5/17/2010 Post

Sorry I’m a bit tardy in getting this out. I went on Matt’s CHS 2 hike to Snoqualmie Middle Fork yesterday and ran out of time last night. We had a really fun hike on a beautiful trail I’d never hiked before. The Middle Fork Snoqualmie was running high with lots of snowmelt and was really beautiful. The weather stayed pretty nice too and we enjoyed lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.

I’m sharing a couple of pictures from my Grand Canyon trip in this blog. I’ve also added a few I have from my Angel’s Landing trip to the blog I posted on 5/9. You can see the nice drop off below us and how close to the edge we had to walk.

In Grand Canyon, our first day was spent hiking down into the canyon on the Hermit Trail. It’s a non-maintained trail that’s a lot rockier than some of the other more popular corridor trails. The views were wonderful and it was nice and sunny, but the wind was something fierce and several times I almost got blown off my feet (see photo of me trying to stand my ground and keep hold of my hat). One of my hiking partners did get blown over at one point—fortunately we were on fairly level land at that point so she wasn’t injured. At least the wind cut the heat a bit—it was above 80 degrees at one point and my brain was starting to cook a bit. I was sure glad to see our camp for the night and have some grub! Other pictures include the canyon with some interesting weather overhead and a nice shot of the Colorado River.

One thing that backpacking and hiking has taught me is the value of food planning and making sure that I don’t neglect to bring a decent amount of food and eat it along the way. But even I still mess up sometimes and come up short in the calorie planning area. On yesterday’s hike, I had enough food to get me through the hike just fine, but I neglected to bring an after-hike snack. Since it was about a 40-minute drive to the dinner spot, I was pretty hungry by the time we reached it. I also noticed that that my extra food portion (Ten Essentials) in my food bag was pretty low, not a good situation if I or someone else ended up needing something extra to munch on.

As the hikes get longer, you should be bringing and eating more food. You should also be bringing more food than you think you might need. Sometimes you’re out longer than you think you might be, or the trail is harder or longer (our 10 mile hike yesterday turned into 12 miles according to the trail signs) than you originally thought, or someone gets hurt and it takes longer to hike out. There are lots of reasons, but the solution is the same—bring lots of snacks and a good lunch and be sure to eat constantly. You must condition yourself to eat before you are even hungry to avoid spiking your blood-sugar levels. This becomes even more important as you pile the miles and gain on your hikes.

I can tell you from first-hand experience it’s no fun to bonk (American slang for experiencing a really low blood-sugar level). You become light-headed, low-energy, nauseous, and really dumb. If you don’t maintain a constant caloric intake, it can happen to you fairly quickly and once you get there, it’s hard to recover. So keep salty, calorific snacks handy to munch on while you walk or if you stop for a moment. Keep your body supplied with a constant amount of energy and you’ll feel much stronger as you put the miles behind you.

CHS Pictures:

John Connelly, our picture guru, has been busy posting the photographs you have sent him onto the Picassa web site. A link to this web site is listed on the Class Resources tab on the CHS web site.

John asks me to remind you to please be sure to include the name and date of the hike and the hike leader name in the subject line. You can send your pictures to chshiker2008@gmail.com.

If possible, John also requests that you attach the photos to the email rather than imbed them. In some cases, this might involve resizing them. If you need help doing this, contact John at chshiker2008@gmail.com.

WTA Work Party Signup

We have the links available for you to sign up for the trail maintenance work parties being held later this summer in conjunction with WTA. I have posted the WTA document with the links on the CHS web site>Class Resources tab>Course Documents section>2010 CHS Trail Maintenance Flyer link. You can view the date and description of each trip as well as click on the link to sign up for them.

Hike Signup:

All May CHS hikes are available for open signup. Here are the hikes with space still available.

June hike information will come out by May 24^th. Signup will begin on May 26^th.

CHS1:

5/22 (Sat.)—Gregg Pilgreen, Wallace Falls (7 miles, 1,100’ gain)

5/29 (Sat.)—Barry Kellems, CHS Grads Hike: Annette Lake (7.5 miles, 1400’ gain)—Current course members can sign up on May 27^th.

CHS2:

5/22 (Sat.)—Deborah Dickstein, Leader’s Choice (10 miles, 2,000’ gain)

5/23 (Sun.)—Kelly Cleman, CHS Grads Hike: Easton Ridge (6 miles, 2270’ gain)—Current course members can sign up on May 20^th.

5/30 (Sun.)—Shep Griswold, Squire Creek (9 miles, 2,400’ gain)—hike is full with no waitlist.