I didn't post anything yesterday - first I had very little connectivity in bustling North Platte, NE, but there wasn't much to report about the trip up - pretty boring drive really, though Nebraska was pretty in an agricultural kind of way.
Today I made the final leg of the journey to the real starting point of the trip, which is South Dakota. I stopped first at Badlands National Park. The Badlands are kind of a moonscape with occasional vegetation. I wouldn't say they are pretty, but they are pretty cool. The formations clearly show different layers of sedimentation, some grayish and some a rusty red. They almost look striped the colorations are so distinct.
I hiked three trails at the Badlands - the Castle and Medicine Root trails are pretty flat and not too exciting, though you walk right by a number of nice formations. I took a wrong turn and also did the Saddle Pass trail, which winds down about 200 feet and was technically pretty challenging, especially without trekking poles (which I later bought a cheap pair at Walmart). After I got to the bottom and looked at their map, I realized my mistake and also that in order to get back to my car, I needed to climb back up that same 200 steep feet, which was not too bad after I got to the top - a little winded and had to pause a couple of times, but I made it. All in all, it was about eight miles. The sky was clear and the sun was hot, but very little humidity, which was nice after hiking in Texas.
After leaving the Badlands, I made the obligatory stop at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. Its a famous drug store that has pictures of signs pointing the way to Wall Drug with the mileage from nearly everywhere in the world, including the South Pole. Pretty much a tourist trap, but I did get a homemade ice cream cone (did I mention it was very hot in the Badlands) and one of their famously free cups of ice water (several actually). I also went across the street to the Badlands Bar and had one beer, which a co-worker had suggested I do.
After leaving Wall, I made a couple of other stops - Cabela's to pick up my bear spray, Walmart for the trekking poles I mentioned earlier and a steak for dinner. I also stopped by Best Buy and returned the second iPod to car stereo transmitter. Bought the first one in Fort Worth, traded it for a different brand in Oklahoma, returned that for a refund in South Dakota. I could never get a good signal, so I'm going to use my ear buds instead.
Last stop was Big Pine Campground in Custer, SD. It's a private campground (all the ones inside the park were full) and it feels a bit like cheating, since it has a shower room and a place to wash dishes, but it should be a good entry for me into the world of camping again. I know down the road I will have sites without these nice facilities.
Tomorrow is Mount Rushmore in the morning and then some hiking later in the day.
I will try and get some pictures posted. My connection is so slow its making that difficult, but I’ll get some uploaded eventually.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Practice Hike a Success - Barely
I ended up going with the group from work on their fourteen mile hike and I'm glad I did as I found out where my limit is as of today and learned some valuable lessons about being prepared.
We started at eight in the morning. I checked the weather forecast before driving out and it called for overcast and rain all morning and into the afternoon. Foolishly, I believed it and left my hat and sunscreen at home - I won't ever do that again.
About eight thirty or nine, it started to rain and poured for about fifteen minutes. Not only soaked, but the trail became pretty muddy too so we had to be careful walking, particularly downhill because the clay gets really slippery.
After it quit raining, it was really very cool and pleasant, so we finished the first half of the hike in three hours and I felt really good, so I kept on the second "half". By then, the sun was out in force and the humidity was terrible being by a lake and having all that standing water around. I could have borrowed sunscreen at that point, but I thought I could tough it out and was so sweaty that it wouldn't stick anyway.
The good news was that I was able to keep up with a bunch of twenty-somethings and I don't think I slowed them down much. I didn't pack a heavy backpack, but I probably started out with twenty points (including water) and by the end it was probably down to 12-15 pounds. The second half also turned out to be much longer in mileage and duration, so instead of finishing by 1:30 or 2, it was 3:30 when we finished, we'd all run out of water and the heat was starting to get to me.
All in all, we covered about 15 miles in a total of seven and a half hours, with a half our break for lunch.
It was definitely hard but it gave me some confidence that I can hike a long way. There was enough up and down that I get some experience with the elevation, though it wasn't a sustained up hill at all. At least it wasn't totally flat. I'd say thirteen miles is a good safe distance for me to start out with. Next time, I will take extra water as well as a hat and sunscreen, regardless of the weather forecast.
We started at eight in the morning. I checked the weather forecast before driving out and it called for overcast and rain all morning and into the afternoon. Foolishly, I believed it and left my hat and sunscreen at home - I won't ever do that again.
About eight thirty or nine, it started to rain and poured for about fifteen minutes. Not only soaked, but the trail became pretty muddy too so we had to be careful walking, particularly downhill because the clay gets really slippery.
After it quit raining, it was really very cool and pleasant, so we finished the first half of the hike in three hours and I felt really good, so I kept on the second "half". By then, the sun was out in force and the humidity was terrible being by a lake and having all that standing water around. I could have borrowed sunscreen at that point, but I thought I could tough it out and was so sweaty that it wouldn't stick anyway.
The good news was that I was able to keep up with a bunch of twenty-somethings and I don't think I slowed them down much. I didn't pack a heavy backpack, but I probably started out with twenty points (including water) and by the end it was probably down to 12-15 pounds. The second half also turned out to be much longer in mileage and duration, so instead of finishing by 1:30 or 2, it was 3:30 when we finished, we'd all run out of water and the heat was starting to get to me.
All in all, we covered about 15 miles in a total of seven and a half hours, with a half our break for lunch.
It was definitely hard but it gave me some confidence that I can hike a long way. There was enough up and down that I get some experience with the elevation, though it wasn't a sustained up hill at all. At least it wasn't totally flat. I'd say thirteen miles is a good safe distance for me to start out with. Next time, I will take extra water as well as a hat and sunscreen, regardless of the weather forecast.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Fitness Update
I've been doing pretty good with my workout regime. Generally, I have been hitting the gym five or six days a week. I am now up to doing 5.5 miles on the treadmill, starting off with no incline at 4.1 mph and progressively speeding up and increasing the incline until the last mile is at 4.7 mph and a twelve degree incline, which is about as fast as I can walk without running. After that its a half mile warm down and I'm done. All together, I'm on the treadmill nearly eighty minutes and it says I am burning about 800 calories, though I don't really believe that.
I didn't get a good weight when I started, so I don't know exactly what I have lost, but I am going to guess that I started out at about 238-240 or somewhere close to that. As of yesterday, I was down just below 220, so I've lost 15-20 pounds. My goal is to have lost 25 pounds by the time I leave for the trip, which would put me between 210 and 215. Hopefully, by the time I reach Yosemite in about six weeks, I will be down below 200, so I can take a shot at the Half Dome hike which has 4800 feet of elevation gain, which is roughly the same as it will take to hike out of the Grand Canyon, so that will be a good test. The Half Dome is a climb up, so if I can't make it, I can always climb back down. With the GC, once you're down you're committed. My goal for when I hit the Grand Canyon is to be around 190 pounds or close to fifty pounds from where I started five weeks ago.
One thing I should have been doing is stairs - I started doing them a few days ago and was shocked at how little my treadmill training had prepared me. I could barely make four flights without my legs seizing up. I am now up to seven flights at a time and have been trying to do at least fifty flights a day, but its still hard. Hopefully, another 20-30 pounds and some experience with less strenous hikes along the way will get me in shape for the Half Dome and GC. If not and I really enjoy the trip, it will motivate me to come back and continue my training so I can try again next year.
Tomorrow, I am planning on going on my first practice hike. A group from work goes out every Saturday to different locations to stay in hiking shape. Its a fourteen mile hike with little elevation and they start in the middle, so I can quit after seven miles if that's all I can take. It's supposed to be raining, so I may or may not go. Don't really want my first hike to be in the rain, but we'll see. I'll have to do some of that out in the wild of course.
I'm pretty close to having everything I need. The only major thing I haven't gotten already is a camp stove. I still haven't found one that I really like and is relatively inexpensive. Most of the parks will not allow campfires so its either a camp stove or cold food.
Its getting relatively close and I'm starting to get pretty psyched about the trip. I am dreading the initial drive of nearly 1056 miles from Fort Worth to the Badlands National Park, South Dakota, where I am planning on starting. Nothing but the heartland between here and there, so there won't be much to look at along the way. After that my longest one day drives are in the 300-500 mile range, so they won't be too bad.
I didn't get a good weight when I started, so I don't know exactly what I have lost, but I am going to guess that I started out at about 238-240 or somewhere close to that. As of yesterday, I was down just below 220, so I've lost 15-20 pounds. My goal is to have lost 25 pounds by the time I leave for the trip, which would put me between 210 and 215. Hopefully, by the time I reach Yosemite in about six weeks, I will be down below 200, so I can take a shot at the Half Dome hike which has 4800 feet of elevation gain, which is roughly the same as it will take to hike out of the Grand Canyon, so that will be a good test. The Half Dome is a climb up, so if I can't make it, I can always climb back down. With the GC, once you're down you're committed. My goal for when I hit the Grand Canyon is to be around 190 pounds or close to fifty pounds from where I started five weeks ago.
One thing I should have been doing is stairs - I started doing them a few days ago and was shocked at how little my treadmill training had prepared me. I could barely make four flights without my legs seizing up. I am now up to seven flights at a time and have been trying to do at least fifty flights a day, but its still hard. Hopefully, another 20-30 pounds and some experience with less strenous hikes along the way will get me in shape for the Half Dome and GC. If not and I really enjoy the trip, it will motivate me to come back and continue my training so I can try again next year.
Tomorrow, I am planning on going on my first practice hike. A group from work goes out every Saturday to different locations to stay in hiking shape. Its a fourteen mile hike with little elevation and they start in the middle, so I can quit after seven miles if that's all I can take. It's supposed to be raining, so I may or may not go. Don't really want my first hike to be in the rain, but we'll see. I'll have to do some of that out in the wild of course.
I'm pretty close to having everything I need. The only major thing I haven't gotten already is a camp stove. I still haven't found one that I really like and is relatively inexpensive. Most of the parks will not allow campfires so its either a camp stove or cold food.
Its getting relatively close and I'm starting to get pretty psyched about the trip. I am dreading the initial drive of nearly 1056 miles from Fort Worth to the Badlands National Park, South Dakota, where I am planning on starting. Nothing but the heartland between here and there, so there won't be much to look at along the way. After that my longest one day drives are in the 300-500 mile range, so they won't be too bad.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Ordered Most of Major Camping Gear
I ordered most of the major camping gear I will need - tent, sleeping bag, backpack, battery power supply, super-insulated ice chest, and inflatable sleeping pad - all from Amazon. In addition to good pricing, Amazon is also giving away an Annual National Park pass that will save me another $80. I also ordered some hiking boots so I can start to get them broken in.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Planning the Trip
The purpose of this trip is to see as many beautiful places in the American West as possible, to get physically and mentally healthy, and discover some things that I've never known or experienced.
The length of the trip will depend upon just when I can get started - the later in August I leave the shorter the trip will be, mostly due to the fact that I don't want to miss too much of the University of Texas football season!
The plan is to head north from Fort Worth and start the trip with the Badlands and Blackhills of South Dakota. From there, head west into Montana for the Tetons and Yellowstone. If the timing works out, I'd love to take a multi-day whitewater rafting trip in Idaho. Its pretty late in the season for that, but I might be able to get a rafting trip down the amazing Salmon River Canyon.
Next up would be Glacier National Park, then up into Canada to visit Banff and Lake Louise. Then over into British Columbia, with some golf at Whistler BC. Quickly down through Washington State and Oregon, both of which I have been to several times. Probably stop at Crater Lake and then down into California for Yosemite and Sequoia with a side trip to Lake Tahoe.
After Sequoia, over to the Grand Canyon. Hopefully by then, I will be in shape to hike down into the canyon and then back out. After the GC, there are several stops planned in Utah - Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, then into Colorado for Estes Park and the Black Canyon in Gunnison National Forest. One thing I have always wanted to do is the Durando to Silverton narrow gauge railroad, with perhaps a stop at a zip line course - 22 separate lines to travel - it takes all day.
The last stop will probably be at Carlsbad in NM and then back to Fort Worth and a warm shower and bed.
The length of the trip will depend upon just when I can get started - the later in August I leave the shorter the trip will be, mostly due to the fact that I don't want to miss too much of the University of Texas football season!
The plan is to head north from Fort Worth and start the trip with the Badlands and Blackhills of South Dakota. From there, head west into Montana for the Tetons and Yellowstone. If the timing works out, I'd love to take a multi-day whitewater rafting trip in Idaho. Its pretty late in the season for that, but I might be able to get a rafting trip down the amazing Salmon River Canyon.
Next up would be Glacier National Park, then up into Canada to visit Banff and Lake Louise. Then over into British Columbia, with some golf at Whistler BC. Quickly down through Washington State and Oregon, both of which I have been to several times. Probably stop at Crater Lake and then down into California for Yosemite and Sequoia with a side trip to Lake Tahoe.
After Sequoia, over to the Grand Canyon. Hopefully by then, I will be in shape to hike down into the canyon and then back out. After the GC, there are several stops planned in Utah - Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, then into Colorado for Estes Park and the Black Canyon in Gunnison National Forest. One thing I have always wanted to do is the Durando to Silverton narrow gauge railroad, with perhaps a stop at a zip line course - 22 separate lines to travel - it takes all day.
The last stop will probably be at Carlsbad in NM and then back to Fort Worth and a warm shower and bed.
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