Training Updates

Brighton

The past two weeks have been interesting with regards to hiking. Michigan's weather has been predictably unpredictable. Last year's winter was relatively mild. This year we had snow storm after snow storm. We still had quite a bit of snow and cold weather up until about three weekends ago.

Though we had a brief warm spell leading up to the hike at Brighton State Recreation Area, the trail was still covered with snow when we got there. There were a number of patches where snow had melted on the trail but then turned to ice, which made hiking a little exciting... a little too exciting for some. One distracted hiker managed to slip and twist her ankle on a patch of ice along the way. The group had become somewhat strung out along the trail at that point, but fortunately there were about 10 of us around when it happened. After administering a minor bit of first aid, a group of 4 hikers helped her get back to the trailhead while the rest of us completed the hike.

Bald Mountain

In contrast, last week's hike at Bald Mountain Recreation Area started at about 33º F and reached approximately 50º F by the end of the hike. Most of the snow along the trail had melted earlier in the week after a number of warm days. The ground was still cold enough to be firm at the start of the hike but quickly warmed to produce soggy and often times very muddy terrain. Still, it was great to finally be hiking in warmer weather. We were finally getting a chance to see what each other looked like without the many layers of outwear!

Ironically enough, though Bald Mountain is the closest to my house of all the parks we've hiked at so far, it's one of the only ones that I had not visited previously. It's located in a fairly rural part of the county, accessible only by dirt roads as far as I can tell (at least the North Unit that we hiked at). There are quite a few hills along the trailway, which makes it one of the better parks to hike in to prepare for Yosemite (as much as any Michigan trail could).

It was my first hike using a new pair of trail runners that I bought at REI and plan to use for the Yosemite trip. Though I've been using a pair of hiking boots up until this point for my hikes, I wanted something lightweight on my feet to lessen the amount of work required for each footstep. Ever since my John Muir Trail hike, I've been very conscious about trying to stay true to the lightweight backpacking philosophy. I originally wanted a trail runner with a mesh top to reduce the weight. In addition to being light weight, mesh allows the shoe to breath and moisture dissipates quicker than, say a closed leather boot. I went to REI on the last that I could use my 20% off coupon and found they were of stock with the trail runners in my size that fit that description. I didn't want to go much longer without breaking in the set of shoes I'd be using on the trip, as the group training hikes were only getting longer. I tried on a few different pairs they did have in stock and found a pair of Solomon 3D XA Pro XCR trail runners that were light weight and comfortable. They use Gore-Tex (which I have mixed feelings about - manufacturing it is bad for the environment, but it makes it easier for more people to go out and spend time in the environment), which makes them waterproof and breathable, theoretically. Though expensive, with my membership dividend and 20% off coupon in hand, I decided I'd give them a try. I gave them an initial test run by wearing them around the house for a day. My feet became quite warm over the course of a few hours, which made me wonder whether my feet would overheat on the trail. I went online to see what others had to say about the shoes. When I found that most people raved about the shoe, I figured I'd stick with them and give them a chance.

The hike itself was pretty good. I've been trying to find a balance in my expectations for the group hikes. On the one hand, I really enjoy socializing with others on the trail. Indeed, it was a significant reason I choose to join the program (in addition to raising money for a worthy cause, of course). However, I've found that many of the hikers hike much slower than I do and we've been taking a lot of breaks, which makes me worry whether I'm getting sufficient training in for the Half Dome hike. Of course, I do get training in personally throughout the week, but the long weekend hikes are were I feel I get a chance to test my mettle. So for this hike I managed to do a bit of both... I stuck with the majority of the pack and socialized for a good while, then hiked ahead with a small group of the fastest hikers in the group. As a result, we actually completed the hike early enough that we hiked back, met up with the others, then finished the hike again to get some extra mileage in.

Bald Mountain Redux

This past weekend I was unable to make it to the group hike at Stoney Creek due to a conflict with a family trip up to Frankenmuth (we met up with Jennifer's sisters and friends and stayed at a hotel with an indoor water park). So instead, I got a 10 mile run in bright and early Saturday morning, which only took 1.5 hours rather than 4 or so for the hike. I then went back to Bald Mountain this afternoon and solo hiked the same route we did last week (with one minor detour... oops!). Though I realize it's not the safest thing to hike solo, there were a few mitigating factors: I made sure Jennifer knew my route, I was carrying my cell phone, I had extra food & water, and every point along the trail was within about 2 miles of an access point. 

Admittedly, there are some things I like about hiking solo. I can hike at my own pace. I enjoy the opportunity for pontificating without the distraction of being around others. And then there's the wildlife. Hiking alone makes it much easier to hike quietly which in turn makes it more likely that you won't scare away the wildlife long before you even have a chance to see them. This afternoon I was startled a number of times by birds in bushes who hadn't heard me coming but franticly alit as I walked by.

I finished the 8 mile trail in about 2 hours 15 minutes... more than an hour less than the previous week with the group... which illustrates the point I made with regards to the previous hike fairly well. I probably would have been a little faster, too, but I stopped to pick up litter along the way (completely filling a plastic grocery bag I picked up along the trail). It wasn't even close to the 4 hours I was supposed to hike, but since I ran the 10 miles the day before and that same route was good enough for last week, I'm calling it good.

Guest Griller night canceled

Uh, oh. I'm in trouble, aren't I? I haven't been good about updating this blog for the past few weeks so I'll try to provide some worthy updates over the course of the next few posts.

When I left you last, I was planning on having a guest griller night at a nearby BD's Mongolian 

Grill. The plan was to sell tickets to friends and family with a certain number of dollars over the cost of what BD's charged for the meals. This was a new fund raising method from previous years, whereby the group doing the fund raising instead would get the tips from the tip jar at the grill counter. This year's method proved to be a hard sell. I was able to get a decent commitment from friends and family who hadn't donated yet (approximately 13-15), but the other team mates of mine who were doing it with me could not for the life of them sell tickets for various reasons.

Firstly, BD's prices are not cheap to begin with, so adding extra cost on top of their base prices makes it harder for people to justify the expense, even if it's for a good meal and the extra money goes to a good cause. As a contrast, several other restaurants in the area simply have you give away vouchers whereby a certain percent of that night's profits (usually 20%) go to the cause (i.e. it comes out of the normal price, not added to the price, of the meals). 

Secondly, most of the people they were approaching would prefer to give a direct donation so as to be able to include it with their itemized deductions in their taxes. 

Thirdly, many of the people they had approached had already donated in that manner. 

And lastly, my team mates participating in the event are pretty well spread out and didn't know many people near the actual restaurant who might be interested in buying tickets.

In the end, because of the poor overall ticket sales, we decided it was going to be too much work to justify the effort so we canceled the event to focus our efforts on other fund raising opportunities.

In retrospect, I think the guest griller night would be appropriate for a local group near the restaurant (e.g. church, campus group, parents of school groups, etc.) who's sole fund raising efforts were targeted at others in the area and no other methods were planned (such as direct letters asking for donations). But for our situation, BD's new fund raising model just didn't work out well.

Thank you to all of you who said they'd make it out to support me. I'm truly fortunate to have friends and family as generous as you.