277 - Fourth time up Mount Helena

When I was at the State employee health center in Helena recently, I was given two objectives to meet before I leave town: one was to climb Mount Helena two more times. The other was to walk 80,000+ steps in a week. I was close to the latter goal a couple of times, reaching 75,150 and 76,805 steps two and three weeks ago. This week, I'll likely reach 70,000 again. So, now I have just two more weeks to try to reach my target, which is equivalent to walking about 40 miles in seven days. Since I'll be packing for my house move, the scope for walking will be more limited, but I'll give it my best shot.

The former objective has been met!

Fourth time up Mount Helena in four months

So now, after 19¾ years of having NEVER climbed to the summit (Trailhead Elevation:  4,350 feet; Top Elevation: 5,460 feet), I've conquered it four times in twelve weeks (once each in June, July, August and September). In Richland County (Sidney, MT), where I'm moving to, the peak elevation is about 2,950 feet, located about 40 miles west of Sidney on the Richland/Dawson county boundary. When people say it has no mountains, they're not kidding! So, my new pursuit will be bicycle riding. Of course, we're approaching the snowy winter season, so it won't always be practical, but I'll do what I have to in order to get my leg muscles attuned. I still want to do a long-distance ride some day.

Continuing the good news, this morning's weigh-in gave a new low: 276.6 lbs.

I'm still very much alive

Have I really only posted one blog post in the past month? What's happening? Well, dear reader, it's the plan coming to fruition! I'm spending more time doing the things that are important, and less time in front of my computer(s). About two months ago (maybe ten weeks now), I disconnected my home Internet. For a guy who works with technology (more on that in a moment) that was a radical step. Suddenly, there was nothing for my Chromebook and my laptop and my two Raspberry Pis and my Amazon Echo ("Alexa, I love you!") and my cloud-connected printer and my music and file server to connect to. So I turned most of them off and packed them away. "You're fired!"

An unintended consequence was that my power bill was $30 lower than normal last month!

I've been able to get back into my reading and writing hobbies. I've started watercolor painting again. I'm beginning to get a life back, and it feels great.

I'm sad that the darker (longer) nights are returning. Whereas it used to be light until almost 10 pm (22:00) here, it's now dark before 9 pm (21:00). I guess I won't have to feel odd any more that I'm going to bed while it's still light outside, huh?

I recently acquired a proper, powerful headlight for my bike. It's just annoying that people are so untrustworthy that I have to remove my bicycle pump and tools and lights every time I leave my bike in public. Nobody has stolen the seat yet, but I'm sure that'll happen one of these days too.

284.6 lb

I did hit a new low weight recently, 284.2 lbs (although the photo was from four days earlier, when I was 284.6 lbs). I've been slowly adding back more carbs to my diet as I attempt to increase the amount of fiber. It's a tricky balance - too much fiber/carbs and the weight loss stops or reverses, too little and I'm eating lettuce ten times a week :(

I've seen some good blood pressure readings recently. After months of 140/95 or thereabouts, my last few readings have all been around 110/65, with my resting pulse rate down to 64 as well.

I made another successful summit of Mount Helena last weekend.

Chris atop Mount Helena - July 30th, 2016

I got up super early, walked the two miles from my apartment to the foot of the mountain in the dark (with a head lamp), then climbed up the 1906 Trail and down the Powerline Trail (hard work on the thighs) before the hot sun came up.

This coming weekend I'm going to attempt Mount Sentinel ("the M") in Missoula. I've been contemplating moving there some time. Maybe the time is now? Maybe it's next spring? Perhaps it won't happen. I don't know yet.

There's more to report, but it'll have to wait until another time.

Mount Helena conquered

I had something to prove, and I did it! I woke up just before 05:00 on Saturday morning (I'm usually up at 5.00 am on a work day anyway, so no big deal). After getting dressed quickly, I was out of the door by 05:11. The sun was barely up over the horizon (we're less than three weeks from the summer solstice), and the temperature was a pleasant 49 °F (9 °C).

Hard work, reaching the summit of Mount Helena

An hour later, I had walked to the Adams St parking lot at the Mount Helena trailhead. I chose to go up the very steep Powerline Trail, and return down the 1906 Trail. Just after 8.00 am, I reached the summit. After a few minutes of taking in the scenery, taking photos, and texting some of my friends, I started the descent, past the Devil's Kitchen limestone formation, on the longer 1906 Trail, which turned out to be just as challenging as the Powerline Trail. Hard work, for sure!

I reached the trailhead again just before 9.30 am. The Montana Conservation Corps were doing some scheduled trail maintenance today. Thank you for that valuable work that you do!

A short rest, then it was time to head to the farmer's market downtown. At this point I was beginning to wish for a flying carpet or magical teleportation powers to take me home. A nice, fortifying breakfast (with a couple of scoops of ice cream - I'd earned it!) set me up nicely for the final leg, the 2.5 miles back to my apartment... uphill!

From 4,200 down to 4,100, then up to 5,468 feet elevation

By the time I got home, I was fit for nothing except sleeping for an hour. Checking my number of steps, I'd walked 10.1 miles today, with more than 22,400 steps! It felt like nine tenths of them were uphill, but I know that no more than half of them could have been (what goes up must come down, right?). However, I do know that my apartment is at 4,200 ft elevation, the Last Chance Gulch walking mall is at about 4,100 ft, and the summit of Mount Helena is at 5,468 feet.

Photos are available at https://goo.gl/photos/h6sz6JPvp71iGicQA.

Slow going up Refrigerator Canyon (PCT d - 17)

My friend Marie and I decided to go up Refrigerator Canyon (http://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/national-forest-trail/refrigerator-canyon-trail.html), part of the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Area. The first quarter-mile is interesting, as it enters a narrow canyon (10 feet wide) with 200-foot high limestone walls and a small, shallow stream running through the middle of it.

Fallen trees everywhere

Just like my experience at Bear Trap Canyon, three weeks earlier, the trail was full of fallen debris, only this time is was mostly fallen trees not large rocks. There must have been a dozen or more places in the first couple of miles where very large trees had fallen across the path, necessitating either climbing over the large obstacle or walking around it. It was not always easy.

Me, with a 32 lb backpack

It felt like we were constantly walking uphill, which 98% of the time was accurate. It wasn't super steep in any one place, but it was uphill all the way. In broad figures, the trailhead was at about 4,647 feet elevation, and the point at which was stopped was at about 5,270 feet. A quick bit of math here: a 623 foot gain over 10,560 feet is equal to a 5.9% grade (that's quite a bit). We had to stop after a couple of miles because of a large fallen tree blocking the way and because of the light rain, which was making the trail a bit muddy and slippery. We decided, afterwards, that it had been the right thing to do to turn around. We still gotten a really good workout. Our heart rates had gone up to aerobic levels, and our legs had definitely felt the three and a half hours of activity.

Female Rocky Mountain wood tick

After I got home, I discovered yet more fellow travellers, as I spotted a couple of small female Rocky Mountain wood ticks (I think that's what they were).

So, we walked 4 miles altogether in 3.5 hours - not especially fast. Would I do it again - sure! Later in the season, when the fallen trees have been cleared, and when it's not so muddy. I'd make sure to set off very early in the morning, to give myself the maximum chance to hike the entire 9.5 miles that I had plotted out, including making time for a picnic/lunch at Bear Prairie (near the end), before returning the same way to the beginning again.

There are signs warning of the presence of bears, and I did have my bear deterrent spray with me, but we didn't see any large animals. I did have an opportunity to discharge the spray for a fraction of a second, just to make sure it actually works. In fact, since I was practicing for my Oregon hike, I took an almost full backpack with me yesterday to emulate conditions there. It weighed 32 lbs.

There are more photos at https://goo.gl/photos/wbNRTE9Kgushd9SeA.

GPS tracking points recorded every minute

My reaction to hiking the Bear Trap Canyon

HOLY SHIT! No apologies for the language. Holy shit!

That was probably the most physically demanding thing I've done in 20 years. It ended up being nearly a mile shorter than the 7.5 miles I'd intended to hike on Friday, so the round trip was about 13.6 miles, but still not bad.

It was very much a tale of two halves. One half was gentle and rolling and not too difficult. The second half was the complete opposite. I've posted a full description elsewhere on this blog (http://blog.ergoob.org/p/hiking-bear-trap-canyon-near-norris-mt.html) with a couple of photos and a link to an online album with more pictures.

In the second half, the way was covered with fallen trees and branches, rock slides (and we're talking some VERY large rocks), and all kinds of different undergrowth and shrubbery (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69iB-xy0u4A). The path was very narrow in places. So narrow, in fact, in some places that a small slip would have consigned you to the bottom of the ravine. It's a good job it hadn't been raining recently, else it would have been too slippery and dangerous (not that it wasn't already dangerous enough!) The other thing that made it difficult was the constantly changing elevation. This is not something you'd undertake lightly, or with the wrong equipment, or if you were in any way lacking in physical fitness and stamina.

You can read the rest of the account at the aforementioned page: http://blog.ergoob.org/p/hiking-bear-trap-canyon-near-norris-mt.html.

I was so sore and tired afterwards that I sat down at a bench/table at the trailhead and didn't move for an hour. If I could have slept there, I would have (not having slept much the night before).

I was really glad for the opportunity to soak in the Hot Springs at Norris for a couple of hours afterwards.

Now that I've made it out of there alive and I survived, I'm glad I did it. At the time, I was cursing and swearing a few times. I wouldn't do it again unless the conditions were absolutely perfect: good gear, good weather, the right time of year to avoid the snakes, a well-honed body to cope with the physical demands, etc. In short, those circumstances are unlikely to all be present (for me) at the same time in a very long time.

Four miles around Bompart Hill (PCT d - 62)

I took advantage of the lighter evenings, now that we're back in Daylight Saving Time, to walk for two and a half hours after work on Wednesday:

Route around Bompart Hill in the South Hills of Helena

The elevation gain was about 510 feet - a good workout.

Elevation profile

Given the name of this blog, "Eat Right, Get Out Of Breath", I was thinking to myself that I'm certainly getting out of breath during the uphill sections of the hike. I was carrying 21 pounds of weight in my backpack too, close to the kind of weight I'll be carrying in Oregon in nine weeks time.

Dizzying heights and under 320 (PCT d - 72)

At the top of Mount Ascension on Sunday morning

 

Part of my preparation for the 100-mile hike coming up in ten weeks time is walking up hills. There are few bigger in the immediate Helena area then Mount Ascension, which I climbed for the first time on Sunday morning (thanks Ann!) To be fair, I didn't start from the very bottom, but it was still a good 1.6 mile round trip in 55 minutes. It was a bit windy in the exposed parts, and a bit muddy underfoot in places, but it was fun. I'm looking forward to exploring more of that area, using its extensive system of paths and trails. What an excellent resource we have, right on our doorstep! 

I was carrying my backpack, laden with 20 lbs of "stuff" (hammock and bug net, sleeping pad, heavy clothing, first aid kit, bear spray, solar panel charger and battery pack) to simulate the kind of bulk and weight I'll be carrying in Oregon. 

319.8 lbs (145 kg)

The exercise, and the continuing low carb diet, helped me get below 320 pounds for the first time in ... I don't know how many years, maybe five years. My target for the end of March is to be under 312 lbs. I have a good feeling about that. 

First experience of hanging in my hammock (PCT d - 79)

After the strong and chilly wind didn't let up at all on Saturday, I finally managed to get out for a 2.4 mile walk on Sunday morning (thanks, Traci!) It was just in my own little neighborhood but it was up and down some steepish hills, including the once-intimidating Buttercup Hill (200 feet tall) at the end of my street. It was hard going, so I know that I'll have to spend several of the next 79 days working on climbing steep hills. I had my backpack on, with about half the stuff that I'll be taking with me to Oregon in May. It weighed nearly 14 pounds.

First time putting up the hammock, lessons learned

On a different tack, I finally got to try out my hammock at the Vigilante campground near York today. It took a couple of goes to get the angle of the dangle correct. The big takeaway from the whole experience was that I need to practice tying proper knots. Evidently, all those YouTube videos I watched didn't help enough. I need to tie so many of them myself, using real rope or cord, that it becomes second nature.

The whole hammock setup was much smaller than I had imagined but, once I'd made some adjustments, it was pretty comfortable. Getting in to it was amusing. Getting out again was like something from a slapstick movie.

Now (on Wednesday) to order the last major piece of gear, my down quilt, and I'll be all set.

In 2015, no-one succeeded in climbing to the top of Mount Everest

In another one of my 'influential moments' that I have from time to time, I spent a chunk of time today reading a story about a rich guy (probably a merchant banker, or something that rhymes with it ["wanker" for those not familiar with the English vernacular]) who is about my height and weighs 210 lbs. By his own admission he is out of shape. Apparently, he just paid some company $15,000 to take him to Mount Everest in May so that he can climb it, having absolutely NO previous mountain climbing experience. All the comments from other people are, like, "don't do it. You're going to die!", or "don't do it, you're going to cause other people to die" when they have to rescue him.

My interest was piqued by the Mental Floss story that in 2015, for the first time since 1974, no-one succeeded in climbing to the top of Mount Everest (http://mentalfloss.com/uk/nature/37508/nobody-reached-the-top-of-mount-everest-in-2015). Wow! Knowing how popular that has become recently, I couldn't believe it, but they had a bad earthquake there in April and another one in May. Since then, only one man attempted to reach the summit, and he "missed it by that much" to quote Maxwell Smart (well, this young Japanese guy missed it by 700 meters).

So, reading all the other comments about the out of shape guy's death wish made me think about my own recently published list of ambitious projects (http://blog.ergoob.org/2016/01/ambitious-plans.html). Unwittingly, I may have planned things so that the order makes perfect sense. Working towards being able to hike 100 miles in seven days will help build up my strength and help me lose weight.

Afterwards, and assuming the weight loss continues, I'll train towards a long bicycle ride, which will help with endurance conditioning and improving my cardiovascular fitness. I did decide that it would be more sensible to go from Portland to Helena, rather than the other way round. That way, the 'finish line' will be my home town, and I won't have a day or two of travelling back to do before I can celebrate or relax. It's also going to be a great psychological boost to see Helena from the top of McDonald Pass, and the final 18 miles will be aided by the thought of being home soon. My quick back-of-an-envelope calculation says that I should be able to do the 700 miles at an average of 10 miles per hour (including breaks) in 70 hours, and that six hours per day would make about 11½ days, plus a couple of rest days along the way. I should be able to do the whole thing in two weeks.

Then I had a bright idea! Just as my daughter is going to be with me to do the PCT hike in May of this year, why can't I find someone to accompany me on the bike ride next year - and do it on a tandem? Yeah! I really like that idea. And, as I'm writing this just now, it occurred to me that it doesn't even have to be the same person accompanying me at the end as at the beginning. I could have two companions, in case one can't get more than a week off work at a time.

Then I thought about some of the things I'd need to be doing before climbing Mount Hood. I'd need to be able to carry a 40 lb backpack for several hours a day (check!) I'd need to have experience of substantially ascending and descending roads/paths (by then, check!) I will need to have built up my cardiovascular endurance, my muscular strength and my flexibility. Hiking steep outdoor trails with a weighted pack will be important, as will practicing on a few smaller and easier climbs (Mount Rainier, perhaps). There's no problem finding small mountains in and around western Montana, or in Washington or Oregon.

I have a plan now to start doing some weight/resistance training at home. It starts off very easily, and will build up in time and intensity as my strength increases. Eventually, I will make a short video of some of those exercises, so that other people can watch and learn, and maybe be inspired.

Ambitious plans

Having asked myself the question, "What am I going to do after I finish my 100-mile hike on a section of the Pacific Crest Trail this May?", I have been thinking about other ambitious projects that I can work towards. I already mentioned Nordic or cross-country skiing in another post (http://blog.ergoob.org/2015/12/trying-to-like-snow-never-say-never.html). That'll be something for next winter (2016/17).

Here is the list I came up with so far:

• cross country or Nordic skiing (winter of 2016/17)
• 600 miles bicycle ride from Helena to Portland (spring/summer of 2017)
• climb Mount Hood in Oregon (spring/summer of 2018)

Mount Hood is a technical climb, I know, but it's only 11,250 feet high, and only three miles away from Timberline Lodge. I couldn't possibly climb it now, but in 30 months time, with the right equipment, and the right skills and training, could I do it? Absolutely! 

Could I cycle all the way to Portland today - no way! Could I in 18 months time? Absolutely! I would need about two weeks off work to do it, maybe more, but it's certainly possible. 

In the meantime, there are other sections of the PCT to hike, plus the whole of the Continental Divide Trail (which is closer to where I live anyway). I should also think up some sort of swimming challenge, since I enjoy swimming so much, and that would be a good thing to do in the winter months. 

Finally, and this might be a total pipe dream, I was inspired by this Sara Bareilles video, "Brave", that is on YouTube:

It made me want to contact her to see if I could be a dancer in one of her future music videos. She's starring in a Broadway musical, "Waitress", at the moment but I'm sure she'll be writing and performing more songs in the future and making music promotion videos. She has a great voice, and having the confidence and ability to dance like the performers in her Brave video would be fantastic for me.

Once more tomorrow and the weekly treadmill walking trifecta is complete

Yesterday, I was fortunate to get a ride to the gym for a couple of hours (thanks, Ann!) I walked on the treadmill for two miles, then swam for an hour. It felt great.

Tuesday's tally: 48:44 minutes and 2.0 miles

Today, I decided to try something different. Instead of walking on the level (or near level), I cranked the machine up to a 5.5% incline, which is akin to what the first five miles of next May's 100 mile PCT hike will be. That's steeper than when I walk home from work.

Wednesday's steeper grade: slower and not quite as far

I managed to keep my heart rate up at about 140 bpm, which is a good aerobic level for me.

When I walked back from the health center (which is just down the road from me) today, I made a point of slowing down slightly but not stopping altogether to have to catch my breath. I've got six months to train myself up to a point where I can easily walk uphill for several miles without huffing and puffing.

Regular consistent application of small steps leads to big gains

When I first started walking to walk, in mid-June, I timed myself. Going to work took 22 minutes (it's downhill) and it took 28 minutes to get home from work (it's uphill - an elevation change of 100 feet over 0.7 miles). Gradually, week by week, those times have gone down from 28 to 26 to 25 minutes. Now, I can regularly get home in about 22-23 minutes. On frosty mornings, when I don't want to hang around outside (I leave at 06:15), I can now easily get to work in 15 minutes.

Yesterday, I had made arrangements to meet my friend Elaine at my apartment after work. Without the aid of my reading glasses, I had mistakenly thought that she'd said she would be there at 4.50. In fact, she had written 4.30 in her text message. When I discovered this (after donning my glasses), I thought, "Oh heck, I don't want to be late", so I deliberately walked home a lot quicker. I also didn't stop as much to catch my breath. Imagine my surprise and delight when I checked the clock upon my arrival back home and discovered that I'd walked UPHILL in 15 minutes! I couldn't believe it. That's a 2.8 mph pace up a 2.7% grade hill.

Then, today, I decided to try walking home a little bit slower and deliberately not take any 15-30 second breaks to catch my breath. Normally, I have half a dozen spots where I might regain my composure quickly before carrying on. Today, zero stops. I still made it in 23 minutes, which I'm okay with.

Even if the progress is measured in tiny steps, 100 tiny steps in the right direction are still equal to a whole lot of larger ones. As long as I'm constantly improving, measurably, I'm happy.

Climbing stairs

A week and a half ago I talked about stair climbing at work. I've been keeping track of the numbers of flights climbed up and down since then, and you can see those numbers at http://www.ergoob.org/get-out-of-breath/stair-climbing-stats. Today, for the first time, I timed myself going up and down all three sets of stairs and returning to where I'd started. It took 1 minute 35 seconds. That'll be my baseline from which I can measure all future progress. I suppose once I'm able to sprint up and down in under 30 seconds I'll have to change the challenge to be SIX flights (two complete sets) instead. But, for now, this will do.

It came in handy that I've started this stair climbing malarkey because we had our Great ShakeOut earthquake drill today, and I was able to keep up with everyone on the stairs as we all filed out of the building and all went back in. I still get out of breath but I expect that'll improve soon. I just can't give up!

A healthy obsession

Several of my friends have heard me describe my quest to lose weight and get fit again as an obsession but, pun intended, it's a healthy obsession. Almost everything I do these days makes me think of healthy exercise or healthy food or something to do with losing weight in some way. It's a bit like the old cliché of men thinking about sex every seven seconds. My challenge to myself (and you, dear reader, if you choose to accept it) is to turn that obsession into a tangible way of REALLY improving our health, in real life, not just in our heads.

I've been thinking about the stairs at my workplace. I work on the second floor of a three-storey building. There are two elevators (lifts) and two sets of stairs, one of which is almost right outside my office door. If I were being super health conscious, I would be climbing up and down those stairs all day long and never using the elevator. But, right now, the percentage of time that I use the stairs is, ... oh,... 0%! I know that if I climb up the stairs (down isn't too bad) I will be out of breath after just one flight. It'll take me a few seconds to recover. Two flights would be much more difficult. Three would be almost impossible.

Yesterday, I climbed the 200 foot high Buttercup Hill which is up the street from my apartment, for just the second time ever. I was with my friend Marie who must have wondered what the puffing and panting noise was. That was me. I hated to have anyone see me that way, but I know she is also a supporter and a friend who knows that it won't always be that way.

When I was doing the laundry at my apartment today, the washer and dryer are in a room on the floor below mine. As I was coming up the stairs, my neighbor (thanks, R) said to me, "Oh, you sound like me when I climb the stairs!" What! No way! ... Um, sadly yes. So, my course is clear,...

I'm going to have to start climbing the stairs at work during my morning and afternoon breaks. Perhaps only a few flights at first (and by "a few" I could mean just one or two, in the beginning). Eventually, the plan would be to increase my strength and stamina so that I can climb all three floors with no noticeable shortage of breath. It's not going to be quick but then, in this endeavor, nothing is ever quick. It can become a game - see how many flights of stairs I can climb in ten minutes, or how fast I can get from the basement to the top floor. The idea would be to improve my performance consistently over time so that I can eventually get to the top without sounding like I just ran a marathon. Watch this space!