Hiking Nine to Five

What happens when you:

1) Don't drink enough water?
2) Don't eat enough beneficial food?
3) Walk too far after not hiking in a LONG time?
4) Carry too much weight for said hike?
5) Sleep poorly afterwards due to hot house?

Answer: feel crappy on Monday morning. Ugh.

Anyway, so Wednesday hung out at a friend's house to have BBQ burgers, sweet potato fries, caesar salad, and my candy sushi. Then got to play Settlers of Catan for the first time (and WON believe it or not! Yay!) before we all went out to watch the fireworks. Fallon seriously needs to boost the oomph on their show as most of the explosions were below tree level for the rest of town. Grrrr

Friday, went into town early and just reviewed maps and hung out. Saturday, dad and I got my truck squared away with an oil change and rebalancing the tires. Had breakfast at the new Zen's Cafe (which shows the UFC fights with no cover!) and managed to get a hold of Greg's copy of Twist of the Wrist. It's a book that spells out the techniques and reasons why doing things on bikes works the way it does. Then we ran up to Reno to drop in at 2 Wheel Custom Performance. They were holding a Bikini Bike Wash so a lot of people were there. I walked in and was asked what they could do for me. So I blurted out I'd been on Precision Trackdays website and was wanting to do that. Oh Boy! Talk about helpful, informative, great folks who just gave me everything I could ask for! The owner is even one of the instructors and he joined the conversation. The next track day is next weekend and there is a free Try the Track thing. Plus I can wear my own gear for it! Yay. Steve offered to find me a race suit if I wanted to borrow one for awhile until I committed to buying my own. That was freaking awesome! I am so going!! We then headed around town and I bought a new helmet that was more aerodynamic than the one I own so I wouldn't have anything whipping my head around at excessive speeds. Next stop Carson, where I met up with Tarry to compare gear for Sunday. We're both carrying 30 pounds and feel ready for the hike! (I'll refer you back to the opening of this post ... I was optimistic).

Saturday was the night of a big fight between Silva and Sonnen. Several of the early fights were over fast! But the main fight was interesting. Usually there is some dancing around and getting the feel for the opponent. Nope, Sonnen dove right in and had Silva on the ground early in the first round and kept him there. Silva defended well enough that Sonnen couldn't do anything, but they stayed down the entire round. The second round again had Sonnen dive straight in but a missed spinning backfist sent Sonnen to the ground where Silva took advantage and sent a knee straight into his chest. The fight was over and Sonnen declared Silva a true champion. Good fight!

Sunday we all met up at Ash Canyon to carpool up the mountain to Hobart Reserviour. The plan was to hike down to that lake, then out a bit farther to Marlette Lake Rd before turning south onto the Tahoe Rim Trail and continuing out to Spooner Summit where I had left my truck overnight. 12 miles total. We were getting along great (me, naturally, dragging up the rear) and seemed to be going at a fairly decent clip of between 1.5 to 2 MPH (that's good for this asthmatic gimpy turtle). That was until the initial climb to the rim and then the climb up towards Snow Valley Peak decided to remind me I am seriously out of shape to be doing this. The asthma was causing my throat to tighten despite me trying to reserve oxygen and keep my pace steady and my body wasn't cooling off effectively (spiking at one point into a flash rage that I feel terrible about ... Good thing I can bite my tongue and not say evil shit when no one around warrants or deserves it). Tried continuing on, but my body was beginning to hurt and my throat was closing painfully. Yeah, asthma attacks for me aren't sucking air through a straw, it's a pain radiating from my throat to my chest leaving me a sobbing weeping mess of a person. GAH, I must be so lovely! :-)

We stopped just shy of the Snow Valley mountain saddle to have lunch and it was decided that my idea sucked (go back to the Scout alone) and the group would split with me hiking back under the watchful eye of Greg. Probably a good idea as Tarry was already chewing my ass for even suggesting going alone, once he saw how bad my knee was I would probably never hear the end of it (yes, I know you read this). Everyone headed up to the peak after lunch and I was eyeing the ONE SINGLE benchmark that is up here.

Topic break, long ago I had noticed that all along this section of the Sierras, there was only one benchmark indicated on the map. It's called Overlook, http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=KR1674, and was originally set in 1897 as a drill hole. Along in 1951 the next crew set a disk into the original hole and also placed two reference marks and an azimuth nearby. Just a half mile away from Snow Valley Peak, it has always been a curiosity to me. Why there, why no other marks, why?? So, back to the story...

While everyone else was bagging the summit, I was looking out and debating contouring over to go recover the survey mark. But, when I dropped by pack at the junction and pulled it up on the GPS I was a mile away. Figuring the side to be bare (we were above tree line) I pointed my hiking poles in the direction I went and set off. Rounded the one grove of trees blocking my direct view and saw that the tree line was higher here and I couldn't see the peak I was aiming for. I'm not stupid enough to go wandering off trail in a vague direction when the rest of my friends don't know exactly where I am headed and how to find me again, and I can't see my destination nor around me enough to spot them. So I went back to the junction and waited.

Turned out to be the best move. Once I was rejoined by Greg, we headed down Snow Valley Road back to the Hobart parking area. 4 miles and two hours later, we made it back at the Scout and began heading down Ash Canyon. Tarry had picked up my truck at Spooner and we all met up within minutes of each other. Started hiking at 9:23am and finished at 5:10pm 9+ miles for Greg and I. Not bad!!! Then it was off to dinner were I got a nice waitress to just serve me two chicken breast patties (need protein!!!) and headed home. I was really running on empty so caught a quick nap at Dad's before making the long drive back and literally falling into bed once I walked into the house. Left the swamp cooler on because man it was hot! My poor kitty was stretched out on the floor meowing at me how miserable she was. Glad she's a short hair!

And now today I am feeling all gittery and sickly. Think I am going to go fall into bed. :-(