Mick’s Miscellaneous Meanderings

To me, the phrase “going ultralight” had always meant going backpacking without my stove, water filter, half my tent, etc….just taking the absolute bare minimum and keeping my pack weight under 16 pounds. That was last week. Now I’ve got a new meaning to the phrase.

I just got back from a working vacation – spent a week and a half working and hanging out in a shop gleaning some machining info and repair tips. While I was there, one of the employees invited me for a ride in his ultralight…a little go-cart type contraption with a parachute attached. I politely declined but then was later talked into it. I was having serious second thoughts about going up when one of the other guys called the guy over that I would be flying with and told him to stay away from a certain house in the area. Apparently, some nut case in the community threatened to shoot the ultralights down if they came within firing range.

*Gulp*

But it was awesome….after I got over the initial panic of seeing the ground get farther and farther away and realized we weren’t going to plummet to our deaths, anyway.

We cruised at about 600 ft, going about 25 miles per hour. We were able to talk back and forth over the system in our helmets so I got a tour of the area as we soared across the country side. The views were absolutely beautiful.

I’m not about to go out and buy my own ultralight but it was a great experience I’m glad I didn’t pass up.

It was another awesome weekend of backpacking! Headed out on Saturday morning for a 2.5 hour drive to the Black Moshannon State Forest in central PA – just north of State College (home of Penn State University). Met the rest of the group at the ranger station where we all signed in. It was a smaller group this time – just 6 of us. Four women, Mike, and my dog, Charlie.

Headed out on the trail to the tune of 90+ degrees and sunny skies. We knew it was sunny because we could cleary see the sun. That sounds pretty stupid but normally when hiking in the woods at this time of year, you’d be under full canopy of the trees. Apparently, this area was being hit hard by gypsy moths. There were so few leaves that it looked kind of like spring when things are still budding out. So we hiked under little shade most of the weekend which made for a warm Saturday but wasn’t a problem on Sunday or Monday because it was either overcast or raining.

We did 10 miles each day. Saturday’s and Monday’s hikes were extremely tame as there was very little elevation change. Sunday’s hike was an ankle buster over all the classic PA rocks. There were also a few moderately steep ups and downs although they didn’t last long.

Spent the first night in a blueberry bush field along a stream. Had a cushiony bed but no fire to toast the 10 oz bag of marshmallows that I lugged along. Everything was dry and the fire ring was overgrown with grass.

The second night’s camp was in a cozy little hemlock grove beside a stream. We got into camp about 3:30, just after it had started drizzling. We immediately started setting up our tents. By the time we were finished with setting up camp and filtering water, etc. it was raining in earnest so we all retreated without a word into our tents. I took a nice hour long nap and woke up to a break in the rain. I heard a couple of the others chatting as they started making their suppers so I grabbed my food bag and joined them in the common area. As I started laying out my fixings of tuna, pepperoni, mayo, and pita bread, the rain started picking up again. Not having full rain gear along, only my jacket, I quickly gobbled down supper. Giving up on the idea of having a toasty fire, I passed the marshmallow bag around forcing marshmallows into everyone’s hands. I was NOT going to carry these back home!

Charlie and I headed back into the tent wet and chilly. It was only 7pm. I didn’t bring a book along so I read the fire warning and care tags on my tent. Very intellectually stimulating stuff. Finally fell asleep to the sound of rain on my tent fly around 9pm. Woke up refreshed and ready to attack the trail at 7am! I made up for the sleep deficit I had been operating under for the past couple weeks!

The hike out on Sunday was really fun. We had all chatted over the weekend and gotten to know each other. So here’s a little bit about us:

Catherine was our trail maintenance crew. She cleared the path of sticks and debris. For some reason we couldn’t get her to clear all those PA rocks off the trail for us though.

Mike was our hike leader and tour guide, giving us the “packs off” and “packs on” signs and turning our attention to the various plants along the trail.

Ellen was our manager but didn’t want to hear about our problems, refusing to answer her phone.

Diane was our therapist and counselor we needed to talk to because Ellen wouldn’t solve our problems.

Charlie was our entertainment for the weekend.

Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take my camera. That’s what happens when you pack at the last minute the night before the trip. :-\ But if anyone from the group would be willing to send some pictures I would love to post them here with the review.

It’s back to the grind for two more weeks until another backpacking weekend on the Quehanna Trail. See you then!

The pictures above are courtesy of Mike. The pictures below are from Dianne. Thanks Mike and Dianne!!!

I’ve finally gotten around to adding a slide show of the pictures I took on this trip. Only took 3 months!

VIEW THE SLIDE SHOW

Caveat: This is a LONG post that covers a 2.5 week vacation. It’s here for two reasons:
1. For me to remember my trip and
2. For my family to keep tabs on me.
I don’t expect anyone to actually read this entire thing…well…except for my dad. So I’ll post the pictures as a slideshow at the top as they’re a little more interesting to most. If you’re retired and have absolutely nothing better to do, feel free to read on.

Steamboat Lake State Park, Steamboat Springs, CO

Absolutely AWESOME town nestled in the Rockies. Arrived on Friday, June 1st, after 2 long days of driving, a day earlier than my scheduled reservation at the state park, in hopes that the extra day would help me acclimate to the altitude for the half marathon I was supposed to run on Sunday. After some convoluted shuffling on the part of the park office to allow me to check in a day earlier (thank goodness hotels don’t use the reservation system of CO state parks!), I picked out a campsite with a great view of Streamboat Lake and the surrounding mountains, set up camp, made supper, and made a roaring fire to roast S’mores by. Woohoo! I was in the Colorado Rockies!

I went for a short walk around part of the lake and discovered the affects of the 8,000 ft of altitude. This half marathon wasn’t going to be pretty.

Saturday, June 2

I went for a drive around the area. When I stopped along the road to take a picture, I saw something leaking out from under the car. Popped the hood and antifreeze was boiling out of the reservoir. Sure enough, the car was overheating. I turned it off and waited for it to cool. Then I drove the 30 miles into town searching for a mechanic working on a Saturday morning. Found one. When I got there he immediately looked at it and started hooking up gages. I grabbed my laptop out of the car and headed to the McDonald’s up the street for the wi-fi.

As I was walking to McD’s in my jeans and t-shirt with my laptop bag slung over my shoulder, I watched tons of people riding their bikes down the main highway through town. They all had their moisture-wicking dry-fit shirts and their cargo pocket shorts on. Two out of three cars were SUV’s and half had bike or ski racks on them. This was a town full of people that were serious about their sports. Normally, I feel out of place because I’m the only one of my family and friends that is a hiker/backpacker/runner. Here I was among the athletic people feeling out of place for being a computer geek.

I got my email, checked to make sure my server and websites were still running fine, and then popped into the newsgroups. Two members of a web developer’s group I’m on were getting married at 2pm that day and they would be broadcasting the wedding live through my Flash server account. They had everything set up, tested, and ready to go. T minus 1.5 hours.

I headed back to get the news on my car. $50 and a new cap for the antifreeze reservoir and it was good as new.

Headed the 26 miles back to the campground, which, btw, was the marathon course for the next day so I was getting to know it well. Got back at 1:35ish and saw I had a voice mail on my cell phone. Pete (the groom from the web dev group) was concerned…the streaming video app he was using for the wedding wasn’t working. CRAP!!! Twenty-five minutes till the wedding, I had no internet access to reboot the app or server and didn’t have any of the information to get to it if I did. I called Pete back on his cell phone. Got a message that the number is out of service. He’s from the U.K…just moved here to the U.S. and was still using his U.K cell phone. Apparently, I don’t have international calling on my cell phone. Ack! I had no way of getting in touch with him!

Starting to panic, I remembered I jotted down the cell numbers of a couple U.S. people from the newsgroup. Called Bonnie and got her voice mail. Called Michael. Bingo! He answered but was outside digging in the dirt. He ran home, washed his hands, and got in front of the computer, poised to be my internet connection. He sent SOS emails to my streaming video host, emailed the web group telling them the situation, and tried to contact Pete. At 1:58 the video app came back up. Pete needed to refresh his admin page in order to start the video stream. Michael called Pete again and swore he heard someone pick up with noise in the background. At the time of this writing, I don’t know if the video was ever streamed or not. If not, hopefully we’ll get to watch the recording of the lovebirds getting married and watch Pete scramble to turn his cell phone off in the beginning of the ceremony.

(Editing note: They did indeed record the wedding so I have the videos posted – complete with Pete’s cell phone going off in the beginning of the service!!!. Email Kat and Pete for the link)

After THAT crisis I headed off on a hike. Spent 2 hours attempting to get to the top of Hahn’s peak. Got to the top of a neighboring peak and it looked like I still had another couple hours to go. With the looming run the next day, I headed back down to the campground.

Made a gourmet mac & cheese with tuna dish on my camp stove, and then some S’mores over another camp fire and hit the hay early for the 7:30 am marathon start the next morning.

Sunday, June 3

Woke up at 5:30, forced down a granola bar with Gatorade, and got ready for the race. I was feeling good about the altitude after the hike from the day before although my legs were a little sore. Got to the starting line, made my last port-a-potty stop, took my place near the back of the pack and we were off….along with two other races starting at the same time. The full marathon started just outside the entrance to the campground where I was living in style. The half marathon (my race) started 13 miles later at the marathon half way point. And a 10k was taking place in town.

The Steamboat marathon was voted one of the most scenic marathons by Runner’s World magazine and after driving back and forth on it to and from town, I was disappointed I wasn’t in good enough shape to run the full marathon.

As it turned out, I didn’t pay much attention to the scenery after the first couple miles. I ended up running most of the race with a woman from Colorado who ran my perfect pace. We chatted about running, hiking, trail running, and backpacking with interruptions from a couple themed water stands, one of which had volunteers wearing togas.

I made it to the end 10 minutes faster than I had anticipated. Not long afterwards the first finisher of the full marathon came in. While milling around the finish area, I heard horror stories about some of the half marathon runnners. One guy was seen puking his guts out along the side of the road in the last 1/2 mile. (I have to admit, I walked half of the last mile to keep from puking myself!) Another guy passed out just before the finish line. Two fellow runners picked him up and carried him to the finisher chute. One girl just ahead of me took a spill and ended up with 2 bloody knees. And there were at least 2 people picked up by ambulance. Never heard what happened to them.

Over all it was a great race – awesome courses and extremely organized – the freezing cold wet towel we were handed as we finished was the absolute best!!! This half marathon was world’s apart from the absolutely brutal half marathon trail run I ran the weekend before.

Bummed around the rest of the day, did wash, went to a killer BBQ ribs place and then back to the campground for another roaring fire.

Monday, June 4

Left Steamboat with only a general destination of a campground somewhere in south central to south western CO. Stopped at a Pizza Hut in Leadville, CO at 10,200 ft. After looking at the area brochures, it dawned on me that this was the home of the famous Leadville 100 mile ultramarathon trail run. I had read several books about this race and was amazed that a person could run 100 miles. Now I find out that those 100 miles are run at altitudes of over 10,000 ft. Insane! If I ever even hint at wanting to run this race, please slap the shit out of me!

Continued on from Leadville over the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass (11,312 ft) and through some hair-rasing turns. Ended up in Gunnison, CO, home of everything that “shuts” by 6pm. Campground was nice (at least I had hot water in the shower!) but the area was nothing to write home about after being spoiled in Steamboat Springs.

Tuesday, June 5

Mostly non-eventful in Gunnison. Went running and felt like crap afterwards. Kept coming up short of breath with every move. Odd since Gunnison was a little lower (7700 ft) than Steamboat. So I took it easy and bummed around. Took a drive into the mountains north of Gunnison. On the way back, I saw a baby alpaca being born in a field right next to the road. The mother seemed totally unconcerned. She didn’t even stop eating during the event.

Took a nap, played with the campground dog, and made an awesome BBQ rib supper on the grill. Spent some time online looking for a next stop.

Wednesday, June 6

Headed out early. Gunnison just wasn’t a happening place. Decided to head down route 550 through Montrose, Ouray, Silverton, and Durango to see what I could find. Never quite made it to Durango. When I got to Ouray, I was so enthralled by the area that after I reached Silverton, I turned around and came back to Ouray. The drive between Ouray and Silverton is almost as hair-raising as the drive over Monarch Pass. I immediately gave up the notion of heading to Utah’s Zion and Bryce National Parks on this trip and reserved a campsite through Saturday. The campground was right in town but up against one of the mountains that surrounds the town.

I debated about getting a hotel room instead of campsite for the night after hearing the weather forecast. They were calling for up to 2 ft of snow at elevations over 6,000 ft. Ouray was at 8,000. I decided to chance it and got the campsite.
Checked out the specialty shops in town and made reservations for a few tours over the next few days, bought a hiking guide of the area and chose a hike for the next morning.

Thursday, June 7

There was no snow overnight at the campgound but you could see a heavier snow cover in the upper elevations. So, I headed out early in the chilly air (below 30 degrees) for a “moderate” hike to the top of a waterfall and some old mines. I realized half way up that I forgot my camera. Derrrr. :-\

Saw some beautiful views of the valley and neighboring peaks. But Colorado definitely has some different concepts of “moderate”. What they consider moderate is considered steep on a PA hike. My poor legs and lungs were screaming so loud I had to rest every 100 yards or so on the last couple miles of switchbacks on the ascent. I’d hate to have been out of shape!

Got back from the hike, heated up a couple hot dogs on the grill and headed off to a tour of the Bachelor-Syracuse mine. A group of us were taken 1800 ft into an old mine and given a history of mining in general and that mine in particular. It’s much different than the coal mining we have here in PA. They don’t have a problem with explosive gases building up, and because the rock they’re digging through is so hard, they only have to support the entrance of the mine. Really interesting stuff.

Cooked some spaghetti on my backpacking stove for supper and gave the leftovers to the campground dog (his name was “D.O.G”!) along with some treats. Made a roaring fire at the campsite to sit by.

Friday, June 8

Absolutely beautiful day! Up until today, it always started out clear, and then by noon, puffy clouds would roll in and hide the sun on and off. Occasionally a rain cloud would go through and spit 100 rain drops out before disappearing. But today, the sky remained completely clear the entire day. Absolutely awesome since I was headed out on a Jeef tour (in a Chevy 3500! What’s up with that?) up into the mountains south of Ouray. It was a small group but we had a blast. The guide was very knowledgeable about the area and it’s history, flowers, birds, rock types, etc. Got plenty of photos.

In the afternoon I dusted off my bathing suit and hit the community hot springs. First time I’ve been swimming in probably 10 years. The water in the pool comes from the 150 degree local hot springs and cooled to the various temps for the different sections of the pool with municipal water. Stayed mostly in the bath tub temp water but braved the colder section and 60 degree air temp to go down the slides a few times. Stayed out of the sauna temp section. Too warm for me! I was only in the pool for an hour but got a bit of a sunburn.

Splurged for dinner and got a nice filet mignon at the Outlaw Restraurant in town. Then made another roaring fire for the evening and had (can you guess….?) S’mores for dessert.

Saturday, June 9

My last day in Ouray. *sob* Decided to end it with a hike. Heard the hike up to Baldy was great and the trailhead was accessible via a non-4WD or non-high-clearance car. NOT! The hike was great but my Saturn was NOT going over some of those rocks or through the 2 streams to reach the trailhead. So my original 7 mile hike suddenly became a 10+ mile hike with the extra walk to and from the car. Hoofed it up the mountain and along a ridge to what I thought was Baldy. Woops…went one peak too far. The one I just went around was the one I was supposed to bush-whack up. Guidebook directions weren’t exactly the best on this hike. This wasn’t the first time it was unclear, nor the last. Climbed up the correct peak and continued down the trail. I was supposed to go .8 miles and turn right onto a trail that led back to the trailhead. Either the trail wasn’t marked or I missed it through all the blow downs because .8 miles came and went and I was still looking. 45 minutes later I was positive I’d missed it but by that time I was closer to the next trail that was supposed to link up with the trail I’d missed. Resigned to adding another 1.5 miles to my already extended hike, I continued on. After some mild panic I found the connecting trail and followed it off the ridgeline…with a bit of difficulty. There was still snow on the ground in spots which hid where the trail actually went. I followed a run-off area where I thought the trail should go and it turned out right. A topo map would have done wonders for my nerves! The rest of the way out was uneventful. Made it back to the car in good time for the 7-mile turned 11+ mile hike. Hopped into the car and headed to a state park in Green River, UT for the night.

Sunday, June 10

Spent the night at a really crappy state campground. Actually, the campground was nice, it was all the little rugrats running around playing tag and screaming until midnight. I made no attempt to be quiet for their parents when packing up at 6am.

Headed into Las Vegas and immediately formed a hate-hate relationship with the place. Dropped in at the conference hotel to register for a web deveoper’s conference I would be attending for the next three days. Didn’t see any signs about it so I went to the desk to ask about the location. I received a blank stare:

“What conference? Well, if it’s a conference, it would be on the third floor.”
“Great. Can you point me toward the elevators?”
She points in a general direction. I look over and only see a bunch of slot machines.
“Um…could you be a little more specific on those elevators?”
*sigh* “Over there on the opposite wall.”
“Oh yea, thanks” *rolling eyes*

Made my way through the lines of slot machines and their cobweb covered players and found the elevators. Reached the third floor and immediately saw a couple familiar faces…some of the CMX members (the group that was putting on the conference). Went to the table to register and got some funny looks. “Uh…we’re still putting the books together. You can register tomorrow morning. It’ll start between 7:30 and 8. First session is at 8:30″. Ok…this ought to be interesting. Registering 300+ people in half an hour. (As it later turned out, there were only about 100 people attending. Apparently a big Adobe conference was scheduled for the same weekend.)

So, here I am in Las Vegas, hating the place with nothing to do for several hours. I can either brave going out into Las Vegas again or I can crash the CMX clique and offer to help put the books together. I crashed the party. We finished the books and I procrastinated leaving as long as I could. I think they were getting a little nervous that I might try to invite myself to their dinner because the leader of the group asked me where the No-Nephs group was meeting for dinner and when I had to meet them. I took the hint and headed down to the meeting area. When the rest of the group (10 of us) showed up, we headed over to a Mexican restaurant. Having never eaten any food more Mexican than Taco Bell, I was dubbed the Mexican virgin and Bonnie explained the menu items to me. When the waiter came, I just pointed to something on the menu and hoped it would be edible.

Murray jumped in on the dinner a few hours late due to plane problems. I had a good time until the check arrived. Apparently, they do things different out west. Instead of paying for your own meal, you just divide up the check total by the number of people so people like me who had one of the lesser expensive meals with water for the drink, no alcohol, and no dessert get to help pay for the people who order $50 meals and dessert. Fortunately, they took off the alcohol for me and my meal was only twice as expensive as it should have been. It wasn’t the money that pissed me off, it was the principle. So I grabbed dinners with a small group after that.

Monday, June 11
Showed up to register the next morning. No one seemed to be giving directions on what to do so I rooted through and grabbed my name tag and a schedule off the piles. Then I saw a couple of boxes of t-shirts with a cartoon about the conference on them. Surely they were for us, so I grabbed one. And then there were the books on the tables. Were we supposed to take one or were they for door prizes…? I checked them over and grabbed one. If they weren’t for the taking, they’d say something when I walked away with it. No one said anything.

Went through the first couple of clinics and became increasingly disappointed. Spent half the morning trying to connect my laptop to the wireless. Surely it was my computer with the problem. There had to be reliable internet access at this…it was a computer conference for crying out loud! Nope…the connection remained spotty throughout the three days. Apparently, it’s a “known issue” with the conference. What made it really annoying though was that several of the clinicians’ presentations depended on having a working internet connection. Spent the lunch time in my car with my disappointment in the conference and disdain for Las Vegas, willing myself to return and at least finish out the day instead of heading back to Colorado for the rest of my vacation.

Went back in and attended an excellent clinic. Finally. Things started going uphill after that. Overall the clinics were so-so. Murray’s were well presented and I learned a few tips, Neil’s business topics were absolutely awesome – excellent content and great presentation, and David Stiller gave a very good informative clinic, Stephanie’s was good, and I didn’t get to see Steve’s. Was it worth the money for these few? No, my money and time would have been better spent on books. Perhaps I just assumed too much. I saw the logos of the companies I assumed were supporting the conference on the conference website and assumed there would be vendors there to talk to. I heard from past members that you get a boatload of free stuff – books, extensions, etc – that also make it worthwhile to attend. I got two books, neither of which I will probably ever read.

I should mention that I do realize it IS a big project to put on a convention like this. I’ve even helped put a couple together. Getting a hotel lined up, getting speakers lined up…heck, just prying the pictures and writeups out of the speakers is a major ordeal. But it was the little things that were missing – such as a name tag that you could read at a distance or how about adding where the person is from, or having someone greet you at the registration table and ask you who you are and dig out your name tag and hand it to you. It was the lack of these little details that gave an impression of “good enough” and made the whole attitude of the conference to be, “Hi, Look at us. We put this awesome conference together for you. Aren’t we great for doing that?”

So, now that I’ve pissed people off, I should mention that perhaps the other conferences I’ve attended were just exceptional and I was expecting too much. Oh well. Live and learn.

Wednesday, June 13

The conference ended at 3pm. At 3:01 I was out the door and headed down the road out of Las Vegas, giving the town the finger as I left. I understand now why LV has the slogan of “What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas.” It’s because it’s not worth repeating.

Spent the next 3 days heading back to PA with a stop in Springfield, MO to visit with the cool people from Votaw Tool Co.

Things I forgot to mention along the way:

Got a couple nicks in the front windshield of the car from a truck that passed me and threw stones up. Had to have them treated at Cindy Rowe when I got back

When driving from Ouray to Silverton, about a dozen Hummers zoomed past when I was pulled off the road taking pictures. They were all full of mud and all had Michigan license plates. According to the locals, Hummer sends them out here for testing in the mountains.

Never mentioned how incredibly dry the air is out there. Wow, I couldn’t figure out why I was so thirsty the first few days until someone mentioned to make sure to drink a lot and stay hydrated to help acclimate to the altitude.

This was my first hike with a group and I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it. I’ve always hiked by myself and done my own thing (what else is new, right?!). So, I wasn’t sure how other people go about the various aspects of trail life. Do they wash up at night or just accumulate the funk? It could get pretty tricky trying to find an isolated spot to strip down and wash but then again, you start smelling pretty rotten after the first day. Do they always hike together making the faster hikers impatient and pressuring the slower hikers? Or does everyone hike their own pace and meet up at the end of the day? These were some of my questions going into it.

It turned out to be a really great weekend with an awesome bunch of people…one of the best backpacking trips I’ve ever gone on. There was the perfect mix of company and isolation. If you wanted to chat while hiking there was always someone to hold the other end of a conversation. If you wanted to be on your own and think, you could do that too.

We did about 20 miles of the Black Forest Trail…covering some of the miles that I didn’t do on this BFT trip plus 5 or so miles on a couple linking trails.

Some highlights of the trip were:

Really great vistas

Tom’s kitchen pot he brought along for cooking….he was SERIOUS about his Mac & Cheese!

Craig’s fire-dousing pasta

Blueberry patch after blueberry patch. I don’t know how many handfuls of blueberries I ate but they were good!

Forgetting my tent stakes…not a smart thing to do on a non-freestanding tent.

Trying to guess what Mike was eating for supper at night.

Trying to guess Ellen’s age all weekend.

Comparing backpacking gear and seeing some cool items I didn’t know existed.

Theresa’s sound advice

And just general chatting with some really nice people

I’m really looking forward to the next two trips scheduled in August.

Pictures of the trip:

Vistas

Blueberries galore!

Tired puppies!

Pasta dousing fire

Tentville

Craig, Betty, and Duncan

Around the campfire

Rest break at a road we crossed

John gathering wood for the fire

Ken

Olive oil drenched bag waiting for bear to climb up tree

I admit it. I’m a challenge junkie. Anything that requires a steep learning curve, I’m there. I’d be bored to death working in a factory assembly line connecting widget A with widget B day after day. Hence, I’m self-employed and can turn my attention to where ever my interest lies.

My latest interest is in machining. I’ve been interested in it for years but never took the time to explore beyond what I need to be able to replace a tenon or graphite band on a clarinet, etc. Now I’ve got a bit of a motivation boost. I just purchased a CNC lathe and mill at an auction a couple weeks ago.

Last evening, I made my first…uh…thing…from some brass round stock. It’s a completely useless thing but it was a real leap of progress – from repairing the emergency cut off switch to figuring out how to change the presets in the code to allow the tool to get close enough to the chuck to learning to home the machine, set the tool offsets, create a program to tell the cutting tool where to move to, how much to cut, etc. Simply awesome stuff!

Now to create something useful.

Never got around to writing a blog post about it but I also ran the Ugly Mudder Trail race on Feb. 25, 2007. It was my first race in over 7 years (most of which I hadn’t run much at all). I’ve just started getting back into running consistently in the past few months. This one was a great motivator because it was so much fun. It definitely wasn’t a typical race. It was a race of shuffling, sliding on your butt, pulling yourself from tree to tree, and generally trying to stay vertical on 7.x miles of trail. We had gotten a foot of snow the week before. Then, during the week it got warm enough to melt and rain and then refreeze in time for the race. The trail had turned into a solid sheet of ice.

Most of us had a lot of fun helping each other to the finish. I’m not sure about how the people who left patches of blood on the trail felt about the race. I’ll spare you all the details but if you’re interested you can read a pretty accurate review of the Ugly Mudder on Cool Running.

Race director, Ron Horn, had it right. In his pre-race announcement he said that 10% of the runners in the Mt Penn Mudfest trail race would love it, 10% would hate it and never want to do it again, and 80% would think of it like prostate surgery – hate it during the event but glad they did it. I landed in the sick-o category of the 10% who loved it.

The Mt Penn Mudfest is a 15K (9.3 mile) running race through the woods of Mt Penn, east of Reading, PA. It’s been rated as the top trail race east of the Mississippi by Runner’s World. IMO, that’s definitely a justified review. While the race itself is just just like any other trail race – up and down mountains on a (mostly) single lane path, it’s got a few twists, such as:

• A water stop with marshmallow bunnies
• A “beverage” stop with beer and margaritas.
• A contest to carry a raw egg over the 9+ mile course without smashing it
• 4 (count ‘em – 4!) stream crossings where rock hopping is not an option. You get soaked up to your knees
• An Easter egg hunt along the trail (mostly for the front runners)
• A downed tree scramble that would rival playing Twister
• Climbing steep, wet, muddy banks by having the person behind you give you a boost up.
• Typical PA rocks strewn across the entire length of the trail making it a challenge to finish the course without a twisted ankle

Ok, so maybe it’s a little masochistic. But it’s a lot of fun. And apparently a lot of other people think so too…with runners from 20-25 other states in attendance along with a person from Switzerland.

And it’s definitely a digression from the ho-hum of daily life.

I recently took a trip to Tennessee – Smoky Mountain area – and hiked up to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee (6600ft) and a popular place on the Appalachian Trail. I hadn’t really planned to go hiking on the trip – lots of reading and sleeping and maybe a little running, but not hiking. However, when I got there and realized I was staying only 20 miles from Clingmans Dome, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

On Tuesday on the way through Gatlinburg I stopped at a visitor’s center and bought a map of the Smoky Mountain National Park roads and trails. Awesome! There was a road leading right up to the top of the mountain. I could drive up, drink in the scenery, snap a few pictures and head back down inside of an hour. Then the lady at the visitor’s center informed me that the road closed for winter three days before. I’d have to hike up – 7 miles on the Appalachian Trail. A 14-mile hike. No problem. I’d be sore but it was do-able. I’d done several consecutive 16 to 20 mile days with a 25-30 lb pack on my back on some backpacking trips. Admittedly, I’m not in that good of shape any more but 14 miles with a 6-8 lb pack was certainly within reach.

Mistake #1
Got to the trailhead at 9am and found where the AT crossed the scenic view pull-off/rest area. There was a sign there indicating that Clingmans Dome was 7.9 mile up the trail. Well, the visitor’s center lady’s 14-mile round trip hike was now up to 15.8. I suppose I should have taken a closer look at the map and added up the mileage for myself instead of taking her word for it. No matter, 15.8 with a light pack was still do-able. I had a good 8 hours before dark after all. My normal hiking speed is about 2.5-3 m/h depending on terrain. Plenty of time with a few rest stops thrown in for lunch and to take pictures. Such were my thoughts when heading out.

Mistake #2

Now, I did NOT go down to Tennessee with hiking in the plans, so I didn’t have anything I normally would take on a day hike except my Camelback backpack (minus the hydration bladder). All I had was cotton clothing – socks, underwear, short sleeve t-shirt with a long sleeve t-shirt over top – and running tights, sneakers, and a baseball cap. Basically, I had the running attire I wear down to about 25 degrees. No polypro or moisture-wicking fabric on this hike!

In my backpack I had a cotton sweatshirt, jogging pants, my winter jacket, and a digital camera, along with 2 bottles of water and a snack – peanut butter sandwich and Golden Grahams cereal. I also had my cell phone which was useless except for telling the time since there was no reception in the area.

The Hike
So, I started up the trail. The air was a bit chilly so I alternated wearing the inner shell of my winter jacket on the downhill sections and tying it around my waist on the uphill sections to minimize sweating until I warmed up enough to leave it off.

I saw some interesting ice formations on the ground much of the way. Saw a few birds. But no other wildlife. They were smart. It was a pleasant hike through a hardwood forest. The sky was clear and sunny although the mountain usually blocked the sun from reaching me. There were a couple ramps set up to cross over barbed wire fencing, a protected area to enclose the wild hogs and keep them from doing further damage in other areas with their rooting up the ground.

I also encountered some interesting blow-downs (trees that have fallen over across the trail) halfway up. The closer you get to the tree line, the smaller the trees get and the denser the woods become. There are a few large trees that do survive and when one of them falls across the trail in a manner that is impossible to climb over or under, it makes for some interesting bushwhacking. One tree had fallen over and taken a section of trail with it. As you’re hiking along all you see in front of you is a 10 ft wall of roots and ground. No getting over that puppy. The only way past was into the dense forest. Fortunately, the blow down area only lasted a mile or so with about a half dozen to skirt.

At about mile 5 things started to go downhill. My arms were chilly but my trunk was maintaining warmth with minimal sweating. Do I put my jacket on and really sweat but keep my arms warm or continue the way I was. I decided to stick my hands in the sleeves of the jacket wrapped around my waste to keep them warm and keep going. I’d get to the top, don my extra clothing, take a break to eat lunch, and get some pictures of the incredible view.

As I continued on, the sections of icy trail increased. A spring would run down the mountain, find the trail and follow it….and freeze there, creating stretches of slippery ice. About a mile from the top, the ice started alternating with sections of snow.

By the time I reached the top, and got into the really windy area, I was starting to get chilly. I reached the base of the lookout tower and reached back to get my water bottle on the side of my pack. I couldn’t do it. The muscles in my arms were so cold that they wouldn’t do what I was telling them to do. That scared the hell out of me. I immediately got the pack off, and put my sweatshirt, sweatpants, winter coat, and baseball cap on. In the amount of time it took to get everything on, I started to shiver. I grabbed my peanut butter sandwich and camera and headed up the ramp of the tower hoping the movement would help warm me. More accurately, I staggered up the tower. My leg muscles were starting to seize up from the cold too. I took a bite of my sandwich an choked it down. Got to the top and snapped 3 pictures. Between the wind blowing me around and the shivering, I wasn’t sure if they’d come out or not. Tough. I’d get better pictures some day when I actually thru-hiked the AT.

I headed back down and huddled on the ground on top of my empty backpack out of the wind and in the sun as much as possible and ate my sandwich, drank my water, and had a meeting with myself. For the past 15 years that I’ve been running (on and off) I always start out a little chilly in winter. As I run for a mile or so, I warm up. I always figured that all one had to do if they were dangerously cold was to get moving to generate heat, and they’d warm up (within limits), and that the real danger came with exhaustion. I’ve learned that isn’t so. I still had energy left (even after a slight bonking when my body finished consuming my morning cereal) to keep pushing but that walk up the ramp made me realize that the cold can prevent you from being able to move enough to generate heat. Scary.

I decided to head down on the road instead of taking the AT because the road was out of the trees and in the sun. Good choice. The sun made a big difference. After a few miles I was warmed up enough to start shedding layers. I pulled out the Walmart-plastic-bag-tasting-Golden-Grahams (no baggies!) and enjoyed the scenery the road afforded the rest of the way down.

I returned to my car at 3 pm, 6 hours and 16.2 miles later. I asked a nice man to take a couple pictures for me and then headed down the mountain to Pigeon Forge and an all you can eat BBQ rib dinner. I was still surprisingly cold throughout dinner. But an hour in the jacuzzi when I got back to the cabin took care of that.

This hike was a memory maker but definitely not the brightest thing I’ve ever done.

The cabin
More pictures of the cabin
At the trail head

On the trail

At the top on the tower

On the road back down

For Dave and Sherry

On Thursday, July 27th I received an email from a web developer newsgroup acquaintance asking if I was interested in working on a 3 month long website project. But this wasn’t just any acquaintance from a newsgroup. This was my programming mentor. This was the guy whose applications I’d studied and torn apart when learning ASP, XML, and XSLT programming. And this was the guy I bugged when I ran into a stumbling block and thanked with chocolate chip cookies. So, considering the source, I was willing to do what I’d have to in order to say yes.

After a couple SOS phone calls lining up three months worth of help with my already overloaded band instrument repair work load, I emailed back with a definite yes. I received a phone call about 30 seconds after I sent the email. The company was going to fly me out for two days of training early the next week. I booked my flights and hotel online, made arrangements for a dogsitter, and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off to finish the work that needed to get done before and while I was gone.

Cancellation #1

I managed to get a few hours sleep Monday night before getting up at 3 am for a 2 hour ride to Philly for a 6am flight. When I walked into the airport I was greeted by a helpful United Airlines employee. I told her my flight number and asked which line to get in. She informed me that my flight was CANCELED! *Gasp!* I was supposed to be in Oklahoma by mid-morning to set up the laptop in preparation for the 1:30 training session. So, I stood in line to get rebooked. They sent me over to American Airlines where I got a 12:30 arrival. Two hours later but it would have to do.

Fortunately, both flights got in early so I got to OKC and took a shuttle downtown to the company where I waited in the lobby to meet Kindler for the first time. It took me a minute to recognize him without his “pimp outfit”. Luckily, I had seen a real picture of Kindler during our newsgroup banterings and recognized him when he came through the security gate.

We got right to work after taking care of important chocolate chip cookie business. The rest of the day and the next was spent setting up the company’s laptop I’d be using and getting an overview of the website I’d be working on.

Cancellation #2

At 4:30 on Wednesday I headed back to the airport for a 5:45 flight back home….or so I thought. We boarded the plane a half hour late and then sat on the tarmac for an hour before returning to the gate. The flight was canceled due to severe storms in Chicago. Nothing was coming in or going out of Chicago and wouldn’t be for a while according to the weather report. This flight was the very last departure from the OKC airport for the day so there was no re-routing. I waited in line to get a new itinerary. The ticket guy booked me on a flight going through Denver the next morning – a 7am departure/ 2pm arrival in Philly. I was going to see the Rockies from a plane! So I left the airport for another night at a hotel in OKC.

Cancellation #3

Arrived at the airport for my 7am flight and walked to the self-checkin counter. I was having trouble bringing up the correct itinerary in the computer (embarrassing for someone who works with computers a lot), so I walked over to a ticket agent and found out….you guessed it….my flight was canceled AGAIN! No Denver – dang.

The guy rescheduled me for a 7:30am departure/ 1:45pm arrival in Philly going through Chicago with a FIRST CLASS TICKET!!! Yehaw!! I eventually made it to Philly at 3pm due to late flights. And of course I stopped at Famous Dave’s for a BBQ meal before the drive back home.

Back to work….

Almost any road that crossed over the Swatara Creek was flooded out June 28 through June 30, 2006 from all the crazy rain we had during the week and a half prior (3 days of which I was backpacking…ARGH!!!). I was stuck at the shop for two nights until the waters receded. Well, ok, if I had wanted to drive an hour out of my way to get home, I could have used I-83 and I-81. I took a drive on Wednesday, June 28 to check out the rising water. Here are the pics I took:

Swatara at Harper’s Tavern – 5 miles north of Annville

These are from the same area but show where the Swatty has flooded the farmer’s fields. The creek should be on the other side of the tree line!

These are from the Quitty Creek where Syner and Palmyra-Bellegrove Roads meet:

These are from Syner Road just north of the quarry:

I heard on the radio today that Gov. Rendell is trying to get most of PA classified as a disaster area to get funds from the federal government for cleanup.