August was a good month! As usual, it was filled with lots of outdoor activities, family and friends! I love summer!

Running: In August I clocked 197 miles. About 122 of those were in the Wind River Range, and another 31.5 of them were from the Tamalpa Headlands 50k. Other than that, I actually had a couple of "easy" weeks! I actually biked about 41.6 miles though, which brings me to a total of about 141 miles, which is 78% of my 180 mile goal for this year! This month I kind of fell short on the yoga front, and I only did 2 sessions.

Reading: I thought I would read a lot on the hiking trip, but usually we were so tired that we went right to bed (sometimes as early as 7 pm). So, that plus the driving took out about 10 days of reading. However, thanks to audio books, I did "read" 5 books in August (sorted by preference / audio books in italics).

Her Every Fear ****
Think Like a Freak ****
Dreamland Burning ****
The Light of Paris ***
The Body of Death ***

Travel: I was not really home for even one weekend in August! The first two were spent in Wyoming; the third near San Jose and the last in Marin County at my grandma's 85th birthday! It was a busy month of events and travel.

Haystack Mountain, Wind River Range, WY

Wind River: Looking northeast from Chimney Rock @ 12,000 ft

The Eclipse. I didn't look at it, I swear!

SF Giants game with Dad

SF Giants game with Dad

Etc.: The garden is in full swing. I have tomatoes coming out of my ears! Speaking of ears, the corn has ears now too! I am not sure when they will be ready to pick, but it's so exciting to have a new vegetable in the backyard. Also ripening are the figs, cucumbers and zucchini. Still pending potatoes (maybe) and hot peppers. Interestingly, this year I had a lot of volunteer squash and tomatoes (aka, they replanted themselves from seeds from last year) and they are actually bearing fruits! I have canned regular tomatoes and tomato salsa and will probably do another batch of canning next month, likely tomato sauce and/or more plain tomatoes.

I think this qualifies as a plethora.

Snack Time! 

How was your August? What is your favorite in-season fruit or vegetable?

Planning a week long hiking trip is fun, if you are an excel nerd, or maybe a chemist, or an outdoor enthusiast. Okay, never mind, it is actually fun no matter what! For me, planning is part of the package that makes up the perfect gift, a trip of a lifetime. I am not going to go into that here; you will be able to read more about that in part three, the trip report. For now, I will just say that the work that goes into something, be it the planning or the hiking or the sweat and the tears, or the cold nights and long days, makes the reward all that much more sweet.

The Plan: So the first thing I had to do was figure out where I wanted to go. I had been wanting to hike the Sierra High Route (SHR), which is an off trail route in the Sierras, for some time. However, it is about 200 miles long and at my estimate, I could hike about 20 miles per day, which would put me at 10 days, or too many days to do the trip on a one week vacation. So I looked for other options and found the Wind River High Route (WRHR), which is in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, very close to Jackson, Yellowstone and the Tetons. However, I will admit, I had never heard of this section of the Rockies before. However, this route, which was also off trail, was closer to 100 miles, which I figured I could do in one week. So, I invited my ultrarunning friend Dr. G and the planning began.

The Route: We used the Andrew Skurka guide, along with CalTopo maps and the app "Offline Maps" which has USGS topo maps that you can download to use offline. Skurka gives you a few GPS way points but the route is not mapped out for you. Dr. G loaded the waypoints into the Offline Maps as well. We also had a compass and paper topographical maps.

The Big Three: Next, it was time to get my gear list together. Luckily, I have a skeleton list already made out for other trips, so that part was not too much reinventing the wheel. However, this time, I wanted to finally buy some of those elusive lightweight items that had been on my wish list for so long. The main one was a sleeping bag. They say that there is a "big three" of hiking: the sleeping bag, the sleeping pad and the tent. These items, aside from food, are generally the heaviest in your pack. I had been shopping around for a lightweight but not super expensive sleeping bag for years and had even bought one once which turned out to not be warm enough. This time I bit the bullet and spent a little more in the hopes that this time I would have the sleeping bag of my dreams (see how I did that?)

I bought the following and will likely review them at some point: Western Mountaineering Ultralite 20 degree sleeping bag (29 oz), Hyperlite 2400 Southwest Backpack (28.6 oz), and the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Xlite Small size (8 oz). Dr. G carried a two man tent, which weighed about 2 lbs (32 oz). Therefore, my big three + my backpack only weighed about 4 lbs, or if you include the weight I carried to compensate for not carrying the tent, it was about 5 lbs. To put it in perspective, my old backpack, which I love and have used a lot, weighs about 5.5 lbs empty. Yes, I said empty!

The Clothing: For clothing, my plan was to wear the following: running shorts, short sleeved running shirt, underwear, bra, socks and Saucony trail running shoes (Nomad). I would carry the following: Mountain Hardware windbreaker, long sleeved running shirt, Montbell rain jacket, rain pants, beanie, buff, gloves, MH down jacket, sleeping shirt (long sleeved), NorthFace tights, extra underwear, socks & bra. All of the clothing I carried (not counting clothing worn) weighed about 39 oz or 2.5 lbs.

The Other Stuff: I also had to bring toiletries, kitchen items (pot, pan, spoon, bowl, fuel, matches etc.), first aid, dry bags, water purifier, electronics (phone, charger, headlamp, camera etc.) and other utility items (knife, rope, compass, trash bag, whistle etc.). All together these weighed about 4 lbs.

Base Pack Weight: This is all things, excluding consumables, which include food, water and fuel. My goal was to keep this weight under 20 lbs, as I estimated food would be about 1.7 lbs per day x 6 days, which would be about 10 lbs, and I wanted to keep my pack under 30 total lbs. My total base weight ended up being about 11.5 lbs!! I was very excited about this.

The Food: This was the most fun but definitely the most time consuming portion of the planning. Oh my, I just said "portion." Ha. Seriously though, the goal is to carry the most amount of calories in the least amount of weight. We planned to try to have approximately 3,000 calories per day worth of food, which would hopefully be no more than 1.7 lbs per day. This sounds easy, right? You just load up your pack with Top Ramen and PowerBars, right? Nah. My goal was to have food that: (1) is nutritious, (2) tastes good, (3) is inexpensive (no $8 Mountain House meals), (4) can just have hot water added to it to cook and that (5) has some variety.

So I did a lot of weighing and calorie counting and math and came up with this food plan: Breakfast consisted of either muesli or oatmeal with milk, nuts and freeze dried fruit. Both were about 700 calories. There would also be coffee, with powdered milk and sugar, which would be about 80 - 100 calories. Lunch and snacks would consist of various nuts, bars, jerky, and dried fruit and would consist of about 1,200 - 1,600 calories per day. Dinner would consist of a curried top ramen dish, a mashed potato with bacon dish or a rice and beans dish, each clocking in at a little over 700 calories. I also brought olive oil to supplement, which is about 100 calories per serving. All in all, the goal was about 2,600 - 3,000 calories per day.

The H2O: I brought a 1.5L bladder and a 0.5L soft flask for water. Each liter of water weighs about 2 lbs, but my plan was to try to carry the least amount possible and fill up frequently, so as to keep the pack weight down.

Total Pack Weight: My food ended up being about 1.4 lbs per day. This, plus an estimated liter of water, would bring my total starting pack weight to about 23 total lbs. HOWEVER...Dr. G carried the tent and I carried some of his food, which brought my total up by about 4.5 lbs bringing my actual starting pack weight to 27.5 lbs.

The Verdict: This is the lightest I have ever been when doing a multi day backpacking trip. I lugged over 40 lbs up Mt. Whitney for a one night trip. I will (hopefully) never have to do that again. The pack felt comfortable and even when climbing up a steep rock or going through a tight squeeze, it was not too cumbersome.

A couple of things I would probably leave behind: the olive oil (it leaked plus we never used it), the all purpose soap (I did not shower, bathe, or use soap to do dishes or clean clothes like I thought I might), my sleeping shirt (I slept in my hiking clothes, although it is nice to have a possible dry shirt if needed), sports bra (I wore one and brought a spare and ended up wearing neither in the end) and my just-in-case tank top (it was never warm enough).

A couple of things I might bring some of / more of: gauze (I had tape but no gauze and I got a pretty big scrape which could have used a bit bigger of a cover), socks (I brought one spare but having wet feet is a pain), a different water carrying system (more on that in the trip report) and a different/newer charger (my solar charger is old and ran out of juice fast, plus it was not sunny so I could not recharge it).

A couple of things I could not have lived without: this Picaridin bug lotion (NO bug bites when applied, even with mosquitoes SWARMING), Advil, Neosporin / Bandaids / Leukotape (as mentioned above, I got a scrape and it was nice to have something to clean it), earplugs (my tentmate was a snorer, plus the sleeping pads are loud) my new sleeping bag (fabulous! We spent one night in a snowstorm and I was not cold at all), maps/compass/GPS (after all, this was an off trail trek), Garmin 910ST, camera (I took about 800 photos), Yaktrax (I almost left them behind), and nuts (fat, protein and carbs all rolled into one, which keeps you feeling more full throughout the day).

In the end, I ate every speck of my food, except for the olive oil and one packet of Justin's Peanut Butter. I also used everything in my bag, except for the few things mentioned above and any emergency items (rope, knife, first aid). There was nothing that I really missed or really felt was dead weight. I felt that the packing ended up being pretty much perfect. I may try to compress a few things down a bit more with a compression sack so I can fit a little more if I am hiking for more days. I also need to figure out my water system and probably configure one extra pocket on the front of my pack (my pack has two hip pockets but no chest pocket). Otherwise, things are looking pretty good!

Have you ever planned for a long hiking or backpacking trip? Or maybe a long vacation? What is your logistical planning strategy?

At the beginning of this month my friend Dr. G and I went hiking in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. It was hard for us to find online information regarding weather etc., so my trip report is going to consist of three parts: (1) Weather Report / Trail Conditions, (2) Logistics and (3) Trip Report. This way if anyone needs trail info, they will hopefully be able to find it here. If you are reading this and don't plan on hiking, you can skip part one and wait until part two or three come out! 

A taste of what's to come

I will go into this in more detail later, but most of our hike consisted of traveling on the semi-charted and very informal "Wind River High Route." (See here for the Skurka version or the Wilson/Dixon version) Described by Andrew Skurka as being approximately 66% off trail, it consisted of a lot of boulder hopping, stream fording, snowfield crossing, bushwhacking and route finding. This was a huge challenge as well as being a lot of fun. However, there were some things that it would have been nice to know beforehand. 

First and foremost, there was A LOT more snow than I expected. Most of the route is above 10,500 feet and much of it is even in the 12,000 foot plus range. I knew there would be some snow; I knew this year was more snowy than others have been. However, there was still even more snow that I expected even after taking certain factors into consideration. I brought Yaktrax and Dr. G had micro-spikes and we used them a lot! However, depending on your expertise, I would even say that some sections warranted crampons/ice axes or at least trekking poles, especially if you are inexperienced or faint at heart. 

Wilson/Dixon descending the south side of Alpine Lakes Pass in 2013 (source)

Dr. G ascending the south side of Alpine Lakes Pass Aug 2017

Dr. G ascending the south side of Alpine Lakes Pass Aug 2017 (he is the tiny speck beyond the tiny rock)

Foodwise, I ate ALL of my food. When the hike was done, I had one packet of peanut butter (180 calories) left over. I had eaten every other scrap of food that I brought. I will go into more detail about this in the logistics portion of this series, but basically my takeaway is that I forgot how much the altitude and constant movement can burn up those calories!

In addition, of the seven days we hiked, five of them had rain, hail or snow. One night, as we were camping at about 11,000 feet, we got snowed on and woke up to the sound of the snow sliding off the top of the tent to the ground. The next day there was a beautiful layer of new snow, which was priceless, but it was hard to see the rocks underneath to see where to step or to determine where the best path was. Needless to say, I wore pretty much everything that I brought, even the "just in case" layers, and I was mighty glad to have bought a new sleeping bag before setting out. Also, if you do not have a waterproof backpack, I suggest dry bags or at the very least a trash bag pack liner. 

Rainy but never gloomy!

New snow! Beautiful but hard to get traction! Looking north from Europe peak.

Due to the above and probably other things such as route finding errors and variability of the route in general, the hike took us a lot longer than expected. The total route is supposed to be 96 miles, so we thought it realistic that we would take five or maybe six days to complete the route. However, due to a few wrong turns and snowy days, it took us seven days, we only averaged about 15 miles per day AND ended up with a total route distance of 114 miles. 

If you have any questions, I am happy to answer them! 

For my normal readers, have you ever gone off trail when hiking? Have you ever heard of the Wind River Range?

I wrote the July portion of this post over a month ago and then it just sat in my drafts folder until today, when I was going to start an August post and....voila and oops, there it was!  SO this is going to be a combined belated effort! 

July:  July is one of those months that always flies by. It is usually full of summer outings, camping, family and fun. You just can't sit inside in July; in fact I can't even get any chores done, as there is so much fun stuff to do! Needless to say, my garden is a bramble and my fridge looks like a cross between Siberia and the Amazon (empty but tangled?) as I have not been home enough to care for it!

Running: In July, I ran about 240 miles. This was the month with the ramp up and the taper for my 100 mile race at the beginning of August. The first couple of weeks were 70 - 80 miles and the last couple of weeks were very little miles (40ish). In addition I had a week off where I went running almost every day, with the highest day being 40 miles, which was the Rae Lakes loop (beautiful).

Reading: Not surprisingly, this was not a good reading month for me. I read 4 books, but it was hard, as I was traveling with other people a lot, as well as training for my race. (Books are starred for RHC, bolded for my own).

Fangirl (3 stars)
Death of a Salesman (2 stars)*
City on Fire (3 stars)
Blanche on the Lam (2 stars)*

Travel: I had a great time in July! I went to Tahoe a couple of times, to Yosemite once and up to my parents neck of the woods for a family gathering. My favorite part was...everything!

August: August is usually full of birthdays and outings and trips, and this year was no exception!

Running: I attempted to run another 100 mile race, this time in Colorado, but once again, I did not finish. Due to this, I ran about 156 miles. This included 50 miles of Silverheels for myself and a pacing stint in Leadville, which was about 20 miles.

Reading: I only read three books and they were:

1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think (2 stars)*
The Doubters Almanac (3 stars)
A Darker Shade of Magic (5 stars)

Travel: I went to Colorado twice in August; as stated above, once for my own race and once to pace a friend in Leadville. I am not a huge fan of the Denver airport (or highway 70) but I became very familiar with it in August. In addition, I had one weekend where I stayed home (blissful) and one weekend where I went to visit my parents.

So there you have it, my summer in a nutshell. It is a bit late, but I think that just shows that it was fun!!

How was your summer? Are you ready for Fall? What was the favorite part of your summer?

From here on out, this space will be called the "looking back" space. Before I go on, I am looking forward to Fall! Okay, now I am not just all about looking back. August is always a busy month: Last year I studied for and passed a licensing exam, took a vacation and still managed to run 189 miles (phew). This year was a lot less study, but was still packed solid every weekend of the month!

Running: For the first time in a long time, in August I dropped below 100 miles. My heart (brain/legs, etc) is just is not in it. My total for the month was about 85 miles of running. However, I am still loving the outdoors! August also brought 40 miles of cycling, 109 miles of hiking, 21 miles of walking, 1 open water swim, 1 kayak trip and 1 hour of strength training. All in all, this equals about 256 miles of "activity." I will take what I can get!

Reading: I read 4 books, and none of them really knocked my socks off.... The best two were probably The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.

Travel: Not a lot of running; not a lot of reading...but there was a lot of travel. There were 5 weekends in August and I spent them in 5 different places: Yosemite, Humboldt County (redwoods), Taylorsville (Dad's first half marathon), Milan and Chamonix (UTMB). Due to all of this, I have added a new category, which I will move on to now...

Family, Friends and Food: August really is "family, friends and food" month. The first weekend was a great trip to the lesser known regions of Yosemite park, aka, not the valley, where I spent some time camping and running with friends. The next weekend was another camping trip, but this time it was in the opposite direction, north along the coast, into the redwoods. It was great hanging out with the "in-laws" and my brother while swimming, playing catchphrase and drinking plenty of cold beer.

View of Half Dome from North Dome

The next weekend was ANOTHER camping trip, this time with the whole fam damily, and when I say whole, I mean three (or four?) generations of crazy, dirty, active, fun and loud family members. It was a side of the family that I don't see as often, and it was a lot of fun! My dad ran his first half marathon and kicked some major butt in the process (first in his age group and 7th overall)!!

Dad after his "Running of the Bears" win

After that, it was off to Europe for my annual vacation, where I ate baguettes and cheese, drank wine, hiked in the Alps, cheered on my friend at UTMB and in general had a lot of fun and time exploring the outdoors. I tired myself out so much, that I never even had time to read the 10 books (or even 4!) that I brought with me on my Kindle. Every night was a good night's sleep and I woke up each day ready for another adventure. Now I am busy resting from my vacation....just kidding! It's been straight back to the old grind with no easing in!

So...how was your August? What annual summer traditions do you have? Are you ready for Fall yet? 

August? Yup; I am only a month behind... Bear with me as I try to recap August before September ends!

August was an eventful month for me. I studied for, took, and passed my final licensing exam for work. This was a relief, and I spent the remainder of the month planning a vacation as a treat for all the studying I had done over the last few months.

Miles: 189. I had one 50k race, and I have to proudly give a quick shout out to broski, as it was his first ultra! I had over a 10 minute PR from my last year's time for this race, and broski finished well within the cutoff. I also bought a new backpack and in trying to test it out, I did a few run commutes home from work. It's not quite a true run commute, as I have to take the BART across the bay, but it is about 4 -8 miles with the pack, so I will take it.

Books: Finally I am done studying, so I have more time to do what I really love and...read! I only read two books, my favorite of which was the Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory. It is a historical fiction about Katherine of Aragon, who was married to good ol' Henry VIII. I love learning more about history, and Gregory teaches you in a way that entertains you and makes you want to learn more.

Travel: I had a most excellent time visiting with my parents in NYC. We spent the days tiring them out by walking everywhere, eating a lot and seeing all that we could in such a short time! It was pretty warm and muggy while I was there, but I had a lot of fun wandering around and exploring the city. We went to the Brooklyn promenade, Staten Island, Chinatown, and much, much more. My favorite was the night we went for German food, at a pigs knuckle and a liter of beer, and then wandered back home through the upper East side. We all slept good that night!

The Ghostbusters Fire House

In addition, I spent a weekend with my brother,  his girlfriend and her family, camping in Humboldt county.  We had a great time jumping off the rope swing, hiking, swimming in the river and eating a gourmet campsite meal around the fire! I also met up with my mom for a quick lunch in midtown Sacramento, a nice chat and a wander around before she headed to NYC. This  month was a great month for family visits!

I have to be honest, I am glad, glad, GLAD to not have to study anymore. I will have about 20 extra "free" hours a week! I almost don't know what to do with them. Okay, that's not true. I am sure I can think of something.

What is your favorite thing to do in New York City (or whichever city is your favorite)? What is your perfect summer weekend?

Whew. August, where did you go? I know, I am so late that September is almost over and here I am talking about August still. However, I had a great month, albeit a busy one, and I had good intentions of talking about it here, but things have gotten a little out of hand over in these parts. So, it's going to be a recap in list form...

Some highlights included:

Running: I had a most excellent time with Amber and her family in Squamish in the beginning of the month. I also spent some time exploring Vancouver, which I still want to recap, because it was so much fun! Look for more on that at some point! I also had another 50k in the Marin Headlands, which I have yet to recap... In addition to that, I met up with a long-time-no-see friend for a run around the lake and we had a great time catching up, and I helped Broski conquer a hill near his house which has been on his To-Do list for quite some time.

Vancouver

Friends: I met up with a good friend for a hike in the Redwoods, another friend for a walk/brunch near the bay and had a sleepover with a different friend where we caught up and had some wine and cheese and acted like girls (even though one of the friends was a guy). I also joined a softball team at work and have been having a great time getting to know some of my coworkers, even though we have been losing a lot of our games! It's really pretty crazy that we all work together every day but barely ever see each other or talk to each other during the day!

Running in the San Francisco Marina

Family: My dad came to visit and I took him out for Korean food (he was very impressed by the Banchan, side dishes!) and then we did a mini walk around the lake. He just spent some time in NYC, so it was good to see him again and to have him back on the correct coast! We also all met up for my grandmother's 81st birthday. We went to our old standby, The Old Clam House, which has supposedly been there for 150 years. I also went to visit my family for Labor Day weekend and we had a great time running and cycling and swimming and eating, oh my!

On top of all of that, as I mentioned before, we had the Bay Bridge shut down for 5 days in order to switch over to the new one, I have been working overtime at work and I finally went to use my Groupon for Bikram Yoga that I have been procrastinating about. I also got rid of the car, have been biking more, and have been helping take care of the dog. Needless to say, it's been a crazy month.

In September, I don't have any races (I know, crazy, right?) but will still be doing a lot of running in preparation for the Big One (Firetrails 50 Miler) in October. There will also be more softball and biking and yoga. I am planning on having a couple of low key weekends though, as I feel as if I need some down time!

What did you do in August? Do you have any fun plans for September? Which month is your busiest month each year?

Current Book - Jackdaws by Ken Follett: I have enjoyed some of his other books, such as Pillars of the Earth, but it's been several years since I have read one. So far, it's an interesting slice of history with a bit of action and romance thrown in between.

Current Running Path - 

Current Drink - Coffee with milk 

Current Excitement - Getting rid of the car; I decided to donate it and it feels good to finally make a decision! 

Current fashion trend - 

Current Favorite Blog/Website - I've been using Feedly for my blog roll and so far, it's pretty good.

Current Garden Item - Cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, basil and ONE tiny cucumber.

Current Love - Iced coffee on the back porch in the sun with my feet up.

Current Food - Burritos. My love for them will never die. With lots of salsa!

Current Indulgence - Brunch this weekend: blackberry coconut pancakes, fried chicken, pickled fried green tomatoes (these were so good!) and a coconut fig scone! 

Currently Pondering - How I am going to fit in yoga each week, as I have a Groupon which expires next week that I need to use! 

Current Mood - Pretty tired.

Current New Find - This Pandora station. It's PERFECT for the gym! 

Current Outfit - I have not been super exciting lately in the outfit department. Jeans and t-shirts with flip flops is pretty much the standard. 

Current Peeve - People who are inconsiderate. Today I was on the bus and it was pretty full and this one girl had her legs halfway in a second seat with her purse on the seat as well. Nobody wants to ask her to move it because she also has this "don't F with me" look on her face. What the...? To top it off, she ate a bag of chips and then threw the empty bag on the floor. 
 
Current Song - This song really gets me going when I am running, especially when I am on a particularly hard hill and I am pumping my way (slowly) up it.


 

Current Triumph - Completing 50k number four without dying or injuring myself. 
 
Current TV Show -  Big Bang Theory. It seems to always be on, so I put it on in the background a lot.

Current Wish-List - More hours in a day. Work has been pretty much taking most of them lately. 

Currently Delaying - Going to Costco. It's always busy; I always buy more than I need; I never get out of there without spending at least $200.

What is you current love? Current new find? What do you use in place of Google Reader?