Refurbished Hip
I usually am not for getting all oogy about things, but there is something very spiritual about that lake.
My thoughts exactly. And I'm definitely not the type to usually say those things either.
Running is dumb.
Wow. I don't know where I have been. I missed a bunch of backpacking stories. It gets me to thinking about heading back to NM for a possible fast pack turkey hunt, maybe 2020. I already have a trip planned for the spring of 2019.
LB2
I lost my rama
What the heck is a "fast pack turkey hunt"?
....and it sounds very intriguing, btw.
3/17 - NYC Half
4/28 - Big Sur Marathon DNS
6/29 - Forbidden Forest 30 Hour
8/29 - A Race for the Ages - will be given 47 hours
Sue
Where you pack in a hurry and make sure you have wild turkey in the pack.
What the heck is a "fast pack turkey hunt"? ....and it sounds very intriguing, btw.
05/13/23 Traverse City Trail Festival 25K
08/19/23 Marquette 50 dns 🙄
Ha! Guess I've done that without even knowing it.
Thanks for sharing this, Mandy. You are a great story teller, I really felt the ups and downs as you were describing your adventure. Loved the pictures too.
5/11/24 Grizzly Peak Marathon, Berkeley, CA
7/20/24 Tahoe Rim Trail 56 miler, NV
9/21/24 Mountain Lakes 100, OR
running under the BigSky
Got out for a two day, one night snowshoe trip in the Elkhorn Mtns, tough trip.
Started out Friday morning, calling seasonable weather in the mountains upper 20's for highs, low tens for lows; also high winds- more on that later. The route starts out with a tough 2000' climb in about 4 miles. Fortunately the snow wasn't overly deep (about 8" getting deeper as I climbed). About two miles in found a little seep coming out of the mountain- no need for filtering here. These spots are to be savored as it means not having to melt snow.
Nice views on the way up.
I'd been following some older (week...?) snowshoe tracks, they were snowed in but made for easier shoeing as it was a little firmer underneath. Unfortunately about 3 miles in thes tracks ended and the snow had deepened to a 12-15". What was relatively good going suddenly became really tough going, the worst part was knowing that I still had roughly 9 miles to traverse. I had brought tails (extenders) for my snowshoes and promptly put them on, helped a little bit.
Pack was weaned down to about 25 lbs, pretty bare bones for a winter trip.
2023 goal 2023 miles √
2022 goal- 2022 miles √
2021 goal- 2021 miles √
making tracks!
about six miles found a little cabin to get out of the weather to eat lunch, cabin was run down, but out of the wind
lunch of champions- the butthole sandwich!
Had to make an adjustment to my footwear, using my heavier goretex hiking boots, but feet were getting cold, pulled out my 40 Below overshoes to slip over the top- much better!
Still feeling a little sassy
cont'd
The trail dropped a bunch, but then quickly climbed to get over into the Tizer Basin- Tizer Lakes being my destination
The sassiness disappeared, but the views were still pretty nice though
Made it Tizer Lake with about 10 minutes of light to spare
Setup camp with my headlamp and ate supper in the dark, but it did taste good!
The wind picked up enough it eliminated any thoughts of lounging around a campfire, so at 6:30 it was time for bed. Now when I say it was windy that night, think winds from hell. It was so loud you couldn't even think. Scary winds. They would die down for a little and I'd nod off for a little, only to being woken up what sounded like ( and felt like) a train headed for the front door of my tent!
If I got two hours of sleep total, that would be lucky. I considered packing up and heading back for the cabin, but 6 miles of deep snow and the potential for my tracks to be obliterated eliminated that idea. I was hoping by morning the wind would have subsided, but that wasn't the case. There was no way I was going to be able to fire up a stove, so ate a couple of bars and started packing up. My goal was to be down packing as it got late and get out of dodge. No stove meant no boiling water and no Nalgene bottles warming my frozen boots.
Two hours of sleep and no coffee makes for a cranky warden!
There wasn't a shed of sassiness left in me, just a big time gut check to get 12 miles back to the track.
One foot in front of the other.
Pretty views helped
I didn't make it back to the cabin until noon, but nothing was getting in my way of having a hot breakfast and coffee no matter how late!
a wee bit of sassiness back
Cont'd
The last four miles were all downhill- yeah!
what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger so they say
Tim
Looks like fun, minus the wind part. Thanks for the pictures. What do those extensions look like?
“Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway!
Way to go Warden....was this fir fun or just to experience misery... bet DW and Littke E were cozy on the couch together, little wine, fireplace but you choose this. Nice views though. If it’s so cold that your boots need boots... forget about it. Do you get sweaty while moving?
the MSR Evo's and Lightnings are built to accept their tails, pretty nifty
https://www.msrgear.com/evo-tails
yup they were snug as bugs
when I'm moving I'm typically just in a baselayer top and a windshirt- my system for adjusting the heat is first remove gloves/mittens, if more is needed remove hat, open windshirt, takeoff windshirt off- if that doesn't do the trick of dumping heat- then I snowshoe naked