Training Log Archive: Funderstormin

Pemi Loop - Day 3

Rain continued through the night but lucky for us cleared in the morning and we were at least able to pack up the wet stuff under a clear sky! We only had 7 miles today which felt like a luxury after the previous one, so took a bit more time getting organized in the morning and hit the trail around 9:00. We were very close to Mt. Liberty but it was shrouded in fog, which was actually pretty cool. Then it was just a short jaunt to Mt. Flume, the final summit, which we enjoyed under blue skies. We took our time playing around on the summit and taking photos as it was so beautiful! From there, we started a long descent back to the Lincoln Woods trailhead, which had a few challenging sections but generally speaking felt like a cakewalk compared to what we'd been doing the day before.

We got back to the car just before 2 and did a bit of clean-up before heading into Lincoln for some well-deserved pizza and beer!

I loved the challenge of this loop and would highly recommend it either as a backpacking trip or good hard long run!

And now that I have 8 of 48 4000 footers ticked off, it's time to start looking at the maps to find some more. :-D

C • wow, what a fantastic adven... 2

Pemi Loop - Day 2

When we told others of our plan to hike from Guyot to the Liberty Springs tent site on the second day, some told us outright it wasn't likely possible while others encouraged us to start at dawn. Eeek! We thought 14 miles seemed like a reasonable plan but this did turn out to be a long hard day, with a total elapsed time of almost 12 hours. We got out of camp around 7:30 and enjoyed the first few miles and the summits of the Guyot Spur and South Twin Mountain. From there we were introduced to the reality for the rest of the day: steep, rocky terrain that was always going up or down. We descended South Twin and started a very long, tough (but beautiful) slog up to Mt. Garfield, which took many, many hours! We stopped into the super cool Galehead AMC hut to fill water and I could suddenly see the appeal of staying at one of these mountain huts, which are pricey but include a dinner and breakfast. When we reached Garfield about 2:00 p.m. we realized we had only covered about half of our miles for the day, but we were reassured by some other hikers that things would get better. My half-joking motto for most of this day was "things don't always get worse, but sometimes they do..." "Worse" in this case was hand over hand climbing up wet rocks with a giant backpack! There were a few times I had mini panic attacks thinking I couldn't do something but I guess that is character building!?

We stopped to take a break at what we *thought* was near the summit of Mt. Lafayette, the highest peak on the route, but got a rude awakening when we saw a sign saying it was still another 0.8 miles! We hit the summit about 5:00 and started the funnest part of the whole trip - a traverse across Franconia Ridge, bagging Mt. Lincoln and Little Haystack in quick succession. At this point it had been a long day but the views and the realization that we were going to make it to the campsite buoyed our spirits. We moved as quickly as we could trying to make it in before dark.

During the last couple of miles we could hear thunder and hauled ass trying to get in before the rain. Alas, we were unsuccessful and had to pull our rain covers and coats about 0.3 miles from the site. The rain lasted a good long time so we cooked dinner under a tarp and waited to set up camp. By the time we got set up and cleaned up, it was almost time for bed. This was a long and challenging but also very rewarding day!

Pemi Loop - Day 1

I had this backpacking trip on my bucket list for the summer after being unsuccessful in securing a Wonderland Trail permit and not quite risk tolerant enough to fly out there and hope to get a walk-up permit! The Pemi Loop is a 32 mile trail that summits 8 of New Hampshire's 4000 footers, and has a great infrastructure for backpacking with several tent sites, an AMC mountain hut, and stealth camping options around the loop. It seemed that 3 days, 2 nights was the most common length chosen, although we did meet a couple of runners doing it all in one go, which I can also see the appeal of!

Tim joined me on this adventure and we camped the night before a mile from the trailhead at the Hancock campground. We were able to get organized and hit the trail around 9:30, with about 11 miles and 2 summits to our first campsite. The first few miles were quick and easy, but once we started climbing we learned how quickly things could change! I think that we really lucked out starting this on a Tuesday as we had the first (and most) summits to ourselves. We took off our packs and ate our lunch on the summit of Bondcliff before descending and climbing back up to Mt. Bond. From there it was a couple of relatively easy miles to the Guyot campsite, where we nabbed an awesome platform with a sunrise view. There were about 15 people staying at the tent site and it was fun to talk to others about route choices and experiences.

This class was a bit of a killer!

Warm-up
- decreasing KB swings (10-1) and increasing box jumps (1-10)

Circuit #1 x 4
- SA bench press X 10
- Sled row X 30 yards
- DB Arnold press X 10
- Pull-ups X 4-6
- Rope slams X 15

Circuit #2 x 4
- SL elevated hip bridge X 10 per leg
- SL landmine lunge with press X 8 per leg
- Trap bar deadlift X 12
- Rear foot elevated squat X 8 per leg

Finisher - EMOM
- 20 MB slams
- 120 yard sprint
- 70 mountain climbers
- 30 second assault bike

I was pretty beat by the end of it!

C • Pretty Beat 1

On the trails at Point Farms Provincial Park.

Camped at Chippawa Creek Conservation Area as I'd never been there before. It was a pretty forgettable RV_popular park, but Earl and I still enjoyed ourselves!

The plan for today was hiking with the backpacking pack and gear that I am taking to the White Mountains next week, where Tim and I are tackling the Pemi loop on a 3-day, 2 night trip: https://www.northeasthikes.com/the-pemi-loop-hike/

Parked Earl at my desired end point near Rockway Conservation Area and took an Uber to where I had finished the day before; I know this approach won't work for the whole trail, but it was sure was handy this time around!

I loved this entire hike. Most of the trail was new to me, it was a beautiful day, my pack felt comfortable and not too heavy (granted, the food isn't in it yet!), and my legs were surprisingly spry after the previous day's effort.

When I got back to the van I enjoyed a juicy IPA and some cheese puffs which I wouldn't have traded for anything!

Running and meandering on the Bruce Trail from the southern terminus to Decew House. I wanted to combine a long run with an Earlventure this weekend and have wanted to start deliberately doing the Bruce from end-to-end for a couple of years now. Each year I make it my New Year's resolution to start and this year I actually did! Knowing how many different adventure directions I get pulled in, I recognize this is gonna take awhile! I'd like to finish by the end of 2019, but who knows! In the short term, if I can get one more weekend in during the fall, I can finish up the Niagara section, which is my short term goal.

I have seen most of this section of trail in various races, like the Laura Secord race a few years back, but it was really fun to approach it in this way and be able to stop and look around and take pictures when I wanted to. It was a fun treat to stop about 2/3 of the way through at a convenience store on Glendale and enjoy a fudgsicle and Gatorade!

I had parked Earl and the end, in part to avoid any inclination to cut my planned distance short, and took an Uber to the start, which worked really well!

The running part went well for the first 20km or so, but then I got pretty tired and there was a fair bit of hiking in the last 10km, hence the 2!

Sunset ride at the Hydrocut. Mosquitos were awful but trails were in great shape!

C • Mosquitoes still! 3

Lovely morning ride at Kelso with Mrs. Tiny followed by a parking lot picnic. We weren't sure if we wanted to ride to the bottom or not but decided to check out the super fun new trail that goes down the ski hill which made the climb back up well worth it!

Back at 'er!

Near Death Marathon at the Canadian Death Race - a brilliant idea put forth by Browner in the early winter. I wanted an out of my comfort zone race for the year and this seemed like a good fit. At the time I signed up, my achilles was still only 50/50 so even though it was just a marathon, it would be the longest and hardest thing I'd attempted in a couple of years. It's been a good consistent training year and I was feeling really ready for this...physically at least! Mentally I was a nervous wreck at the start line and couldn't wait to get going!

Leg 1 of the race was pretty quick and straightforward and I got into the first transition area in around 2.5 hours. My goal was to take it easy enough that I got to the TA still feeling good, which I did. I spent a few minutes restocking supplies, getting my poles ready, and eating miracle pickles! I was excited for the tough stuff to begin.

The climb up Flood Mountain went really well, but I was happy enough when it was over as I'd been running behind an annoying person with really loud bear bells. The "slugfest" section was as challenging as expected and I was caught in a bit of a conga line going both up and down. I was eager to get away from the crowds! I really enjoyed the climb and views up Grande, especially knowing that it was the last big climb of the day! The powerline descent was sketchy AF, and if there is one thing I would have worked more on leading up to the race, it would have been steep downhills like this one as I was getting passed by lots of relay runners. It was cool to see the town getting closer and closer, even if it was taking forever! By the time I got to the road I was excited to be finishing and was able to put in a good effort down the road and to the finish. It felt great to be running strong through to the end.

Although the results would suggest that Amber and I ran together, we actually didn't! We jostled back and forth for awhile and met up just before the finish. Browner was waiting for us at the finish line after killing her race, and we didn't waste any time hopping in the car to see STORM come through the Leg 3/4 transition. We were quite surprised when he showed up much later than expected with a dog in tow! After returning the dog to its caretaker back in Grand Cache, we cleaned ourselves up and celebrated with beers and dinner! The following day we enjoyed a lovely drive back to Edmonton with lots of stops for walks, leg soaking, and brewery visits!

C • Go Death Racer! 3

Thursday was spent driving the Icefields Parkway to Jasper and stopping along the way to check out some of the sights. We had an awesome picnic lunch alongside a river away from the crowds. Amber picked us an awesome place in Jasper about 6km outside of town on Pyramid Lake. Friday morning before we left for Grand Cache we all picked a hike and went off on our own. There were so many fun trails in the area it was painful to not be able to do more exploring!

Fresh off the plane we met up with Marta for a hike up Miner's Peak. My first summer visit to Canmore and I loved it just as much as I remembered I did!