Mags
04-04-2006, 13:12
A while ago, many of us were discussing physical prep for a thru-hike of the trail. A suprising amount said "Don't bother".
Never mind the fact that being in good shape for a thru-hike will only make the first few weeks easier...
..or that you should exercise for overall good health off-trail
...but I just could not conceive of sitting around in between thru-hikes. Life has too many cool things to do in between my long hikes. Day hikes, backpacking trips, cross country skiis, runs. Whatever. I just like having fun. I love my thru-hikes, but enjoy taking advantage of the outdoors. I did not move to Colorado to spend time in the 1 bn coffee shops!
Anyway, all this winter, my typical weekend was ski trips. Load up the skinny skis and go touring on the powder. If you are thru-hiker, ski touring is where it is at. Rolling hills, beautiful terrain, great exercise. I've did some limited tele skiing to the "Big bowls", but that is what mountain biking is to hiking - a bit more adrenaline. Just as mountain biking can be fun (but is not for me), tele skiing can be fun..but I prefer the more medatative ski touring.
Did two backcountry huts this year: Ski in with lots of food (and wine!), have an awesome meal with friends at night. Ski the following day. Have another awesome meal with friends (and wine!). Ski out. Beautiful and memorable.
Also did my usual trail runs during the week.
You can see what I did this winter at:
http://snipurl.com/oo62
My real love though is hiking. Long hikes with great scenery, where my legs are pumping. Where the equipment is little.
I left work early Friday and did a scouting trip for the hike I was planning on the weekend (more details later). It was a beautiful day and I wanted to see what snow conditions were like "on the foot', if you will, on the local trails here in Boulder. Went home, changed and walked to the trailhead 10 minutes from my apt. Climbed Flagstaff and made my way down to Gregory Canyon. Beautiful and wooded area! I don't know how many miles I did or the elev gain. I just wanted a hike for the purpose of wandering. Was out four hours on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Ended up at the ranger cottage at Chautaqua (a city park), sat down and looked up the mighty Boulder Flatirons. http://www.totalboulder.com/resources/52.html
Early spring is so wonderful. A feeling of renewal and promise in the air!
Did a quick (1.5 mile or so ) run back home on the road.
Saturday, had to work half a day. Since I was hiking all day Sunday in the open space, thought a straight road run (with hills) would be a good break. I am slow, but can power up hills fairly well. A good excuse for me to do a hilly road run.
Started at the Boulder library, ran up 9th street where there is little traffic and made my way up to Chautaqua. Ran along my least favorite part of the route (Broadway) to my favorite part: Lehigh. A bitch of a hill..but so quiet near the top with good views of where I'd be hiking the following day. Could feel a cool breeze and the caught a whiff of the sweet smell of freshly cut grass. Spring is in there! It was my first pure road run of the season and was happy how good I felt.
Played with Google Pedometer and mapped out the route if anyone is curious: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=99708.
(Had a coffee and bagle after my run at one of the 5 bn coffee shops in Boulder! )
Sunday was the big day. A hike of all the major peaks in the Boulder Open Space system. Sanitas, Anenome, Flagstaff, Green, Bear, S. Boulder Peak. Views of the divide, climbing down into canyons, wanderings in the woods. A wonderful hike to start the season off!
It is about 17 miles and 7000' elev gain (by map). In my mind, it would be a great way to see a big reason why I moved to Colorado - plenty of outdoor things to do right in my own backyard! (Almost literally).
We started at 8am and had an interesting mix of people. All into the outdoors, all easy to talk with, all into a good day of hiking.
Climbed Sanitas via Dakota Ridge and ended up at the top of this popular "workout" mountain. Made our way down and across the road to a saddle near Boulder's "forgotten" mountain: Anenmone. A wooded summit with semi-official trails leading to it..but one we had to do.
And more (steep!) down climbing to another local park. Up the many switchbacks (with good views) to the wooded summit of Flagstaff. The summit is actually just off the trail. Malia and Dave are about to do the PCT and carried most of their gear with them..including ice axes! We have a nice shot of us on the summit of Flagstaff with ice axes!
...and then some more down (yes..lots of ups and downs on this trip!) and up to the very snowy backside of Green Mountain with the icy packed trails.
I rolled my ankle on the way up Green. Yowch! Long story short - ended up doing half the hike with a swollen ankle. Yowsers! No matter..made our way to Green, saw great views of the Divide (Yeah! Baby! CDT!) and had lunch.
We then hiked down yet again and up yet again to my favorite part of the hike - the West Ridge. A very old cart road that is now basically single track. Awesome views of the divide. Up we went to Bear Peak, down to a saddle for a short (.7 miles) to the highest point in th Boulder open space: South Boulder Peak at 8550'.
I had a bottle of Andre's "sparkling wine" leftover from New Years (a night hike..had a bottle just in case!) that I pulled out. At $5 a bottle and with a twist off cap..you know its gotta be good.
We enjoyed the views from our last peak. Headed back to the (down and up again!) saddle and down the very steep and snow covered Fern Canyon. A little slow going. Finally made our way to trail without snow. Using the very well known Mesa Trai. and a few other side trails, made our way to the houses in South Boulder. My friend Josh lives nearby and along with Dan (who met us on Bear Peak by chance) were able to do an easy car shuttle back to the Sanitas trail head.
All of us then went to an AYCE Indian food buffet. The best statistic of all (as figured out by Josh) - we had ~35 plates total at the buffet!
So that's my weekend. "Physical prep" for a thru-hike on some level. But for me it is about having fun. Enjoying myself. A need to be outdoors not just on thru-hikes, but all through the year. Being with friends who are dear to me and also enjoy the outdoors.
Pics at: http://snipurl.com/oo18
A map of the Boulder open space (if you want to mesh up the trails with what we did):
http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/openspace/gis/trailmap.htm
ps. Terry did an altimeter follow up. I don't know how accurate it is, but all the little ups and downs added to 8235 feet. You can see the graphs in the photos links. Kinda cool!
Never mind the fact that being in good shape for a thru-hike will only make the first few weeks easier...
..or that you should exercise for overall good health off-trail
...but I just could not conceive of sitting around in between thru-hikes. Life has too many cool things to do in between my long hikes. Day hikes, backpacking trips, cross country skiis, runs. Whatever. I just like having fun. I love my thru-hikes, but enjoy taking advantage of the outdoors. I did not move to Colorado to spend time in the 1 bn coffee shops!
Anyway, all this winter, my typical weekend was ski trips. Load up the skinny skis and go touring on the powder. If you are thru-hiker, ski touring is where it is at. Rolling hills, beautiful terrain, great exercise. I've did some limited tele skiing to the "Big bowls", but that is what mountain biking is to hiking - a bit more adrenaline. Just as mountain biking can be fun (but is not for me), tele skiing can be fun..but I prefer the more medatative ski touring.
Did two backcountry huts this year: Ski in with lots of food (and wine!), have an awesome meal with friends at night. Ski the following day. Have another awesome meal with friends (and wine!). Ski out. Beautiful and memorable.
Also did my usual trail runs during the week.
You can see what I did this winter at:
http://snipurl.com/oo62
My real love though is hiking. Long hikes with great scenery, where my legs are pumping. Where the equipment is little.
I left work early Friday and did a scouting trip for the hike I was planning on the weekend (more details later). It was a beautiful day and I wanted to see what snow conditions were like "on the foot', if you will, on the local trails here in Boulder. Went home, changed and walked to the trailhead 10 minutes from my apt. Climbed Flagstaff and made my way down to Gregory Canyon. Beautiful and wooded area! I don't know how many miles I did or the elev gain. I just wanted a hike for the purpose of wandering. Was out four hours on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Ended up at the ranger cottage at Chautaqua (a city park), sat down and looked up the mighty Boulder Flatirons. http://www.totalboulder.com/resources/52.html
Early spring is so wonderful. A feeling of renewal and promise in the air!
Did a quick (1.5 mile or so ) run back home on the road.
Saturday, had to work half a day. Since I was hiking all day Sunday in the open space, thought a straight road run (with hills) would be a good break. I am slow, but can power up hills fairly well. A good excuse for me to do a hilly road run.
Started at the Boulder library, ran up 9th street where there is little traffic and made my way up to Chautaqua. Ran along my least favorite part of the route (Broadway) to my favorite part: Lehigh. A bitch of a hill..but so quiet near the top with good views of where I'd be hiking the following day. Could feel a cool breeze and the caught a whiff of the sweet smell of freshly cut grass. Spring is in there! It was my first pure road run of the season and was happy how good I felt.
Played with Google Pedometer and mapped out the route if anyone is curious: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=99708.
(Had a coffee and bagle after my run at one of the 5 bn coffee shops in Boulder! )
Sunday was the big day. A hike of all the major peaks in the Boulder Open Space system. Sanitas, Anenome, Flagstaff, Green, Bear, S. Boulder Peak. Views of the divide, climbing down into canyons, wanderings in the woods. A wonderful hike to start the season off!
It is about 17 miles and 7000' elev gain (by map). In my mind, it would be a great way to see a big reason why I moved to Colorado - plenty of outdoor things to do right in my own backyard! (Almost literally).
We started at 8am and had an interesting mix of people. All into the outdoors, all easy to talk with, all into a good day of hiking.
Climbed Sanitas via Dakota Ridge and ended up at the top of this popular "workout" mountain. Made our way down and across the road to a saddle near Boulder's "forgotten" mountain: Anenmone. A wooded summit with semi-official trails leading to it..but one we had to do.
And more (steep!) down climbing to another local park. Up the many switchbacks (with good views) to the wooded summit of Flagstaff. The summit is actually just off the trail. Malia and Dave are about to do the PCT and carried most of their gear with them..including ice axes! We have a nice shot of us on the summit of Flagstaff with ice axes!
...and then some more down (yes..lots of ups and downs on this trip!) and up to the very snowy backside of Green Mountain with the icy packed trails.
I rolled my ankle on the way up Green. Yowch! Long story short - ended up doing half the hike with a swollen ankle. Yowsers! No matter..made our way to Green, saw great views of the Divide (Yeah! Baby! CDT!) and had lunch.
We then hiked down yet again and up yet again to my favorite part of the hike - the West Ridge. A very old cart road that is now basically single track. Awesome views of the divide. Up we went to Bear Peak, down to a saddle for a short (.7 miles) to the highest point in th Boulder open space: South Boulder Peak at 8550'.
I had a bottle of Andre's "sparkling wine" leftover from New Years (a night hike..had a bottle just in case!) that I pulled out. At $5 a bottle and with a twist off cap..you know its gotta be good.
We enjoyed the views from our last peak. Headed back to the (down and up again!) saddle and down the very steep and snow covered Fern Canyon. A little slow going. Finally made our way to trail without snow. Using the very well known Mesa Trai. and a few other side trails, made our way to the houses in South Boulder. My friend Josh lives nearby and along with Dan (who met us on Bear Peak by chance) were able to do an easy car shuttle back to the Sanitas trail head.
All of us then went to an AYCE Indian food buffet. The best statistic of all (as figured out by Josh) - we had ~35 plates total at the buffet!
So that's my weekend. "Physical prep" for a thru-hike on some level. But for me it is about having fun. Enjoying myself. A need to be outdoors not just on thru-hikes, but all through the year. Being with friends who are dear to me and also enjoy the outdoors.
Pics at: http://snipurl.com/oo18
A map of the Boulder open space (if you want to mesh up the trails with what we did):
http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/openspace/gis/trailmap.htm
ps. Terry did an altimeter follow up. I don't know how accurate it is, but all the little ups and downs added to 8235 feet. You can see the graphs in the photos links. Kinda cool!