End of the Road

End of the Road (for now)

I felt the twinge in my knee a few weeks back. After a hike, it was a bit tight and maybe a bit sore. This went away after a couple days and I didn't think much about it. 

During training hike #10, I believe I twisted my knee when going across some rather slippery mud. When I was headed back down the hill, I started to feel some discomfort. With 4 miles to go, I was definitely in pain and stopped for some Naproxen. There was a fair amount of cursing as I traversed, but I didn't know how else I would get down except to walk it. 

Like before, I convinced myself that I was feeling better after a couple days. When the third day came and my knee buckled a bit followed by a lot of pain during the night, I started to worry. One doctor's visit later, and I'm at the end of this particular road. Tom will continue training and we both plan to attend our hiking weekend. Maybe I'll walk some of it, but the full 28 miles does not look possible right now.

Thank you!

Looking back at the 10 weeks of training, I am happy with how much I did and how much I learned from the people I met. I am especially happy that Tom and I have raised $5591 for Make-A-Wish® San Diego! Thank you to everyone who donated money to our fundraisers -- that money will go to help grant wishes for children with critical illnesses.

Training Hikes #9 and #10

Two more training hikes

We have two (three) more training hikes in the books. 

Dripping Springs #9

This hike was canceled due to weather conditions. Some of the other hikers were able to do it the day before and a few days after. What we did was a raining urban walk (7 bridges), then a local hike for some elevation (miner's loop).

Here is what we planned to hike (Dripping Springs). This was going to be a good training hike because of the climb and descent. But we weren't able to do it.

The 7 Bridges Urban Hike

We did this urban hike, on Easter Day! And we saw the Easter bunny going for a run.

 

Black Mountain, Miner's Loop

This was mentally hard for me for some reason. But afterwards I felt glad I did it. 

 

PCT Red-Tailed Roost

Again, weather happened but this time we only had to modify this hike. Originally, we were going to start at Red-Tailed Roost and walk mostly downhill to Boulder Oaks. But, there was snow preventing us to be able to park at the higher elevation. So, we started at Boulder Oaks and walked up 7.5miles and then turned around and walked down. This trail was very pretty, with lots of interesting vegetation -- especially memorable was the manzanita along the trail at lower elevation. On this trail we started to see some evidence of snow as we gained altitude, and then the trail was covered with packed snow. As we traversed, the areas with sun exposure were very muddy -- a super slippery mud at that. The views were amazing, and the 2300 feet of climbing was not difficult. 

The plan vs the actual

Imagine us walking the reverse direction, so up to the half-point, then turn around and go back down. 

Scenes from the hike

The group of us

The Stats

We have a total of 101 miles and 14,815ft of elevation, across our official weekend training hikes. Add in about 15 miles for mid-week training, then we tally up to about 250 miles and 22,000ft of elevation. 

Hike	Trail	Distance	Elevation
#1	Daley Ranch	6.32mi	568ft
#2	Bernardo Mountain	7.1mi	1079ft
#3	Mother Miguel	6.8mi	1555ft
#4	Iron Mountain	7.5mi	1051ft
#5	Ad Hoc (Mt Soledad)	10.25mi	1591ft
#6	Palomar	9.7mi	1575ft
#7	Santa Ysabel	12.26mi	2303ft
#8	PCT Lake Moreno to Boulder Oaks	11.97mi	1309ft
#9a	Ad Hoc 1 - 7 bridges	7.65mi	377ft
#9b	Ad Hoc 1 - Miner's Loop	6.17mi	1107ft
#10	PCT Red-Tailed Roost to Boulder Oaks (modified)	15.23mi	2300ft

Training Hikes #6, #7, #8

The weeks are flying by!

I got behind on my blog posts so let's get caught up. We have had three training hikes in the past 3 weekends - Palomar, Santa Ysabel, and PCT Lake Moreno. 

Training Hike #6: Palomar Mountain

This was the morning of the time change so we essentially got on the road at 4am to drive to the meeting location. It was dark and cold for sure. A lot of the time we had frost on the trail which was beautiful but hard to fully capture in a photo. At times we walked through meadows and had our feet get partially submerged in hidden mini streams under the foliage that covered the trail. In the end, The hike was 9.7 mi with 1,575 elevation gain. 

Training Hike #7: Santa Ysabel

We were going to try for the PCT Desert View to Kwaaymii again, and yet again another storm caused us to do a different trail. The Santa Ysabel hike was very pretty. The first mile had a bit of a killer climb out the gate followed by a bit of a reprieve before another 1.3mi climb. At this point, we have the bulk of the elevation gain behind us with the rest realized by rolling hills. Thankful for the long stretches through meadows to elongate our strides. Like the previous week, the trail had quite a bit of mud to deal with in parts. The hike was 12.3mi with 2303ft of elevation gain. 

Training Hike #8: PCT Lake Moreno to Boulder Oaks

This was an out & back, and our first training hike on the PCT during this training!  It was a really nice trail - no ruts or rocks to worry about which made for a fast hike. The climb was gradual, and because this was an out and back, we did the 1300ft gain in two parts. It was a nice day for this hike, later the storm came in and we wondered how the PCT hikers we saw fared. We also saw turkeys on the trail. 

The Stats, So Far

Here is a table showing all the training hikes so far. The training hikes have totalled up to 71.9 miles and 11,031 elevation gain. Then we walk/hike another 20-30 during the rest of the week. 

Hike	Trail	Distance	Elevation
#1	Daley Ranch	6.32mi	568ft
#2	Bernardo Mountain	7.1mi	1079ft
#3	Mother Miguel	6.8mi	1555ft
#4	Iron Mountain	7.5mi	1051ft
#5	Ad Hoc (Mt Soledad)	10.25mi	1591ft
#6	Palomar	9.7mi	1575ft
#7	Santa Ysabel	12.26mi	2303ft
#8	PCT Lake Moreno to Boulder Oaks	11.97mi	1309ft

Training Hike #5

Ad Hoc Hike

The hike that wasn't 

Training Hike #5 was going to be the first on Pacific Crest Trail, but unfortunately extreme weather caused the hike to be canceled. This was going to be a point-to-point hike.

La Jolla Cove to Mount Soledad 

We made up our own hike going up from La Jolla Cove to Mount Soledad. Once up Soledad we headed down to false point then along the coastline back to the cove. 

Tom, Me and Kenz (our hiking buddy)

Training Hikes (so far)

Hike	Trail	Distance	Elevation
#1	Daley Ranch	6.32mi	568ft
#2	Bernardo Mountain	7.1mi	1079ft
#3	Mother Miguel	6.8mi	1555ft
#4	Iron Mountain	7.5mi	1051ft
#5	Ad Hoc (Mt Soledad)	10.25mi	1591ft

Training Hike #4

Iron Mountain 

This was supposed to be Sycamore Canyon but because of the rains and then other events at the same venue, the hike leads settled on Iron Mountain with the Ellie Lane extension. The hike to the Iron Mountain summit is something I've done many times especially when my kids were young. The Ellie Lane extension was new for me. The extension starts out as a narrow single track opening back up and then getting more narrow again. The ascent was fine, but the descent was very technical. Much of the trail involved traversing over baseball sized rocks which made for a slow hike. 

Photo Dump

An early start, we saw the dawn -- total wow. 

The traditional pre-hike picture.

Group Shot

The trail until the summit

Tom and Kenz waiting for me

The hike went up to the summit then looped back up and around. 

The Training Hikes (So Far)

Hike	Trail	Distance	Elevation
#1	Daley Ranch	6.32mi	568ft
#2	Bernardo Mountain	7.1mi	1079ft
#3	Mother Miguel	6.8mi	1555ft
#4	Iron Mountain	7.5mi	1591ft

Training Hike #3

Mother Miguel 

Our third training hike was at Mother Miguel. The climb on this started pretty quickly with a single track of switchbacks, that eventually opened up to a wider trail. The views here are amazing -- so I've been told -- but this day was super foggy. It was a nice and cool hike. 

The group

At the summit

Super foggy at Summit

On the way down

The hike

The Training Hikes (So Far)

 

Hike	Trail	Distance	Elevation
#1	Daley Ranch	6.32mi	568ft
#2	Bernardo Mountain	7.1mi	1079ft
#3	Mother Miguel	6.8mi	1555ft

Training Hike #2

 

Early Start

We have a theme here -- early starts. We arrive at 6:30am then start the hike at 7am. Today we had about 100 people here for the hike, tho at times I think I was only really around 10 people. 

The Stats

I had AllTrails and Apple Watch recording and AllTrails stopped at the summit. 

Here's a relive video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqDpNDQKLq

Photo Dump

It was in the 30s when we started out, and there was frost on the ground. Gloves, ear muffs, thick jacket was a must (to start). Before the climb, I shedded those layers. 

Frost on the ground

Backward, me in the front with hood up

Walking into the fog

At the Summit

At the Summit

The Training Hikes (So Far)

Hike	Trail	Distance	Elevation
#1	Daley Ranch	6.32mi	568ft
#2	Bernardo Mountain	7.1mi	1079ft

Training Hike #1

 

Early Start

We had a 6:30am arrival time at Daley Ranch for this 6.32mi hike with 568ft elevation gain. The temp was in the high 40s when we got there, but the sky was clear and soon the sun warmed us up. There was a surprise steep hill at the end and it spiked my heart rate -- in a humbling way. Decided I really needed to double down on hill training and so that is what I did the next day.

Fundraising

Fundraising is going OK. I got to $2,088 and seem to have stalled. Tom was at $110, but was able to get up to $548 by midday on Sunday. He will have a company match of $750 which will help. Then, we are going to do some baking with hope that even with a trickle of sales, will get us to our $5000 goal.

Donate to Tom's Fundraising Page: http://site.wish.org/goto/tomlennan

Order Scones, Cookies, and Jalapeno Cheese Bread via this Google Form

Jalapeno Cheese Soda Bread -- YUM

Hill Work

We are expecting 3 days of rain starting on Monday, so we went out early on Sunday for some hill work. 

Did about 938 feet of elevation over 4.12mi. Heart rate was fine on the front side ascent, but spiked again on the backside. The second time, heart rate was much better.