Faster, Longer, Heavier

When Joe and I traveled to Spain and Portugal a few years back, we met a group of Australians that we spent some time with. One of them talked about a rowing coach he had that would constantly repeat to them "long, hard, deep and often" as his mantra for their rowing. While that doesn't entirely fit with our hike this week, our own mantra might be "Faster, Longer, and Heavier." Or maybe I just wanted a chance to talk about how cool those Australians were.

Anyway, this week we returned to our most consistent trail: Issaquah High School TH to Poo Poo Point. And we went all of the way to Poo Poo point for once. After being away from this trail for 3 weeks it was nice to return. I was amazed by how much a forest can change in that time, as the trees were budding and flowers were starting to come out. The feeling of spring was in the air and it's even more motivating to get into better shape as we get closer to our actual hike.

This week we all strapped on our real packs, with real supplies, and headed out. Joe's pack weighed in at a whopping 39 pounds, possibly heavier than he will want to be on the real trail. John weighed in at 29 pounds of weight, while Sean had to head to work before we purchased the scale to weigh the packs but was most likely near John's weight. With all of this weight added to our backs we would have hoped to only keep our pace from previous excursions up this trail. That would show progress, we are able to get up the 3.5 miles to the top of the mountain in the same time but with more weight. Instead, we blew the previous time out of the water. Cutting 12 minutes off our most recent jaunt up this hill, and doing it with our real packs, made us all feel quite accomplished.

We were also able to make it to the actual Poo Poo point viewpoint for the first time. From this viewpoint, many paragliders take off and glide down the mountain. And now that we have been there we can tell you why. The view is stunning from this high point with a near cliff shooting down for a few hundred feet. From the top we could see downtown Bellevue, Issaquah, and Tacoma. We also could see to Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier. Very rewarding end to the climb, and a view we highly recommend (you don't have to hike it, you can drive to the viewpoint).

With that, we headed back down and completed our 8+ mile hike in just over 3 hours. We are making progress and getting faster, walking longer and carrying heavier packs.

Screw you George Vernon Hudson

Being in theatre always means that Daylight Savings and the Fall-Back falls smack in the middle of a show weekend. So this year I, of course, I had a late show Saturday night and didn't get to bed until late then had to get up crazy early to get to Johnny's by 7:30 (which, of course was 6:30 by my clock). It was by far the hardest morning I had to get going. To add to this morning of crazy schedules I only had a max of 4 hours to spend on the trail. 4 hours of course being the recommended time needed which meant there was no time to slack. Good thing we kicked that trail in the butt.

I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't a challenge, it definitely was. But it was a heck of a lot easier than it would have been four weeks ago. I'm still the slowest of the three of us, and that will probably continue throughout our adventure. I started from the laziest place and are several steps behind catching up. However slow I may be though, I'm still getting to the tops of our hikes. And this one was the best.

As Joe has outlined, the trail was extremely highly populated with a wide range of people. From the dudes in baggy jeans and new shiny stylish shoes to hardcore trekkers with crampons and ice axes. As we approached the top more and more people started turning around due to the ice. I would be a liar if I said I didn't get off on the fact that I was hauling my fat-butt up that mountain and much better equipped people with nicer gear were turning around. I loved it so much that the last mile through the worst of the ice and snow was the easiest for me. I got a second wind and became a hiking machine. So much so that when we crested and were overlooking the valley and I-90 below us it was like I had topped Mt Everest, it was awesome. It was also about this time I realized I was never going to make it to work on time.

We were at the top, 4 miles up and I had to be on the road in less than an hour and a half. It was going to be tough. The down was really where the differences between myself and the boys came out. They were like sprinting mountain goats racing down the mountain. I was more like a wounded farm goat tumbling ass-over-tea kettle. The cascade of day hikers clamoring up as I got closer to the bottom didn't help. It was a constant flow of people starting as we were ending. And Mt. Si may be the most hiked trail in the state but it's still just a mountain trail, only wide enough for one so passing was a challenge. As I predicted, I was late to work and had to rush through my set-up. But that didn't matter, we took an awesome step in our training and next week will be even easier.

Cheers,
Sean

It's Icy At The Top...

I have to give all three of us some accolades for this morning… with daylight savings we very easily could have done an easier hike or something faster. Instead we met up at 7:30am this morning at Johns in Issaquah (which felt like the middle of the night) to attack Mount Si just outside of North bend.

I haven’t tackled this trail in a couple of years and reading up on it we realized a couple of quick details… one, it’s the most heavily hiked trail in Washington. Two, it’s more or less straight up the mountain. Starting at just over 1000 feet of elevation it tops out over 4000 feet in a steady, well maintained 4 mile hike. And three; Snoqualmie pass is only at 3000 feet of elevation; thus when you’re throwing on your ski boots in the parking lot of Snoqualmie you’re 1000 feet below the top of Mount Si. Knowing that the pass had been receiving steady snow fall over the last few days we wondered if we could even get to the top.

Sean, John, and I arrived in the parking lot just after 8:00am with Duke and started the assent. Even at 8:00am, and with a temperature of 30 degrees, the parking lot was moderately alive with backpackers carrying ice axes and larger bags. The first two miles were good… legs stretched out and we worked the switch backs with three or four other groups… they’d pass us, we’d pass them and so on. We needed to be off this trail by noon so we pushed a pretty good pace.

Just before the 3 mile marker we started seeing our first signs of snow. As we went up, others (who must have left really early) were coming down. Everyone does the ‘Morning’ or ‘how’s everyone doing’ general trail pleasantries. Duke gets a lot of attention as we pass other hikers and sometimes their four legged companions. In many of these exchanges we kept hearing, ‘it’s really icy at the top’. Of course we thought they were weak and obviously didn’t have the hiking skills of three of us.

As mile marker 3 came and went the trail, already very muddy, became more and more snow covered. Quickly we were hiking up the trail on snow and soon ice. Many of the ‘hard core’ hikers that we had been seeing started to turn around. ‘It’s too icy’ they’d say. ‘We don’t have poles’ or ‘we didn’t bring any traction for our boots’. With that said, wind howling, bundled in gloves, hats, and long johns, we slowly crept up the ‘Vancouver Bobsled’ trail eventually hitting the summit at around 10:30am (4 miles, in snow, 2.5 hours). I think the three rookies (I having forgotten Dukes leash, collar, and food; John having forgotten his new trekking poles and Sean having forgotten his gloves) conquered said mountain and felt damn good doing it.

Of course the icy trail was still there for the descent and took a little skill, and a few falls (all of us at least once), and the passing of 1000 new hikers. Back down below the 3 mile marker it seemed like bus loads of bored Seattleites had decided to attack Mount Si and we were amazed by the sheer number of hikers an amazing number of which seemed to be solo women. Duke and I might to make Mount Si a more regular weekend hike. Week 5 and I think we are progressing well and feeling better each hike.

Cheers,

Joe

It's just some stairs, what's the worst that could happen?

Once again, this was going to be an easy week. John was going to come to Seattle, Joe and I were going to have the shorter drive for the first time and we would have an easy morning. You'd think that after the previous weeks I would know better than to assume anything of the sort.

I picked Joe up and he had his pack loaded with 50 pounds of weight and a plan to do six trips up and down the steps at Golden Gardens 2 walking, 2 running, and 2 with the uber-pack. On paper this doesn't seem too bad, what's so hard about some stairs after the hikes we've done? As we discovered, everything. There are over 250 steps with two sections at almost a 45degree angle.

I ran first and failed. My legs weren't warmed up enough and working till midnight the night before didn't help. Running just wasn't going to happen. On the second round I carried the big bag. 50lbs is nothing to sniff at and combining it with a bunch of stairs is a tough, tough haul. Just like the first week, without Joe pumping me up the whole way I wouldn't have made it. I had to go one step at a time, it was the only way my legs would agree to this obscene task. The third trip was, as expected, the easiest. Walking after the "run" and the bag was a piece of cake.

Towards the end we were running short on time so I got one more "run" in, this time much easier, and a bag trip. Johnny got off easy since he was the third with the bag he missed his last one. I had to get to work so we cut the day short.

Without contest this was the hardest single piece of our training so far. The big hike from last week had flat parts and food. This was nothing but up with weight and pain.

Till next week
Cheers,
Sean

Tiger Mountain Hike - Video Blog 3 - Summit of Tiger 3

Tiger Mountain Hike - Video Blog 2

Tiger Mountain Hike - Video Blog 1

So much for "less elevation, more weight"

Last week after my second trip up Poo Poo Point and Johnny and Joe's third while we were discussing what our next hike would be (pre-IHOP) I left the conversation understanding that we would be concentrating less on elevation and more on adding weight. Little did I know, Johnny and Joe were conspiring behind my back.

Joe picked me up as usual and I had a pack with a light lunch (store bought pre-packed chicken caesar), spare socks and shoes, water, and my wifes 2 ten pound dumbells for weight. When we got to Johnny's Joe talked me out of one of the weights and gave me a couple cans of soup instead. All in all, the pack weighed about 20 pounds total. When we were having a quick pre-hike coffee in John's kitchen, I got my first hint that the goal of the day's hike may have changed.

The plan was approximately 8.4 miles not counting the walk from the house to the trail head. It was strait up right away. We climbed a rapid set of switch-backs that ascended quickly from the road. After about a mile we hit the main Tiger Mountain trail head. And up we went. Up and up. Things began to go off the rails when, about two thirds of the way up the mountain we took an old rail line trail that wraps around the mountain.

It seemed harmless enough. Flat, no douche hikers in jeans, and no trail runners (I hate those guys, crazy in shape bastards). Then it started raining, Duke fell off a small log bridge (Joe is still recovering from that), and we met the big up. The last .6 miles had an elevation gain of 600' and was a muddy narrow mess. It was at this time that I really knew that John and Joe had conspired against me. My new hiking shoes, the weight, the rain, the mud, 100 feet per .1 mile, it was brutal. We got to the top of Tiger 3 (the big antenna tower you can see from Issaquah) and I collapsed hard. As I sat looking out over the town my two comrades decide it was time to tell me they knew it was going to be like that and chose not to tell me so I wouldn't freak out. These are my friends.

The top was great though, totally worth it. Joe fired up the stove, I stirred up the salad, and Johnny prepared the Jamaican Jerk Chicken. We ate like backwoods kings. Even Duke, he got treats-a-plenty.

Then came the down. Johnny has covered the gory details of our "unmaintained trail" all I can add is that after the brutal up, it was the hardest thing I have ever done for recreation. My legs have never felt so much like overcooked spaghetti.

And at the end, that beer was so so good.

Till next week,
Sean