain biked it, but that is a little different. My hike there was short too, only about 800 meters before I turned back. But it was enough to give me a good feel for trail hiking in the Five Fingers. So far I'd only walked on roads and a track and around buildings. My goal is to be up to doing 8km on Saturday. It should be quite doable.

Sleeping Bags and Turkey Creek

2010-05-16T10:55:00.004-06:00

My first good sleeping bag was a The North Face Cat's Meow that I purchased to ride across country with. The best testimonial for it was when I woke up in late November in Ilinois feeling a little damp. Looking around, I saw that baseball park I was in had flooded, and the raised platform I was sleeping on was underwater about two inches. I moved my sleeping bag out of the water and spent the rest of the night drying it out while sleeping in it on a picnic tale under an awning. That sleeping bag served me very well for many years.

Next I bought a Wiggy's. It's an absolutely bulletproof bag and it was well suited to Search and Rescue work. When I took back up outdooring last year I decided to buy a new Wiggy's. Not because anything was wrong with my original, but because I wanted a lighter weight bag that wasn't quite as warm. They had a good sale on their double bags though, so I ended up with two Wiggy's that are 0F and 40F and which mate into a -40C bag. But in the long run, I'm still mostly in the SAR mentality with them. I decided over the past week that I was going to give down a try again. My experiences with down were all from Search and Rescue in the years before I bought my own sleeping bag. The team had many military issue down bags which were warm, but heavy, leaky, and susceptible to water. I shopped around on the internet on Thursday, but I didn't quite feel comfortable buying anything. I shopped around at REI on Friday, but I wasn't happy with what I saw. But having looked at some bags in person I went back to shopping around on the internet today, and I settled on a very popular Marmot 40F bag. Campmor (http://www.campmor.com) had a good price, and only $20 for next day air, so I expect to have it on Wednesday. I am going to Turkey Creek on Friday, and it would be nice to have a tiny little down bag that weighs nearly nothing.

My Turkey Creek plan involves leaving town on Friday afternoon after work and driving to the end of the road in the Gila. I'll camp the night, then hike in to the Turkey Creek in the morning. I'm going to try and pack light. Lighter than I did back in August when I last did this. My Vibram Five Fingers will play a big part in this. I will have no need to take boots, and no need to take sandals. That cuts a lot of weight out right from the start. A lightweight down sleeping bag will save me a couple of pounds. I'm debating skipping the water filter and just using the chemical tablets. I probably won't take a change of clothes so that will save weight. Although I don't need socks, they are nice to wear in the sleeping bag. But I doubt it will be cold enough so I should skip the socks too. Food will be ready to eat so I won't need a stove. I should be able to pack lightly.

The Gila Ranger District has a warning in red letters that the river is very high, cold, and swift. I'd already guessed that a couple of weeks ago without checking their website. I've done it before, I can do it again. According to the Gila's online water tracking website, the gauge height is over five feet right now. Not as high as it was several days ago, but still quite high.

It should be fun.

No walking

2010-05-15T23:53:00.003-06:00

Today was graduation. I spent my morning standing up and walking around. I spent my afternoon walking around, sitting down, and eating. It is difficult to say if it was a productive day or not, but I tried. Tomorrow I need to walk for sure.

Vibram Five Fingers and Yoga

2010-05-14T20:53:00.003-06:00

Today I walked around a bit at REI. I've definitely decided that the left shoe has a defect, but REI didn't have a replacement for it in stock. I'm also strongly suspecting that I'm wearing a size too large. REI didn't have a size smaller to try on, so it's still just a suspicion. I discovered the Vibram offers $10 2nd day air and sells them for the same price as REI, so I ordered a slightly smaller pair just to see. It's cheaper than driving to REI to try them on, though I'm sure REI has a much more generous return policy.

I don't hurt from yesterdays yoga at all. I'm quite shocked.

Yoga

2010-05-13T22:15:00.001-06:00

I didn't walk today, but I did do some hard yoga. Hard, at least, for me. Even the bridge defeated me with how long we had to hold it. And then we had to do it again. I expect to be sore tomorrow.

Blister

2010-05-13T06:34:00.003-06:00

There is a rather large blister on the ball of my right foot. What minor discomfort I felt there never made me think it was a blister forming.

Four km

2010-05-12T19:54:00.003-06:00

I did about, or at least, four km around town. I don't know exactly because my Garmin keeps turning itself off. I wish I knew how to make it stay on.
I discovered a road within about 100 yards of my house that I don't think I had ever noticed before. It looked short, so I didn't walk down it. I discovered a bridge/culvert being installed near my house as well. I saw the old "Delta House", and noticed that the balcony has been repaired and would be safe to stand on. I saw a family that lacked most vestiges of humanity, so I avoided them by walking the other way.

Administratia

2010-05-12T18:07:00.003-06:00

The mailing list and calendar never worked out, so I'm going to dispose of them. Given the way the world has gone, it looks like Facebook is the only viable method of communication left. I haven't even gotten used to people who only text with their phone and refuse to answer it, and now I'm faced with people who only send facebook mail and never use actual email...and they only use Facebook on their phone.

Gaming: Cancelled

2010-05-12T17:21:00.001-06:00

So after I eat something I think I'll go for a walk again. Just around town I suspect. I don't think I need to drive anywhere this evening.

A Walk

2010-05-11T20:15:00.003-06:00

No one wanted to come to my house to watch movies, so I went on a walk instead. I did one mile on the track. Over all, I'm pleased. I was wearing my Five Fingers, and this was a whole mile in one go. The first mile I had walked in them was done in two half mile increments with a long rest in between. My feet felt better at the end of the walk than they did at the start. Since I go barefoot a lot already there seems to be no reason for me to worry about the problems other people have had with them. My feet and calves seem to be more than strong enough to take this. The weird aches and pains I had the first day were just on the first day and haven't come back.

Lately Death Is Not By Mountain

2010-05-11T08:30:00.003-06:00

My commitment, as you might have noticed, has been rather poor (by which I mean non-existant) for many months now. The recovery from surgery hasn't been fun. I stopped wishing I had died on the table within about a month of surgery, and was mostly better within two months of it. But the strange feelings haven't gone away. Walking makes it feel weird. Sometimes walking even makes it feel a little sore. But I'm not so bad off that I shouldn't be walking. I should be. I should be out and about in the world again.

On the other hand, I still have benefits from the improvement in my diet and the exercise I still get (yoga and bicycling). Before that fateful trip to the doctor I had had frequent and crushing illnesses. At the slightest hint of being sick I knew I'd crash and it would soon send me to bed for days at a time. Since improving my diet and exercise that hasn't happened. I can't quite claim I haven't been sick since this all started, but what illnesses I've had were merely annoying. My season allergies have gone away too. While people around me have been miserable from the juniper, I haven't. Normally the juniper makes me miss work at it's peak, and requires lots of drugs to keep myself sane and functioning. This year, my eyes felt a little irritated a couple of times, and when I've been outside in it I get a minor runny nose.

My conclusion: diet and exercise have tremendously improved my life. I do miss eating fried potatoes and chocolate as my main diet, but I can live without them I've found. Getting beef and pasta out of my diet has also shown me that neither seem to agree with my body well. Bionature organic pasta, in specific, is quite bad for me, which is sad because I like the taste of it.

In new news, I got a hold of some Vibram Five Fingers. They are the knock off of the Vivo Barefoot I've coveted for quite a while. The Vivo has proven impossible to get, and the Vibram has proven to be almost as impossible. But I have giant feet, and when I went to REI on Saturday I was certain they would be able to help me. After looking at my feet, the sales rep did admit that with my feet they probably did shoes for me. They didn't have many, but I left wearing a pair. I had a blister forming on my left foot by the time I was done shopping at REI, but once home I've been slapping athletic tape onto it and it is coming along nicely.

Turkey Creek needs to be visited again. Graduation is this weekend, and I'm not in good walking shape for it, so it won't be immediately. The 22nd or the 29th seem like good times to attempt it. It is only about 4.5 miles in and out, so I could probably hike it without any preparation (assuming I get to spend the night in the middle) but building up to it would probably be best. I really kind of like the idea of the five fingers as it will greatly simplify the three river crossings and the dozen or more stream crossings. Often by the end of the trek I've given up on dry feet and I'm just wading down the middle in my boots to avoid recreating the "wax on wax off" scene with my footwear.

This website MUST live again! I need to pick myself up, deal with the discomfort, and press on with my goal of going into the mountains.

Strawberry Peak Tracklog

2010-01-05T12:57:00.003-07:00

From 2010-01-03

So there is my hike. A bit of the hike is missing around the base of the mountain, but I followed my trail pretty closely so you can't see it on the log.

Feeling Sick Is Also Feeling Better

2010-01-05T11:08:00.004-07:00

I feel sick. I know it happened on the mountain. Hiking in the sun was warm, and comfortable. Anytime I stopped the wind felt cold. Hiking in the shade was cold, and stopping in the shade was worse. As it got cooler in the evening I kept a windproof jacket on, and it regulated heat well, but in the end, I felt a cough that day, and I had it yesterday, and today I'm very tired (skipped work tired) and I have junk in my throat and more of a cough.

But the notable thing is how ill I feel. Prior to my get-healthy kick, illness only came in one flavor: crushing. At the smallest hint of feeling bad I knew I was doomed. I'd plummet over the edge into being bedridden and incapable of much of anything and I lived in a state of total misery. It always knocked me out for several days, and often as much as a week, no matter what. I haven't really been sick since I started to take care of myself. Aside from the surgery, I missed a day of work because I felt a little bad, but that was it; I just felt a little bad. I feel worse now than I did then, but I'm only laying in bed because I want to get better; not because I'm too ill to get out of it.

It's nice to feel this way. I used to get very ill pretty often.

The Failure Needs To Stop!

2010-01-04T19:19:00.003-07:00

Between diagnosis and my surgery I was gung ho. After surgery I was crippled with pain. But now I'm not in constant pain anymore, but neither am I gung ho.

Friday I lifted weights. It had been a long time for that. I managed to pull something in the back of my left thigh. A great return to weightlifting!

Sunday, yesterday as I post this, was an attempted climb up Strawberry Peak. I don't have the GPS offloaded yet. I have a few pictures. I didn't make it all the way up. I turned back pretty close to the summit, really, but I was getting tired and it didn't seem worth it.

Today was yoga. The yoga was hard because of how sore I was from yesterday. Even just sitting and trying to raise my arms up over my head required painful grimacing and some grunting noises.

I need to force myself back into shape, and I need to get up that mountain again sometime soon to redeem myself!

I need to post pictures from it, and from my snowshoeing trip that I last posted here about.

I need to post here more often as well, to self motivate into staying active and improving my health.

Attempted Death By Mountain

2009-12-06T15:13:00.002-07:00

Yesterday I dressed warmly, strapped on a snow shovel and a pair of snowshoes, and headed mountainward in search of deep enough snow to snowshoe in.

As I arrived at Water Canyon, a state police cruiser was exiting. As I parked, a four-wheel drive two truck arrived and started to head up the ice-packed road. I went up trail 13, one of my favorites, because there was certain to be snow on top.

On the way up I encounted lots of snow 8 inches or deeper. All powder, and all in shady areas on the sides of the mountain. No chance for snowshoeing, but it did make the hike extra tiresome as I plowed through it all.

The hike up was amazingly quiet. The air was perfectly still, and the canyon was deathly quiet.

Up top, the stillness ended, and a bitter cold wind blew across the mesa. I'd packed with the plan that I'd add my windproof layers last, but I was too warm for the stuff on top of my pack and needed the shells, so it was a pain to dig them out. At some point, I took my googles off, and forgot to put them back on. I'm not really sure how long I had them off, but I didn't seem to burn my retinas, so it must have been thankfully short.

I took a few silly pictures of myself up top with my camera in the self-timer mode balanced on my snow shovel which was on top of a mound of snow. I set up my hammock and laid around for a while looking up at how crisply green the trees were above me (in retrospect, it was probably the tint of my googles that made them look so good), and then headed back down. Descending the trail was a lot more treacherous than ascending it had been, but I made it.

I took pictures, but I'm not sure any of them are interesting enough for a follow up post, but I might put some up anyway.

Two Weeks Have Passed...

2009-11-29T12:49:00.003-07:00

Two weeks have passed, and the only pain I've had was when I had a misadventure with the corner of a box. I went on a vigorous walk a week ago, and there was no indication that it aggravated my surgery.

I shall soon be trying again for more adventures in the mountains. I think I'm finally recuperated enough.

Still Not Better

2009-10-27T18:08:00.002-06:00

I suppose I should keep this somewhat up to date.

Me and my surgery are still at odds against each other as to whether or not I'm better. Someday I'll be able to stand up and walk without pain...

Walking

2009-10-12T21:19:00.002-06:00

I walked about 8km yesterday, not sure I mentioned that earlier. I think I walked about 3.8 miles today. I definitely feel sore from yesterday. And tired from today. I over dressed for today. It was hotter out there than I imagined.

Gear

2009-10-12T16:06:00.002-06:00

I replaced the green Marmot jacket I'd lost. Then I found it. It had made it back with me. My cats had taken it, and hidden it from me. Along with it I also found a backpack that had been missing for quite a while.

At REI yesterday I picked up a Smartwool neck gaiter, some Smartwool glove liners, an OR balaclava, a The North Face hat, and a couple of other things. I should be well prepared for hiking/walking/bicycling in the cold this winter.

Serious Lack Of Progress

2009-10-12T16:01:00.002-06:00

From 2091011

Once again I'm ready to declare that I've recovered from my surgery. Who knows if I'm right?

Yesterday I hiked in the forests of Santa Fe because it's about the time of year when leaves change. I don't have pictures offloaded yet. For the most part, I missed the change. I was told that a week before not many had changed, and by yesterday many had finished and already dropped their leaves. Oh well. I went about 8km I'd guess. I forgot to turn the GPS on at the start, and I forgot to turn it off before driving away in my car.

More Walking...

2009-09-23T08:01:00.002-06:00

Last night, after gaming, I walked to Jason's house. He says it is a little more than a mile from his house to the plaza, and it is about half a mile from my house to the plaza, plus I took a trip around the field and a slight Northern detour on the way home. That should be at least 3.5 miles last night. By the end of it my back was feeling sore, and I was feeling tired, so I know I put some effort in. I haven't done much since the surgery, with last night being only my sixth time out walking or hiking since August 5th, but things are looking up.

Getting Back Into It...

2009-09-21T22:40:00.002-06:00

Tonight I walked 1.33 miles around the track, and another 1.5 or so miles getting to the track the long way and then detouring to Cooney's. Last night I walked 2.5 miles, so it was a tad bit of improvement.

I didn't hike on Sunday because I slept in after responding to a 04:30 alarm call at work. I didn't hike the Sunday before because I was too sore from the Saturday hike. I forget what the mileage was on the Saturday hike. But now I've done this two days in a row, which is progress!

Hiking Soon!

2009-09-12T07:45:00.002-06:00

I seem to have packed up 11.6 kg of stuff. I'm carrying extra things that I don't need to make the pack heavier, such as two hammocks and my largest tarp. I also have three liters of water for a hike that is planned to be 4km.

4km Walk And Jacket Failure And Sunday Plans

2009-09-07T14:13:00.003-06:00

I did a 4km walk since I last posted. Not much, but it still hurts when I do certain things.

I also discovered that my new jacket appears to have remained in Turkey Creek. I'm pretty sure I lost it after getting hit by the rock. I needed to get stuff out of my pack in the aftermath, and I apparently didn't put it back in. I don't remember losing it, so this is just a guess though based on the fact it was the most likely time for it to have happened. So now I need to replace it already, which sucks.

Sunday, coming up, I want to hit Copper Canyon again. But I have yoga class at 13:00. So I'm suspecting Copper will be an extra-early start and we will try to rush it. I'll pack super-light (hammock and water) to facilitate this.

Turkey Creek Slideshow

2009-08-30T17:13:00.001-06:00

Tracklog For Turkey Creek

2009-08-30T08:27:00.002-06:00

From 20090828

I went just under 16km yesterday on a six and a half hour trek.

Death By Mountain Nearly Achieved!

2009-08-30T07:23:00.005-06:00

While taking the rather direct route straight up the side onto the trail yesterday, I encountered a falling rock. It was about 2' across, and it came down in a direct path to strike just left of my sternum. As steep as the hillside was, it seemed pretty unsurvivable at the time. I got my trekking pole up and it took the brunt of the impact for me. I'm out $200 to buy a new pair of carbon fiber trekking poles, but minimally injured.

I also fell into a water filled rock cut while I was trying to photograph it. I hurt my knee pretty badly in doing so. The water sluiced me down the cut and dumped me over a waterfall into a pool. Waterproof cameras are great for these outdoorsy pictures! It would have been a blast if not for all the limping from the knee.

My hiking companion was totally unprepared. Instead of going on a Friday campout, Saturday backpack in, Sunday backpack out, I did a 16km hike with a heavy pack that I didn't use nor need. I made my destination though, and I took pictures to prove it. As soon as I can find my card reader, I'll get them offloaded and then uploaded.

About To Depart

2009-08-28T15:35:00.001-06:00

After adding water, and some yoga instructions, I'm at about 13.48 kg.

Packing

2009-08-27T16:36:00.004-06:00

I bought myself a Berkley 23kg hanging scale. It's for fish.

Gregory Z-55 backpack, 1.67 kg.
Leaf bag, 1.70 kg.
Wiggy's 35F sleeping bag, 3.13 kg.
OR bivy sack, 3.68 kg.
5' by 8' silnylon tarp, 3.88 kg.
6 stakes and 100' guyline, 4.05 kg.
Hammock, 4.63 kg.
3 Tasty-Bite, M&Ms, dried cherries, crackers, peanuts, 7.01 kg.
SmartWool long underwear, 7.36 kg.
Water filter, 7.77 kg.
9 LED headlamp, 8.0 kg.
GPS, 8.18 kg.
Rain pants, jacket, gaiters, and hat, 9.21 kg.
Junk bag, 10.21 kg.
2 AA batteries, 10.26 kg.
Digital camera, 10.54 kg.
Socks, underwear, t-shirt, shorts, 11.13 kg.
Sandals, 12.19 kg.
2 Nalgene bottles, 12.41 kg.
Balaclava, 12.44 kg.
Salmon, 12.71 kg.

This doesn't count what I'll wear:
Shorts, underwear, t-shirt, socks, boots, trekking poles, and sunglasses. The hat, GPS, and gaiters listed above might be worn as well. Also, I'll have water in my water bottles.

I also added in some ziplock bags and a spare leaf bag, which take the total weight up by a tad bit more.

Googles Maps and Turkey Creek

2009-08-23T11:47:00.003-06:00

Turkey Creek and Skeleton Canyon. I've always turned right here, and gone up the creek to the springs instead of ascending the ridge. We come out on the ridge.

View Larger Map

Google maps is broken, but I can reverse engineer the location to wedge it here in.

Scales And Food

2009-08-23T08:04:00.002-06:00

Right now I'm looking around the internet for hanging digital scales. A hanging scale would make it easier to weigh a lot of my stuff.

I'm also wondering about what food to pack. Unsalted peanuts are definitely going to be going with me. Probably peanut M&Ms too, despite the fact that I really don't like the ingredients that M&Ms are made out of. I don't want to cook (and I especially don't want to clean pans), so no pasta. Some cucumbers might be nice. Apples as well.

Getting Ready For My First Backpacking Trip In A Decade

2009-08-22T13:30:00.006-06:00

I'll reach a landmark in my attempts to overcome a decade of fatness and laziness on Friday of next week. I'm backpacking in to Turkey Creek Hot Springs in the Gila. It's about 4 miles, with 3 river crossing and 7 to 9 stream crossings. I don't get my stitches out until Wednesday after the trip, but I won't let that stop me. Good clean mountain stream water is good for surgery.

I just packed up a pack with a set of most things I'd conceivably take. It seems to weigh a little less than 10kg based on my person-scale. Heavy by modern ultra-light standards, but nothing compared to absurdly stupid packs I used to carry in search and rescue.

And now, in a sense "live", I'm going to itemize and individually weigh what I packed on my kitchen scale.

The pack I'm taking is a Gregory Z-55. I guess I'll weigh it at the end.

My junk bag, since I last wrote about it, has had a fifty foot length of Kelty trip-lite added to it. After losing my pack over the edge in Water Canyon early this month I decided to add an ounce of strong rope to help out the next time I'm in that situation. The junk bag now weighs 1000 grams. Maybe I should prune it again. But everything inside the bad is pretty useful.

I packed a mesh bag with three Tasty-Bite Madras Lentils, a mini cliff bar, and a small spoon made of aircraft aluminium. This isn't enough food, but it's a start. I like the Tasty-Bite meals, and will probably take the three with me. Food so far weighs 976 grams. More needs to be added. The spoon isn't useful; I can squirt the Tasty-Bite into my mouth quite easily.

My new bivy sack weighs 540 grams.

The LED headlamp I picked out weighs 226 grams. I have lighter ones.

Stakes and guylines for setting up a shelter for my tarp weigh in at 164 grams. I probably have more stakes and more guyline than I will need.

I'm still blinded from having stared into my 9-LED lamp to see if there were batteries in it.

My GPS weighs in at 182 grams.

My water filter is 412 grams.

A mesh sack with gaiters, waterproof jacket, waterproof pants, and waterproof gloves is 1084 grams. I probably only need the jacket and gaiters.

A hammock to sleep in is 570 grams.

A mesh sack with my new SmartWool microweight wool pants, microweight long sleeve top, and microweight short sleeve top is 540 grams. I may not need any of it.

A 5' by 8' silnylon tarp is 198 grams.

All that's left is the sleeping bag, a 35F Wiggy's. I'm not sure I can weigh it on the scale I have. Nor do I think I can weigh my pack.

I didn't have any water packed, so add in maybe 300 grams for two plastic bottles, plus the weight of the water. I also need more food. Not sure how much that will weigh since I haven't made up my mind what it is. I don't plan to cook, so there won't be a stove or pot. I'll also have my new waterproof digital camera with me, which adds a little weight too.

Sandals will be included, and several pairs of socks. Boots for hiking, but sandals for crossing the water.

Overall, the pack doesn't feel that heavy. Water, food, and footwear will add a little more, but I have things I know I can remove as well. It should be a good hike.

Oh, and it's only been eight years since I backpacked, but a decade sounds better.

More Progress

2009-08-20T16:09:00.003-06:00

And some failure! My pre-walk plans fell through last night, and I ended up being distracted by killing time, and I didn't walk. Not a terrible loss I suppose.

Today I had my first yoga class. I'm taking private classes because since yoga began to interest me in about 2004 I have yet to encounter a yoga class held at a time that is good for me. The private lessons still aren't the best, but they get me much closer. I think I'll enjoy the one-on-oneness a lot as well.

I didn't learn any secret yoga fighting moves to defend myself during the zombie apocalypse yet. I did learn a defensive pose to use in case I'm trapped in a hurricane.

Progress

2009-08-18T22:43:00.002-06:00

Today I rode my bicycle to Supermart twice, and then I walked. I just returned. I walked about 3.3 miles. It went pretty well. I also had five people who tagged along, which is a record.

I also went to meditation class again yesterday, and on Thursday I take my first yoga lesson. I told my yoga instructor that one of my goals was to learn the secret yoga fighting techniques I'll need to survive the zombie apocalypse. AND I told her that before I'd seen that paper on the zombie apocalypse. Actually, I suspect that the google ad for it popped up solely because I just sent an email about the zombie apocalypse. Google is tricky that way.

In nine days I'm headed four miles into the Gila Wilderness through three river crossings and seven to nine stream crossing. I'll also have to crawl through one cave in an otherwise impassable box canyon with a waterfall rushing through it. The goal is a 186F hot spring.

Hiatus

2009-08-12T09:44:00.002-06:00

I realized I should post something here just in case someone reads this who doesn't know me.

Just after the last post I had surgery, and I'm not expected to be able to do anything for a month or two.

Mountain Biking In The Bear Mountains

2009-08-03T08:34:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was another overly ambitious day. A week previous, we had driven out to the base of Hells Mesa and climbed up. We had originally overshot the turn off, and when we turned around the road had become quite interesting with lots of colourful rock outcroppings on both sides alongside the twisty and hilly roads. It seemed like a nice place to ride. So yesterday, we went back out to ride. We parked quite a ways from the interesting spot, so we had a lot of riding to get there. On the way we diverted down a couple of side roads, one to the end of the road, and the other to a rattlesnake.

We also stopped once to hammock in a smalls stand of piñon. Around the time we arrived at the interesting part, Brad's front tired suddenly lost pressure. We turned around and headed back. His tire was low, but seemed to be holding out well. He made it most of the way back before it suddenly flatted out completely. He pushed for a while, then abandoned it and started walking. I tooled along beside him alternating between walking and riding. Eventually he hitched a ride to his truck and I continued on. He picked me up at 50.3 km into my ride that day, just as I had stopped to photograph a transmission someone had thrown into a ditch.

In the long run, it's fortuitous that we turned around when we did. Both of us were wiped out from the ride. I suspect that it was once again the noontime sun that really did us in. It was hot out there.

I have a tracklog and pictures that I'll get to at some point.

Gear Ruminations Again

2009-07-31T19:48:00.001-06:00

Back in June I pulled my backpacking gear out and went through it. Most is in fine shape, some of it needed replacement because it was defective, and a few things needed replacement because my corcumstances have changed.

Consider my bivy sack, for instance. I have an OR Advanced Bivy sack. It retails for $299 (currently, it was cheaper back in the 90s), and is pretty much the ultimate mountaineering bivy sack. Before owning that bivy sack I once spent three days buried in the snow in a blizzard. I had a tarp and a garbage bag then. At one point I discovered for some bizarre reason that there were some frozen hot dogs down near my feet. I bent one of them and it made a terrible cracking noise, and at that point I realized that a) my toes were frozen, and b) that was a toe not a hot dog.

SAR was (and still is) an unpredictable trip planner. When I bought the bivy sack, it went into the SAR pack. Only the most durable and hardcore bivy sack would do. SAR missions are spontaneous, and often take you into bad weather. The state policy had been that teams should expect to be out 8 to 12 hours, but should be prepared for 24 hours. George had us be prepared for 48 hours, and on a big search in a remote area he might send you out on a single mission for as long as three days (there are no roads in wilderness areas, so remote searching requires a lot of hiking). Back then missions were long too, since people didn't have cell phones and GPSes. I spent a week searching for a young boy named Michael, and I didn't come the first day, and I left long before it was over. His body was found years later.

I'm not very much in SAR anymore though. I moderate the mailing list, and sometimes I think I should join AMRC for the excitement and difficulty of their training, but for the most part, I don't do SAR. My bivy sack is heavy, so I bought a new one. It is still an OR bivy sack, but this time it's the lightest sack they make. I'd say that most of the time it will still be overkill for what I need, but not as much overkill as the OR Advanced Bivy, and it saves me a noticeable amount of weight and size.

Since I was replacing my bivy, I decided to replace my long underwear too. I have three pairs of it. My black pair I purchased in 1991 or 1992, and is the kind of polypro that retains odors. They've been through a lot with me, and have some holes in them, but are still in good enough shape that I wear them. Sometime in the late 1990s I bought a set of white capilene long underwear. I haven't worn them as much as the black ones, so they are better shape, but they look worse because the color shows stains more easily. My final pair is a set of very heavyweight long underwear that seems to be military surplus. They've never been worn in the field, just around my house in the winter. My new underwear is a set of SmartWool microweight long underwear. I'm very interested in going back to being a wool-wearer for the cold weather. Wool is nice stuff, and merino wool is extra nice. I had planned to wait until winter, but plans have changed. I might make an Augusth 12th midnight ascent of Copper Canyon, and if I do, I'm pretty sure I won't be wearing shorts up there.

There is also gear I need to purchase for the first time. I hope to go up Ladrone this winter. And if I do, I need crampons. Admittedly, I have made it up Ladrone without crampons and I'm sure I could do it again, but I think I'd rather have crampons. I've never bought crampons before. Not only will I need to get crampons that fit the boots I currently have, but I should make sure they fit the boots I plan to upgrade too.

Losing my pack over the edge at Cold War Cave has led me to believe that I need to carry rope in it at all times. All it needs to be able to do is hold the weight of a pack, so a 50' length of the Kelty triplite would be idea. It holds far more than my pack will ever weigh, and it weighs nearly nothing itself.

Wednesday Night Walk

2009-07-30T00:34:00.001-06:00

From 20090729

Walked around with John. Was hassled a little by campus police because Billy Romero doesn't think that public property is open to the public. Went a little over 9km in two hours.

Tuesday Night Running Failure

2009-07-29T00:17:00.004-06:00

My gamers were clearing out nicely by 22:00. Jason asked if I was planning to run at Clarke Field, and I said I was, so he said he'd walk over with me. Instead of departing at the field, he walked around it with me. Then again. And again. An hour and forty minutes later, I noticed what time it was and how long we had been at it. We went around a couple more times, then each headed to our own homes. So I got in two solid hours of walking and no running. I'm guessing it was probably about 10km, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

Further Monday Night Adventures

2009-07-27T20:42:00.003-06:00

Walked 1/4 mile. Ran 1/4 mile. Walked 1/4 mile. Ran 1.4 mile. Walked 1/4 mile. Ran 1/4 mile. Walked 1/4 mile. Ran 1/4 mile. Walked 1/4 mile. Posted about it on the internet.

Meditation

2009-07-27T19:27:00.002-06:00

Along with all this hiking and walking and (sometimes running) and (soon to be) mountain biking, there is yoga and meditation on the horizon. Meditation happened today, at the yoga place. Yoga doesn't start for a few weeks yet. All in all, I managed to sit through the two meditations we did quite successfully. I fidgeted less than my future yoga instructor did. On the other hand, she had all kinds of things to say about the experience, while I was left with feelings that I was itchy, and that I didn't know how to contemplate things. I didn't participate in the group discussions at all because of it. I may not make the next session, but I'm certain to go back.

Cold War Cave

2009-07-26T16:39:00.003-06:00

From 20090726

Today we hiked up to a place in Water Canyon that I refer to as Cold War Cave. Back when I used to go there a lot, during the cold war, we didn't really have a name for it. It's quite close to the campground, but there is no trail. Not only is the mountain quite steep, but towards the top it's bathed in scrub oak. I lost a lot of blood on the way up. On the way down, I put my gaiters on, and it was much more pleasant. The pass into the valley seemed different, and once through it I discovered that I had taken the right one instead of the left one. The left one (as you face it from the bottom) has a jumble of rocks with a corkscrew gap that you can wiggle up and down.

The valley itself is steep and brushy, but small and semi-sheltered. There are lots of overhangs, small cracks, and a couple of small caves. The cave we had planned to hide out in after nuclear war is a deceptive dead end cave with a side tunnel hidden on the left. The tunnel goes in, turns, and has a side room off of it. It isn't big, or glamorous, but for a post-apocalyptic world it would do nicely. It would need work to level out the floor, and it would always be extremely dark inside.

The trip down was quick. In the corkscrew rocks I dropped my pack down into the first hole. It ended up tumbling down and went over the edge. My nice metal Sigg bottles didn't take it very well. The camera I had with me was too slow to catch it going. Once I had managed to climb down to it I was taking pictures when Brad lost his pack in a different part, but it also came out and shot past my head. I didn't get a picture of his pack flying through the air either.

As you can see above, the GPS tracklog and profile show problems. The new GPS is more sensitive, and does a much better job, but there were lots of places where I was underground and it just isn't sensitive enough.

Hells Mesa Report And Pictures

2009-07-26T14:48:00.003-06:00

There are three things you should know about Hells Mesa.

1) There are no trails.

2) There are no trees.

3) There is no water.

Those three things appear to describe the entire area, not just Hells Mesa. I got the idea of going to the Bear Mountains because the Forest Service had mentioned that no one goes there. Well, there's a reason no one goes there. They suck. At least, in the summer they do. I suspect they might be very pleasant in the spring or fall.

We headed out looking for a FS road that took us to a spring on the South side of Hells Mesa. We missed the road because it wasn't marked, but found it on our second trip back through the area. There is an old house towards the end of the road that someone put a lot of work into. It must have been a nice place back when it was inhabited.

Since there are no trails, we just headed up the side that looked easiest from the topo maps. It worked out well enough. Hells Mesa isn't really much of a mesa. It's more like a ridge, but without peaks on either side of it. On top we discovered a lot of tarantula hawks, but no sign of any tarantulas. There was one dead tree, which I hammocked in. But one tree doesn't hammock well. Brad tied his hammock off to the tree and a bush, and elevated the bush end with a rock. It kept him barely off the ground. Not to be outdone, I did the same, but elevated my bush-end with my trekking poles.

We went down to the West, and looped around back to the truck. All told, it was a short trip. But the rough terrain and the steepness of the ascent made it a hard trip. The sun was brutal.

I regretted not having replaced my climbing helmet yet. If one had been with me, I'd have been wearing it. This was also the first hike with actual pain and injuries. I took a stick to the stomach and bled. Loose rocks elicited painful screams from both of us during the treacherous descent.

Mesa Trail #13 on July 19th

2009-07-26T14:39:00.003-06:00

From 20090719

It was a fairly long hike over an easy trail. We went up the Northernmost part of 13 and hammocked at the top. From there, we headed South and did the loop that hits the two scenic viewpoints going widdershins. After the first viewpoint the trail went bad on us. It was missing in many places, easily misplaced in others, and plagued with fallen trees just about everywhere. We lost the trail and had to backtrack a few times. It was rather pleasant. Once we made the loop, I took a left, mistakenly believing the fork I wanted was in that direction. It wasn't, but we got extra hiking in as a result.

Once again, the trip down was the worst. We were already tired, and the sun was unbearable. Our conversation drifted from small talk into length discussions about exactly how much water we had left. At some point during this hellish part of the hike, I announced that it was too hard and I should go back to sitting at home stuffing myself full of delicious food and getting all my exercise from playing WoW. Brad reminded me that my goal was to die by the Mountain, and not from diabetes, and he's right. Then I realized that if I didn't bring water on hikes like these that I'd easily achieve my goal.

Overall, it was a decently long hike. The brutal sun was the worst part of it. Again, I hadn't taken enough water with me.

A gallery of a few of the interesting photos follows.

Hells Mesa Profile And Tracklog

2009-07-25T20:58:00.001-06:00

From 20090725

It was 4.56km today.

I still need to upload pictures from a week ago, and talk about it, and pictures from today, and talk about it.

I'll get to it.

Update!

2009-07-23T16:04:00.003-06:00

Monday I ran. I think I already posted that here. Tuesday I was tired, and starting to hear things, so I decided to sleep instead of doing anything Tuesday night. Last night, Wednesday night, I did a 2.5 mile walk.

Still no pictures available from the Mesa Trail hike on Sunday. My hard drives filled up the day before on Jason's wedding, then my ethernet switch went out leaving my computers isolated from each other and the internet. Things were mostly back to normal, but I did a partial upgrade of my server and ended up crippling useful programs like emacs because I didn't upgrade everything. So I have bigger problems still than getting those pictures online. Soon though, I hope.

Saturday I plan to hit Hells Mesa, and Sunday I plan to hit an old cave me and my friends had planned to hide out in when Russia nuked the United States back during the cold war. Neither should be very long or strenuous.

Running

2009-07-20T22:48:00.002-06:00

No pictures yet from Mesa Trail. I'm fighting hardware failure in my home network and a full hard drive.

Tonight I went to Clark Field and I ran four laps. I wasn't anywhere near fast, but I was doing a lot more than just walking. suspect I could have run more laps as well, but four laps is enough since my last attempt at running on netted me something like 370 meters.

Mesa Trail #13 Tracklog

2009-07-19T15:58:00.001-06:00

From 20090719

All total we went a little short of 16km. I'm not nearly as beat as I was last week. The trail is bad in lots of places.

Last Nights's Walk

2009-07-16T07:00:00.004-06:00

Went on a walk around on the Clark Field track last night. Did 10.1km in about 150 minutes. An old toe problem is returning from my days of running. I forget the name of it, but I remember the solution: athletic tape! I wore my new fancy wicking boxer shorts, and my wicking The North Face t-shirt, and overall I was quite pleased. Previous experiences in nighttime walks were not as pleasant due to the sweat, but the wicking layers kept me dryer despite the hotter night last night.

GPS Comparison

2009-07-14T17:17:00.004-06:00

My Gecko 201 weighs 112g. My eTrex H weighs 182g. I paid $117.99 for the Gecko 201. I paid $81 for the eTrex H.

Now compare tracklogs. Both were set to 1m recording intervals. One is definitely more accurate than the other. It's the eTrex H.

From 20090714

Tonight's Adventures

2009-07-13T22:15:00.002-06:00

Most recently I went to Clark Field and walked around it many times. I went two miles, but was thwarted from going farther by an upset stomach.

Earlier today I drove out to the ranger station in Magdalena. The guy manning the front desk was useless. But I kept asking him questions until he passed me off to one of the guys in an office. The new guy wasn't nearly as useless, but he still couldn't answer most of my questions. Eventually he passed me off to someone else, who just happened to have all the things that the first two had no idea about. Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned is that the Cibola National Forest has a trail crew now. It's been at least a decade since they had one.

I think Clark Field will need to become a somewhat regular part of keeping my legs moving. It's close and reliable. No hills or interesting terrain, but it saves a tremendous amount of gas since I don't have to drive to it.

Because of the troubles I've had with track logs I bought a different GPS. The new one is cheaper, still has 10,000 tracklogs, and boasts a more sensitive receiver than my Gecko 201. The forest services guys prefer it to the $3000 professional Trimbles that they are given by the forest service.