The Mt. Whitney Day Hike

Brutal! The trail itself wasn't too difficult -- just LONG -- and the altitude past 12,000 ft affected me. Fatal mistake: not spending enough time to acclimate. We originally had planned on spending 3 nights at Whitney Portal (8200 ft) before starting the hike to acclimate but we were unable to get a campsite for all of those days and had to plan accordingly. BF planned the trip and after having gotten the permit in February for a September hike, found that mostly everything was full in early July when he looked! I didn't realize it was that popular. What we ended up doing instead was staying 1 night in Bishop (4200 ft) because all the hotels in Lone Pine and Independence were full and spending one night at Whitney Portal. In reality, we got to Whitney Portal in the late afternoon and since we planned on starting the hike in the early morning, we really only spent about 12 hours at 8200 ft.

NOT ENOUGH.

After we picked up our permits and checked into the campsite, we were informed that there was "high bear activity." The ranger told us that we were not allowed to open our bear lockers after dark and that we needed to store anything scented in there (food obviously, but also cosmetics, and even dirty laundry). She said that some bears had been following hikers and that if you set your pack down, a bear might steal it since they associate them with food. There was even a report of a bear growling at a few hikers. Yikes! I was really nervous about this, especially since we would have to grab our packs and food in the dark before the hike at 3 am.

We woke up at 3 am and started hiking by 4 am. The weather was mostly pleasant throughout the hike, ranging from 40-50 degrees. We used headlamps and started at an easy pace. I thought 4 am was early but glancing up, we could see scattered groups of flickering lights along the side of the mountain. I later heard some people had started at midnight! The first two hours in the dark were uneventful... one foot in front of the other... we barely spoke to each other and the sound of footsteps became meditative. By the time we reached Outpost Camp (10,400 ft) the sun had risen and we could see our surroundings. We are slow hikers and were passed by many. I already started feeling the high altitude towards Trail Camp (12,000 ft) which is only the halfway point (6 miles in). We had planned on refilling our camelbaks at Trail Camp using an advanced water purifier. Some advanced system... it didn't work! BF had tried it back home and it did, but we tried it at least a good 5 times before giving up. At this point, I was already thinking, "Oh well, no water... I guess we can't continue on..." Hah.

Luckily (or unluckily for me), some nice hikers let us borrow their water pump and we were able to get 2 more liters of water. Next up, were the "97 switchbacks" to the Trail Crest. Everyone had told me these were horrible, but they were surprisingly not as bad as I thought they would be. I ended up counting them, which I liked, as it gave me something to focus on and break up the work in chunks (just like in swimming!).

I had been having some negative thoughts up to this point, and later told BF that I would have been perfectly fine with turning around earlier and having to face everyone saying that we didn't summit. That is how bad I was feeling. But when we got to the Muir Trail junction and a hiker who had come from the summit told me, "Almost there! Just 2 miles to go!", I felt renewed. 2 more miles? Who can't walk 2 more miles?! That's nothing! Worse case scenario - it will take us 2 hours.

Oh how wrong I was.

Those last 2 miles to the summit were miserable. Parts of the terrain were rough - boulders and loose gravel - which just made for slow travel. The altitude started to affect me a lot by this time and I had to take frequent breaks. I had a pounding headache and was starting to feel a little nauseous.

We finally reached the summit at 2:30 pm (told ya I was slow!) and checked out the impressive view. We ate a bit, signed the register, took some photos, and then started the 11-mile hike back to Whitney Portal.

I already knew we'd be hiking in the dark again but I had no idea it would take us as long as it did. By the time we hit Trail Camp (halfway down), it was almost 7 pm and the sun was starting to set. Shortly after, it was dark again and we were back to using our headlamps. Mine started fading (I think the battery was dying) which meant I now had to walk in front so BF could help shine light for me.

By this time we were tired and cranky. In retrospect, it would have been nice to look at the stars and soak it in, but I wanted to be finished as soon as I could. My feet were achy and my headache hadn't gone away. There were other hikers on the trail still which was comforting at least and we even passed a couple going UP around 9 pm! Maybe they were trying to reach the summit for sunrise?

We finally, FINALLY!, reached the trailhead at Whitney Portal around 10:30 pm. What a grueling, long day! That was the longest hike I've ever done to date in time (18.5 hrs), distance (22 miles), and elevation (14,500 ft). It took us all of 10 minutes to change and jump into the tent for a snore-fest. Although I'm glad I did it, and I suppose it is some kind of "accomplishment", I feel that is one hike I will never need to do again. :)

Hiking and Camping ETL-Style

I ended up packing too much food for the 4 day trip, but I didn't want to be hungry and cave into SAD food, so I was prepared! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had been borrowing a friend's dehydrator to make travel-friendly camping food. As far as the dehydrator goodies went, it was a success all around! I did a lot of experimenting and attempted dehydrating lots of vegetables. This is what I tried:

vegetable	instructions	notes
green beans	Dumped a bag of frozen green beans on the trays	crunchy! I like them on their own but they might be good with some garlic or other spices mixed in.
peas	They were too small to fit on the trays (they'd fall through) so I put foil over the trays and then poked small holes in the foil to allow the air to flow through. Used petite frozen peas from Trader Joe's with zero seasoning.	Tasted as expected - like dried peas!
red and yellow peppers	Sliced red and yellow peppers into thin strips, then put them in the dehydrator plain	Crunchy and tasty! Good on its own without seasoning if you like eating sweet peppers plain (I do)
onions	Diced an entire yellow onion and put the pieces onto the trays directly	It made the house smell nice (if you like onion!) but I wouldn't do this one again. I realized later I can easily buy dried onion at the bargain stores for cheap so it's not worth the effort.
kale	De-stemed and roughly cut without seasoning	Didn't make these for snacking but for soup mixes so I didn't try them plain

I ran out of time, but I had also wanted to try carrots, tomatoes, and beans. In the end, I used the dried vegetables to make my own soup mixes. These are the two I made:

Soup Mix 1

• dehydrated onion (can also use dried)
• garlic powder
• kale (crush and crumble with hands)
• dried sliced shiitake mushrooms from Asian market
• zucchini chips
• dehydrated peas
• spice mix from Penzey's

Soup Mix 2

• kale chips (curry-flavored)
• sundried tomatoes, chopped
• garlic powder
• dehydrated peppers, cut into smaller pieces with scissors
• zucchini chips

They were both great! The curry flavoring on the kale chips was enough to flavor the rest of the mix in the second soup mix. When it came time to eat, I used a Jetboil to make hot water, added the water to some of the mixture, and let it sit for a few minutes. It was great comfort food.

I also brought an array of other things to supplement the dried stuff:

canned no-salt beans, apples, bananas, homemade larabars, nuts and seeds, dried figs, zucchini chips, bag of frozen vegetables, roasted garbanzo beans, baby carrots

We stayed in a hotel the first night, which had a microwave and fridge, so I had a dinner meal of frozen vegetables and beans. BF had Jack in the Box. On the trail, I consumed homemade larabars, figs, brazil nuts, and roasted garbanzo beans. I didn't take any dried vegetables with me and think that was wise because since I was burning so many calories, I need to replenish them quickly, and eating the massive amounts of vegetables necessary to get that many calories would have taken a really long time. We're already slow hikers and didn't want to take longer breaks than we needed. The other meals (in the car) and at camp were the soup mixes, combined with some baby carrots, canned beans, nuts or seeds, and an apple. Surprisingly, I didn't feel as hungry as I thought I would (all the fiber?) and was able to stop eating with what seemed like very little food (and I was satisfied!).

I'm happy with how I did on the camping trip. In the past, I've caved and claimed it was "too hard" to eat this way on the road but it wasn't really a problem this time. Even with my SAD-eating BF eating fast food for almost all of his meals! With a little extra prep and planning, even I was able to stay true to ETL (so you can too :) ).

Not Your SAD Potato Chips

As an alternative to potato chips, I tried making different vegetable chips in the dehydrator.

First up: Zucchini Chips

I sliced up zucchini using a mandoline and put them in plain into the dehydrator. Incredibly easy! It took all of 10 minutes from start to finish for 4 zucchinis and 6 trays worth (about 6 small snack bags). They don't need any flavoring because when dried, they have a naturally salty taste.

I put these in before going to sleep and let the dehydrator run overnight. By morning, they were dried, crispy, and yummy! It's no potato chip but it's a nice alternative. At least I can eat them guilt-free. :)

Next up: Kale Chips

I've made kale chips before using the oven, but this one from BeStrixed using a curry-flavored sauce intrigued me. It was a little more involved since the dressing had to be made (10 minutes), plus the kale had to be prepped (washed, de-stemed, chopped) (10 minutes), and then dressed (5 minutes). 10 + 10 + 5 = 25 minutes of prep time.

My dressing came out fairly thick and I didn't have a large enough container to mix the entire 12 ounces of kale with it, so I ended up mixing the dressing with my hands in batches of kale, which is probably why it took longer.

These were messier in the dehydrator and I did these overnight again (they were ready by morning). They were delicious! Better than a greasy, overly-salted potato chip! And a great way to get in some extra greens...

Notes: I couldn't find dino kale at the market that day and ended up using regular curly kale... which seemed to make the dressing a bit harder to cover - all those curls! I also found the resulting "chip" quite delicate and since dino kale leaves are typically thicker, they probably would hold up better.

I also ended up with a bit more dressing than kale when I was finished, so I bought some collards to try instead of the kale since the leaves tend to be thicker. Still delicious!

Preparing for Whitney

In less than a week from now, I'll be attempting to climb Mt. Whitney. It will be grueling, judging from the way I've done on all two of the practice hikes I've finished. I've discovered I am a slow hiker. Besides the hikes, I haven't been doing anything special to train for it, except for of course, the background training I'm doing for Ironman. The Boy suggested I make friends with Mr. Stairmaster but I barely have enough time to juggle everything else so it didn't get done. I'm not so worried that I won't be in good enough physical shape to do it though. I'm more concerned about the altitude. I've never been up that high before and have no idea how it will affect me. The highest training hike we did was Mt. San Gorgonio which was "only" 11,5K ft -- certainly not 14.5K!

Because we'll have to camp for a couple of days before the hike, I've been tinkering with food to bring. I borrowed a friend's dehydrator for the projects and have been trying to dehydrate all kinds of vegetables. My plan is to make some kind of dried soup mix that I can add hot water to and have for meals. I suppose I could bring canned soups, but those are usually filled with salt and never have enough greens in them. These dried soup mixes will also be very light which is a plus while camping, even though we won't have to carry our meals with us since we'll be attempting to do the entire hike in one day.

Other things I'm thinking of bringing on the actual hike include:

• dried fruit (figs, raisins)
• nuts and seeds (raw almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds)
• homemade "larabars"
• roasted chickpeas
• baby carrots

I noticed I easily tired of eating sweet items on the previous hikes so I'm trying some savory things to mix it up. I'm also trying to stay away from commercially processed "energy" and granola bars. So many of them contain soy isolate protein, including my favorites (Clif bars). Oh well, that's why I make my own!

Truth in Numbers

I weighed in finally yesterday morning: 121.0 lbs. That is certainly more than when I was doing well so the frequent indulgences and lack of caring is showing itself. A great quote I read somewhere said that your body is the result of the decisions you made in the past. Likewise, the body you have in the future is the one based on decisions you make now.

Upping the Goal

I forgot to report my DirectLife status for the week. Because the DL website asked me whether I wanted to increase my goal since I was consistently meeting it every week, I said, surrrrrrrre, why not? Now my ultimate goal is 1273+ cals/day, which according to my coach, would put me at a level 6. That seems awfully high but why not aim big? I figure I am burning on average 700-800 cals/day in exercise (sometimes way less, sometimes a lot more though) which would mean I would have to work for the additional calories burned.

This was the first week that I had the higher goal (1108 cal) and also the first week I didn't meet it. I got to 99% this week and was just shy of it. Boo. I hate not meeting goals! So obviously I will try harder this week. :)

I have a feature on my workout watch that lets you set an event timer (counts down to a specific date). Since IM is really my goal, I put it in a few months ago. I just looked at it yesterday and it said: 75. 75 days until Ironman! That kind of freaked me out. I am not feeling any more ready, mostly because the big volume increases haven't started yet.

Also, I am definitely NOT where I want to be weight-wise for this race. I really need to lean down for this and losing these last 10 lbs would help SO much. It irritates me to no end that I've been trying to do this for so long. I just want this to be done and over with so I can stop obsessing and feeling bad about my weight. It's time to get serious and just DO IT. I "do it" with everything else -- especially exercise -- I can't see why this should be any different!

I picked up some batteries for my scale so I'll finally know the damage (or not?) when I weigh in. That's right - time to weigh in, stick to the plan, and finish this.