Day 8, Sept 26, 2010

After breakfast, we were treated to a song and dance routine by our guides, cooks, and porters. It was obviously geared to our group and mentioned each person by name, but it was in Swahili so who knows what they were saying about us. Joe recorded it all on his iPhone.

The itinerary called for a 3 hour hike through scenic forest to get to the gate and the bus back to the hotel. But descending almost 7000 feet on steep steps just like yesterday actually took me more like 5 hours (everybody else ran on ahead and Johnny walked with me, "pole, pole"). I was already sore and not moving too well; I had expected the going down to be hard, but this was pretty awful (and this lactic acid took another two days to clear!). But I did finally get to see blue monkeys!

At the hotel, we met with Johnny who gave us our certificates and we gave him the tip money to distribute. Some folks had told us not to trust the head guide to give out the money judiciously, and others said who would know better who deserved what? And someone said if the guide is fair, he'll have a consistent group of porters working with him. Which Johnny did, so we trusted him.

END OF STORY!! And thanks for following along.

Pics: (1) Porters led in song and dance by Johnny (2) Johnny (3) For Papa Joe (4) Blue monkey (5) The smelly bunch getting the certificates

Day 7, Sept 25, 2010

We slept and were awakened periodically by a fierce wind which had sprung up and was shaking the tent. Nicholas came at 10:30 with tea and cookies and I choked down two or three. Yuck. The wind was howling, and we started up with Jesse and Sean tucked in behind Johnny, and Nicholas assigned to be my personal servant for the night. About 1/2 hour into this, I was cooking inside all that clothing, and we all stopped while I peeled off a layer. We were the only group on the mountain at that point. The wind was ferocious and my nose was running like a faucet and the moonlight was pretty strong but I kept my lamp on (mostly so I could see my tissues to swipe at my nose). More people embarked on the journey and the lights below us were beautiful. They started passing us as we were really, really slow, but Johnny kept faithfully to his pace. We stopped again awhile later and Joe put chemical warmers in my boots as I couldn't feel my toes. That worked OK, I suppose, but the things are activated by oxygen, and there is only 55% of the sea level oxygen at that elevation, so they were kind of lame. I had no sense of time, no way to check my watch and I was all bundled up in gloves and mittens and a rented down jacket and very, very busy wiping my nose every 30 seconds. At some point we stopped and I checked my watch and had a drink -- shocked to see it was 2:45! Almost 4 hours and it felt either like 1 hour or 20. I thought Lilli thoughts to keep me going: winter mornings by the fire, reading stories and drinking hot chocolate. I started checking the eastern sky for signs of dawn. People kept passing us, and there was an unbroken chain of lights from camp all the way up to "the top." Our footsteps weren't even an entire footlength, only about 5 inches. Finally, after what felt like 3 days, the sky started to lighten and we could see the glacier on our left and "the top" of the 3-4 mile climb from camp (up 4000 feet). I decided I had had enough -- I was cold and tired and miserable and my nose wouldn't stop running -- and tried to turn around. I had, after all, paid darn good money for this and I could decide to turn around if I wanted to. Joe of course talked me out of this and we pressed on. We got to "the top" and Johnny was gesturing toward some ridge to our left. We found a bit of shelter from the wind. Nicholas handed me a mug of hot tea and I almost cried. I drank the tea, had a great nose-blowing session, got the mittens etc back on and pressed on. I thought we had to go up to the ridge Johnny had pointed out -- I thought that was Stella Point. Part way there, I lost motivation again, and Joe cajoled me and I said no way I could make it to the top, we hadn't even gotten to Stella Point yet. He said no, that was where we'd had the tea and we were half way to the real top, Uhuru Peak. That cheered me up and very soon after that we saw the sign. We got there, the sun really strong now and warming us up, and peeled off some clothes for pictures. I looked around and said, hey, where's everybody else? We were the first ones of our group to make it to the top, and the others were pretty close behind. After a few pictures, we all headed back down and saw Jesse not far behind us at all -- so we all made it to the top! Nobody had altitude sickness, nobody was dizzy or nauseous. AND we passed a whole lot of people still on their way up that had passed us early on (and gotten tired as a result). Johnny did a great job of making sure we all got there in good shape; and I noticed that quite a few other groups had taken his lead for the pace and tucked in behind us on the way up, so he helped a lot more folks than just our group of 6.

Next came part 1 of the third thing that terrified me about this whole adventure: Coming down. We came down a slightly different way -- all scree and dust and we sort of skiied down it, taking big steps and sliding. I got to going pretty fast, and Joe said, hey, why are you going so fast? My legs were so tired from going up, that they weren't much help slowing me down, so I was sort of falling down the mountain. We made it back to camp in around 2 hours (forgot to look), and went to sleep for a couple of hours. Then we packed up, got some lunch, and headed another 4 miles or so down to Mweka Camp. That was hard because everyone comes down the mountain the same way, so the trail gets lots and lots of use. They cut steps reinforced with logs, and some of these steps were 2-3 feet steep. Very tough on the thighs which had already taken a beating. I wore my sneakers for fear of having my toes slam into the front of my boots, and the going was slow over rocky parts, but we eventually made it, had dinner and collapsed for the night.

Pics (1) The first part of the trail up to the top, in daylight on Day 6 (2) Dawn just before Stella Point (3) Moon setting behind Stella Point (4) Johnny and "Mama" at Stella Point (5) Going to the top (Johnny taking pictures) (6) Joe and me at the top (7) Our group (minus Jesse) at the top

Day 6, Sept 24, 2010

We left camp around 8:30 (nothing happens in a hurry here). We walked about 4 hours or so, only a couple of miles but a 2200 foot ascent. Barafu Camp was really crowded and everyone was very excited. I had asked Johnny to track down the other people we had originally intended to climb with and he said we'd see them at Barafu camp -- they'd be coming down as we arrived. And sure enough we ran into them! They had summited successfully the night before and were tired and happy and headed downhill.

This camp was the highest at just under 15000 feet, and I could tell it! We had some lunch and they told us to go get some sleep. I didn't think I would be able to sleep for all the noise, but I dropped off really quickly and slept for an hour. Then we sorted through all our stuff and got packed up to go to the top later that night. We had an early dinner at 5 (a mix of spaghetti and potatoes; food has kind of degenerated), and Johnny told us that instead of leaving at 11:30 as the itinerary called for, we would be awakened at 10:30 because he was worried about Jesse. He said we would be going really, really slowly and we would all need to stick together. Off we went to try to sleep, although an afternoon nap (something I never, ever do) made sleeping difficult. So I lay awake worrying. The second of the three scariest things was facing us, and I just kept thinking, OK, you just have to do what all the rest of them do, get up, get dressed, get your headlamp on and stumble on up the mountain. Left to my own devices I would have stayed in that cozy tent and skipped the whole summit deal!!

Pics: (1) En route to Barafu Camp (2) Meeting up with friends at Barafu Camp (3) Barafu Camp

Day 5, Sept 23, 2010

Up with tea at 6:30 in the tent, breakfast at 7:30. Facing the dreaded Barranco Wall (one of the three things about all this that made me most nervous). Just before we left (poles stashed because you need hands free to haul yourself up), I asked Johnny if the path we were looking at WAS the Barranco Wall, or if it was at the top of the path. Turns out the path was the wall, and I felt better as it looked easier than I had imagined (see pic below). It took us two hours to get to the top because we waited a long time for porters to pass. I think Johnny was annoyed with me for stopping for them, but there was no way I wanted to compete with them for the limited space! We later learned that a new porter, aged 25 with two young children, died by falling off this trail. He apparently had never climbed the mountain before signing on for this job, got altitude sickness (dizziness), and fell off.

We were told the rest of the day was all downhill to Karanga Camp with a bit of uphill at the end. So we clambered over a bunch of glacial moraines, a stark vegetation-free landscape until we came to a very steep downhill to a river and then up the other side. The downhill was mostly scrambling down boulders and very steep, and I took 2 ibuprofen at lunch because my knees hurt for the first time since I started all this! The promised 4 hours turned into 5+ and then we got to clean up and rest for the rest of the afternoon. Total of 4.5 miles and net 1000 foot ascent.

Pics: (1) The Barranco Wall (2) Barranco Camp (3) at the top of Barranco Wall (4) Our group at the top of the wall (5) Approaching Karanga Camp

Day 4, Sept. 22, 2010

We started the diamox this morning and I peed every two hours all day (nice side effect of the altitude drug). We started out about 8:30, and climbed about 2600 feet to the Lava Tower. A bit chilly, but clear and beautiful. Joe and Johnny climbed the tower, while the rest of us enjoyed a rest in the sun after a fabulous lunch of carrot and cucumber soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and incredible fried potato balls (yeah, carbs are the thing!). After the Lava Tower at 15,135 feet, we came down to about the same elevation as last night, about 13,000 ft, via a hard (I thought) descent to Barranco camp. A kind of long day of 9.3 miles, no clue how long it took us. Saw a lot of Dendrosenecio kilimanjarii, endemic here.

Pics: (1) Trail out of Shira 2 camp to the Lava Tower (2) Everyone enjoying that great lunch: Joe, me, Shane (structural engineer from San Francisco), Sean (lawyer from Dublin, Ireland), Kevin (behavioral therapist), and Jesse (nurse) (3) Joe and Johnny at the top of the Lava Tower (4) The bunch of us at the base of the Lava Tower (5) Part of the down-and-up after the Lava Tower (6) Coming into Barranco Camp

Day 3, Sept 21, 2010

VERY cold last night . The tropical sun warms quickly in the AM however. We had to wait a bit for breakfast as the porters were alseep in the mess tent. After eating, all of us but Jesse head off across the Shira plateau to climb to the Cathedral, which adds nothing in elevation but puts an extra 3-4 hours hiking in the day. Jesse is exhausted and going with Masai directly to the camp at Shira 2. Johnny worries about him. Jesse's stated goal for this climb is to get some certificate which nobody else even knew about, stating that he made it to the top.

It takes us about 3 hours to get to the top of the Cathedral. We cross the Shira plateau, a caldera left by the first volcano in this area. And then climb up the lava formation, a short but steep and for me kind of scary and I worried out loud about getting back down (for which I took a ration of you-know-what from Joe), and some of the others are now starting to tease me about how many times I am going to say I'll die on this trip. In fact, by now I am feeling pretty confident that our training will pay off. We get to camp after 5 1/2 hours, only a little behind Jesse; climbed 1200 feet today with some up and down. Very cold again at night, peeing is a pain but at least there's a full moon. 40 degrees inside the tent at 7 PM.

(1) Shira plateau (caldera) from the top of the Cathedral (2) On top of the Cathedral (3) Emergency evacuation vehicle. There is a road near the Cathedral (4) Full moon over Kili

Day 2, Sept 20, 2010

Nicholas, our personal assistant guide and waiter (!) delivered tea and washing water to our tent at 7. Almost all the people had left the camp before our group, as they were all going to camp at Shira 2 and we were going to stop before, at Shira 1 (for better acclimation). On the trail by 9, and Johnny made Jesse walk behind him. Jesse and Kevin are the two smokers and yesterday they lagged way behind everyone else. Today Johnny has them on a short leash. We stopped for lunch in the mess tent: hot carrot soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, boiled egg, nuts, muffins, tomatoes and cucumbers. Won't be going hungry on this trip! Johnny assigned Laraha (the Masai, as most referred to him) to take care of Jesse, and then rest of us took off through more of the same kind of forest. We were all alone (except for our porters lugging our junk up) as Lemosho is one of the newest and least traveled routes. After dinner, Johnny informed us that what should have been a six hour walk (about 7 miles up 2500 feet) actually took us 8 hours, and said the mama (that's me) is strong and isn't holding anybody back (long looks at Jesse, who moaned that this day was really hard work). Camp was at 11,500 feet and we scarcely felt it. Good training!

Lots of pictures! (1) Our entire group of climbers and guides and porters before embarking on Day 2 (2) Johnny and lots of old man's beards in the trees (3) The group taking a break (4)Jesse, Joe and Shane at happy hour (5) Joe and I with Kili at sunset (we are obviously approaching from the west) (6) Wow!

Day 1: Sept 19, 2010

Up at 6:30 for breakfast, very few other people awake yet. Bags packed and by the departure area, weighed in at under 15 kg (33 pounds), the limit per bag. Nobody bothered to weigh the bags before loading the vehicles, though. Apparently the guides turn a blind eye to the tourists' bags, and if the porters complain they lose their jobs. After making a stop to load up on junk food (go figure) and cigs for two of our group, we drove to the Londrossi Gate, the start of the Lemosho and Shira Routes. There was mass confusion as our 20 porters/cooks/guides plus several other groups sorted out their stuff and had it weighed (they still didn't weigh the tourists' bags). We had a box lunch under a tree where it was surprisingly chilly at 6500 feet. We got back in the vehicle and drove to the actual starting point, now more than 3 hours after we left the hotel. Finally, we start the hike. I had heard and read that the pace was slow (or in Swahili, pole pole) but I thought that meant at the top. No, we started at this pace. We strolled for two and a half hours through dry, very young-looking forest and saw two troops of colobus monkeys, and porters passed us constantly. The itinerary said we climbed 2500 feet, but it sure didn't feel like it. Camp was chaotic with about 10-12 groups and all their stuff. Somebody had arranged for our little band of 6 climbers and support staff to have a private toilet, which was very nice. Dinner began with tea and popcorn; later we had cucumber soup, fish with vegetables, fried little potatoes, cabbage salad, cucumbers and tomatoes, and tiny bananas for desert. It got quite cold, and Johnny our head guide kept us talking in the mess tent until 9:30. Took a long time to get feet warm after that. This is 3 degrees south of the equator! Colder than I would have thought.

(1) Packing up the vehicle at the hotel (2) Our group about to take to the trail. Guide Johnny in blue at left (3) Colobus monkeys

Sept 14 - 18, 2010

We got to the airport in Reno early, which was a good thing because Joe soon discovered he had left his Kindle behind. Se he jumped in a cab, went home, couldn't find the thing, and was on the verge of taking an old one he had given to Sydney when he saw it perched on top of the garbage can. Familiar old story, no? $100 later, he was back at the airport, which was now on backup generators because the power was out everywhere in downtown Reno. The flight was delayed by 45 minutes, and as we were en route to Dallas I ask, how long is our layover in Dallas. Oh, about 4 hours. Until he dragged the itinerary out and discovered he had read it wrong, it was only -- yikes -- 45 minutes!! Fortunately we were in the first two seats on the plane, and raced through the airport to arrive just before they started boarding. In London we were told the bags were there and all was OK, but they lied. We arrived in Nairobi and the bags finally showed up two days later, about an hour before we had to leave for Tanzania. Everything was intact except for the luggage tags which were missing.

We spent the next day relaxing at the hotel and trying to get our heads into the local time (10 hours earlier than home) and readjusting all our stuff for the climb.

No exercise for 5 days, not a good thing at all.

Pics below: (1) Arriving at Kilimanjaro Airport Sept. 16 (2) Springlands Hotel our home base for the next two weeks (3) The arrival and departure area of the hotel, always very busy

Week 26 of 26

The day is upon us! This last week, we were scheduled to go back to White Mountain and spend another 5 nights at 11,700 feet and hike the mountain again. But life kind of got in the way and we couldn't leave until Tuesday, and we were pretty tired of this entire process and wanting to be at home for the last few days. So instead we decided to go to Sonora Pass again (it is only 2 hours away, compared to the almost 8 hours to get to White Mountain). We got there around 2:30 or so, and hiked for a couple of hours. It was windy and feeling like fall, and we couldn't sit outside at all. Let me tell you, that tiny RV is very, very small when you both have to be inside!! It was cold, and we tested out our big down bags even knowing that it would be quite a bit colder on top of Kilimanjaro. All was fine, but we woke to high winds that shook the RV, and scattered snow. We sat and read for awhile thinking maybe things would improve. They didn't, and we decided to cut our losses and head for home.

The rest of the week was largely devoted to trying to pare down our stuff to fit into the new 107 liter bags. We are allowed 33 pounds of stuff. Initially this seemed like a walk in the park, but as we started remembering things we really needed, this quickly ballooned. I pared down my snacks to about 20% of what I originally wanted (I have read tales of people being absolutely ravenous and losing 10 pounds in a week...I can't really afford that!!). It turned out to be a choice between freezing to death and starving to death. I finally decided to put all the snacks into my day pack for the first day and then slip them into the big bag the porters will carry, figuring they aren't going to carry a scale up and weigh all the bags each day (I sure hope the Zara Tours people aren't reading this!). Next was the problem of space. I don't really understand why my stuff takes up more space (and weighs more) than Joe's, when he is 80 pounds heavier than I am. I mean, he has BIG clothes. I am carrying a sleeping bag liner and some things called microspikes (for walking on ice and snow) that he isn't, but that is about it. He has all the electronic stuff (batteries and chargers and whatnot) and all the chemical hand and foot warmers. I don't understand. Well, anyway, to gain more space I went out and bought all new bras, because with the weight loss I can drop to a 34 instead of a 36, and this means you drop a whole HOOK and lots of fabric in the back. Big savings there. While I played golf today, Joe put a bunch of our clothes through the insecticide treatment (soak for 3 hours in permethrin) because we hate the thought of the malaria drug malarone (lots of icky side effects).

So we shoe-horned all the junk into the packs and we are, more or less, ready to go.
My sister called and asked if I felt ready. Unless you are a teenager, I don't see how you can EVER feel you are ready for something like this. I'd like another month to get more fit. But then I think I might shoot myself if I had to do this for another month. This has completely taken over our lives, and I would really like to get my life back. But, I am in the best shape I have been in for years and a living testament to the lie that USA Today printed about 2 months ago "you can't lose weight by exercise alone, you have to modify your diet." They weren't considering people training to climb Kilimanjaro.

I won't be updating this blog until I get home. I am taking a small notebook and a pencil (not a pen which will explode at elevation) to record notes on the climb, and the safari and gorilla adventure to follow) and will put all that in here when I get back.

I alternate between absolutely dreading this and humiliating myself by not being able to make it to the top, and feeling like maybe this is possible if I take it slow and can manage my feet. It's a crap shoot. But kind of cool that at my age you can embark on something like this and have it be a crap shoot. Out of my confort zone for sure. Wish us luck!

This week:

Sept. 6: 4.5 miles on road in sneakers
Sept. 7: about 4 miles miles at Sonora Pass
Sept. 8: nothing
Sept. 9: 5.7 miles on road in sneakers
Sept. 10: Mt Rose, 10.6 miles
Sept. 11: Nothing
Sept. 12: 7-8 miles on Mt Rose, did not summit (had to make baked ziti!)

Total for week: 31.8-32.8 miles

Week 25 of 26

This is getting exhausting. I have now lost about 17 pounds. We seem to have settled in to a pattern of Life cereal with fruit and skim milk for breakfast, a hardboiled egg and some nuts and a tangerine for lunch (the once-staple Clif bars are now carried only for emergency), and some stew or something for dinner.

Last week we left for White Mountain late (2 pm) and by the time we got to Bishop, CA, we were hungry so we stopped for Mexican food. We were not aware that the drive up the mountain was 35 miles up almost 8000 vertical feet, so we got caught by dark and just pulled off the road onto a level spot at 10,700 feet. That first night was difficult -- kept waking up and gasping for breath. After that it was OK, maybe because we were tired from hiking.

The next morning we drove the remaining 45 minutes to the trailhead for White Mt. where we camped for 4 nights at 11,700 feet. The White Mountains form the east wall of the Owens Valley in California just south of Bishop and east of Big Pine. White Mt is the northern-most peak of the lot and is the third highest mountain in California. For an account of one person's hike, see:
http://www.naturalbornhikers.com/WhiteMountainPeak/WhiteMountainPeak.htm

The trail up White Mountain is basically a 4-wheel drive road (see pics below). From the trailhead you climb a pretty steep hill 2 miles to the University of California Barcroft Field Station where they do high altitude research of various types. After another bit of a hill behind the facility, the trail descends gently and then rises gently as it crosses a long saddle. At about 5.5 miles from the trailhead, the trail goes downhill for about 300 vertical feet, and then you climb steeply up 1300 vertical feet to the top. Total distance out = 7 miles.

No problems with feet except a blackened toe on the left foot after the summit day. And I thought I was being so careful to make sure nothing contacted the front of the boot when I bought them. Probably everything has loosened up now that they are fully broken in. I'll pay another visit to Ryan and see if he can help. Also, I forgot to mention that I canceled my second visit to the podiatrist, as I have had no trouble with the right foot, so no need for another cortisone shot.

We are really getting tired of all this now. I keep thinking of all the things I need to do at home, while sitting in the RV reading a book instead. This week the weather was colder (and we were higher) so it was good to kind of assess the clothes for cold weather. But it meant we spent more time inside our little tin box, and after 5 days with nothing but sponge baths, that got a little unpleasant. Thank goodness we have only one week more of this and, ready or not, we'll do the deal.

This week:

August 30: Nothing (drove to White Mt)
August 31: 8 miles between 11,700 and 12,700 approx.
Sept 1: 14 miles, to top of White Mt 14,246 feet
Sept 2: 8 miles same as Tuesday
Sept 3: 11 miles to where the trail drops 300 feet
Sept 4: Nothing (drive home)
Sept 5: Nothing

Total mileage for the week: 41 miles

Pictures: (1) The road trail with White Mt in the distance (no clue why it is called White, since it isn't) (2) Bad photo of us on top (3) The Owens Valley with the Sierra Nevada on the west side

Week 24 of 26

The good news is the feet are GOOD TO GO in the Asolo boots!!!

We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights at the campground on Saddlebag Lake just outside Yosemite. The elevation of the campground is 10,000 feet, good for making those high-altitude red blood cells. On two days we hiked around that lake and did a 5 mile loop that circuited 5 more little lakes. On Thursday we climbed Mt Dana, starting at 10,000 feet and topping out at 13,056 feet. I did not make it to the top, however. Joe took off because as usual I was going slow and he wanted to go fast. His plan was to drop his pack at the top and come back and go up with me. I ended up losing the trail about 300 feet from the top, and was wandering around over boulders (sometimes on my hands and knees!) with nobody in sight and no trail in sight. Finally I did relocate the trail, and at the same time I heard Joe calling me. He was way off to the right of the trail and came across the boulder field to reach me. He said don't even think about going up to the top as it was mostly just a boulder scramble and the wind was ferocious. So we turned around and came back down, which was a lot harder than going up and my legs really felt it for the next two days. This day was the hardest training day so far because it was so steep (it's a 3000 foot climb over 2.9 miles). Neither one of us was particularly bothered by the elevation, which is also good news.

The bad news is that we are both kind of sick of this training and living in the little RV. Kind of wish all this were over.

No time to put in pictures, I'll have to add them later. We are out the door to camp at White Mountain for a few days!

This week:

August 23: 5 miles on Whites Creek (pretty level at 6000 feet)
August 24: Pilates
August 25: 7 miles Lakes Loop, Saddlebag Lake
August 26: 5.4 miles, Mt Dana (est mileage, 6 hours)
August 27: 7 miles Lakes Loop, Saddlebag Lake
August 28: 8 miles to Mono Pass and Bloody Canyon overlook, Yosemite. Light SNOW!

Total mileage this week: 27.4

The pics are: (1) The start of the Mt Dana climb (2)Joe climbing above me, before I lost the trail (3) Us at Mono Pass (4) Mono Lake from Bloody Canyon overlook

Week 23 of 26

I thought I finished last week pain-free. Not so. By Monday morning I could hardly walk -- this time with pain in my left foot. I blame the new boots, and decided to go back to the old (new) boots, the Asolos. I had never tried them with the new pads the podiatrist put on the underside of the inserts, so I decided to give that a shot. What other choice to I have at this point? I contemplated hiking of Kilimanjaro with an Asolo on my left foot and a New Balance on my right foot -- but not for very long! The good news is that after all this week's hiking in the Asolos, I am pain-free. Both feet feeling fine, and I am thinking I will even cancel my follow-up appointment with the podiatrist.

Mt Rose is getting old. Poor Joe has been going up it every single day and he is heartily sick of it. I have thought all along that 6 months of training won't be enough, that I'd need another month or two to be ready. But at this point, this training is eating up our entire lives and I want this climb to happen, ready or not!

We are getting our stuff together. I sent back the mittens I ordered online, for a larger size. I've been hearing from a lot of people about friends who climbed Kilimanjaro and had problems with frostbite. The answer seems to be lots of chemical hand and foot warmers. We attempted to stuff all my things into a bag Joe thought would be great (sturdy and waterproof). The good news is the entire mess only weighed 13.5 pounds (we are allowed 35), but stuff was exploding out the top. Gotta figure that out. We are also contemplating changing our original plan to spend a couple of days in Nairobi. We may just skip that (and the hassle of getting that visa) and go straight to Tanzania.

I also had a hassle with my bank over paying the Zara Tour people. Wells Fargo used to have a policy of charging you a fee if you paid in foreign currency. They changed that in July, and now charge you 3% of ANYTHING you pay to a foreign company even if you pay in dollars. So my payments to Zara cost me $185. I called them and complained and they reimbursed half. I considered having Zara refund all my money and paying them on a Fidelity Visa, but it didn't seem worth the trouble. I also considered changing banks, but they're all the same.

This week:

August 16: Nothing
August 17: Nothing
August 18: 10.6 miles, Mt Rose (combination of sneakers and Asolos)
August 19: 5.2 miles, on streets in Asolos
August 20: 10.6 miles, Mt Rose
August 21: 9-10 miles, Mt Rose (did not summit due to 75 mph winds on top)
August 22: 5.2 miles on streets in sneakers

Total for week: 40.6-41.6 miles

Week 22 of 26

Wow, it's really getting close now! Only 4 weeks left, and of those at least a week and a half will have to be resting and letting all the muscles recover from this brutality.

I was able to get in to see a podiatrist on Monday morning. He took xrays and informed me that the root cause of the pain in my right foot was that the second metatarsal was way longer than the others, so the brunt of the weight was being carried by that knuckle. Fix? More surgery. Not until winter, my friend! Meantime, he adjusted the pads underneath the foot so that every other knuckle but the second has additional padding, to try to equalize the pressure. And he gave me a cortisone shot and said come back for another one in two weeks. I limped out of there and was in some pain that day and the next. But by the third day all pain was gone from the nerve area and I was left with only the bruised-bone pain, which was almost entirely gone in another two days.

We took off again on Friday morning for the Sonora Pass area. Camped at our personal 9300-foot campsite for two nights, and hiked the west-bound trail all three days (for varying distances because of time). We agreed that while it was a beautiful area, we were kind of sick of that trail and are going to scope out some even higher camps and trails for the coming weeks. Unfortunately, they are a bit farther away.

Grateful for these things:

(1) Walking without pain and without drugs!
(2) The hiking poles, the pack, the new boots, the clothes all feel like second skin by now. I did learn a lesson in 40-50 mph winds on Mt Rose: I can't control the poles in high winds and that becomes kind of dangerous! I need to park them. Also, my windbreaker became a sail. Not good.
(3) Getting up into high country and seeing the Sierra Nevada mountains
(4) Being able to identify all the wildflowers! What a profusion this year, maybe because of late and abundant snow
(5) Having lost about 14 pounds in this endeavor so far. Less to haul up Kili.
(6) Having a cozy little RV that makes camping so easy, and luxurious after a long day hiking
(7) We have rented down parkas from the tour group, so we don't have to deal with that
(8) I did three fairly long mountain hikes in a row, and my feet were only sort of sore by the end!

And some questions:

(1) The new mittens, gaitors, microspikes, and cold weather hat have not arrived yet.
(2) Hiking in rain? Haven't done it in probably 20+ years.
(3) Raingear iffy. I think I'm ok for lower elevations, but I need something for higher up, to go over all the other stuff I suppose I'll be wearing.
(4) Can we get enough time high enough to build up those red blood cells with high-oxygen-affinity hemoglobin, and will that make any difference?

This week:

August 9: Pilates
August 10: 6.2 miles on streets in sneakers + Pilates
August 11: 10.6 miles, Mt Rose
August 12: Pilates
August 13: 7 miles, Pacific Crest Trail (4.5 hours)
August 14: 11 Miles, PCT (to lake, see pictures below) (6.5 hours)
August 15: 9 miles PCT (6 hours, lots of fooling with the iPod)

Total for week: 43.8 miles

Pictures of lunch at the lake on Saturday: