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:

Week 21 of 26

On Sunday night we drove down to Rt 108 to the Sonora Pass, and camped at 9300 feet. On Monday we trudged up the road .3 miles (and 300 vertical feet) to the Pacific Crest Trailhead and hiked to the west. We estimate it was about 10 miles, and was 6 1/2 hours. The next day, we DROVE to the trailhead (!) and then hiked on the PCT to the east, probably about 8 miles in 5 1/2 hours. I did all this partly in my sneakers and partly in the new boots. The old blister is still healing (I keep ripping the skin off by accident) and the right foot feels ok sometimes. Better than it was anyhow, but far from pain-free.

I got a note from my old friend Karen in Chicago suggesting gently I go see a doctor for heaven's sake and get a proper diagnosis. Maybe. It's getting kind of close to be messing around with radically new things, it seems to me. And I don't much trust podiatrists, after all the stuff I have been through with them over the past 30 years. But I'll think about it. Especially after yesterday, 10.6 miles on Mt Rose, and it hurt a lot even with Ibuprofen.

You might notice that Jones Creek used to be 5 miles, now it is 5.2. Joe carried his GPS up with us one day and got a better reading.

This is now the time to get very, very serious about gear! I must find good gaitors and am planning to buy the microspikes in case we encounter big snows. I can't decide if I am excited or dreading this. I do not feel ready.

This week:

August 2: 10 miles, PCT 6 1/2 hours
August 3: 8 miles, PCT 5 1/2 hours
August 4: Pilates
August 5: 5.2 miles, Jones Creek in new boots
August 6: 5.2 miles, Jones creek in new boots
August 7: Pilates
August 8: 10.6 miles, Mt Rose in both sneakers and new boots

Total for this week: 39.0 miles

Some pictures from the Pacific Crest Trail:

Week 20 of 26

YIKES it is getting close!! No way I'm going to be ready.

Spent the week (AGAIN) babying the foot and eating a lot of ibuprofen. I did ALL my
hiking in my sneakers, and the foot seems to be a bit better for it.

On Thursday I went to see my physical therapist from when I had the hip surgery. He watched me walk barefoot (and sort of just shook his head), and was appalled that I can't bend my big toes. That is the result of never having had PT when I had the foot surgeries, we think. Anyhow, he wants me to massage my feet and work the toes as much as I can. He also discovered that my right hip (surgery was on the left one) is weak, and recommended doing exercises for that. He thought that Ryan was right on with the pad under the distal three toes, trying to spread the weight onto the big toe knuckle.

On Saturday, I went back to Ryan to see if there was anything else we could try. He thought the pad was working, and shouldn't have caused a blister, but put a tongue pad in the boot to try to stop any movement. We got to talking, and I pondered whether I was just in the wrong boots. The more stuff we pack in there, the tighter the fit and the more my foot hurts. I told him the only reason I bought them was that they were the only kind that both were waterproof and kept my foot from sliding forward and banging into the front of the boot. He said they were very old school and there were other options that were lighter and had more room in the toebox. So I walked out with a pair of New Balance boots. I have only worn them around the house, but they feel already broken in. Well, the innards are, after all, the inserts and pads that I have been using for some time. II won't know whether they are keepers until I do a couple of 10-milers in them. But I am desperate, and ever-hopeful!

This week:

July 26: 5.2 miles on streets in sneakers
July 27: 5.2 miles on streets in sneakers, Pilates
July 28: Nothing
July 29: 5.0 miles on Jones Crk up and down, Pilates
July 30: 5.0 miles on Jones Crk up and down, Pilates
July 31: 5.0 miles on Jones Crk up and down
August 1: Pilates

Total for week: 25.4 miles