The Hike from Hell

Well, I realized I never blogged about the last hike. I was so excited getting ready for it. We were going to be hiking San Gorgonio and I would have a good experience somewhat closer to hiking Whitney than any of our other hikes. However, as I arrived at my hiking group's meet-up spot, I hear they forgot to get the permit so we had to change our location. Then they change the location to Fishbowls which is basically not an alpine hike but a very hot weather hike. My gear is all incorrect. To top it off, most of my gear was borrowed and although I left anything I might not need in the car, my backpack still weighed 10 pounds more than anyone and i was the one with the least experience.

So we drive over the Fishbowls trail head, which was still 1.5 to 2 hours away from home. We hike up the trail and believe me it was hard. I was not the slowest hiker there, but I was consistently the second to last hiker. I was steady and no injuries. My ankle felt fine. I did great at hydrating, much better than on previous hikes. the views were beautiful. Everything was great until we reached the summit and discovered....

We took the wrong trail and were miles away from our target. And the trail we took was one way without water and since one of our fearless leaders was out of water, we had no choice but to turn around and hike all day back to car. Our options were to camp out by the cars and then plan a different hike for the next day or give up and return home. They chose home and i was glad at that point. As I hiked the miles down to the cars, I had much time to think.

My thoughts eventually led me to realize that although my hiking group's leaders thought they had great experience, they were actually not so great in leadership. They are not particularly helpful or tactful. This was my second hike with them and neither hike had went well. The planning left a lot to be desired. How could they not know we were on the wrong trail when they claimed they had hiked it before and had a map and gps??? Did I want to follow these people on a more dangerous hike up Whitney? And finally, where was the fun? The hiking and planning for Whitney had begun to be stressful instead of fun. Why was i doing this if I was not having any fun?

So sadly, I have decided not to hike Whitney this year. I still plan to do it, but not with this group. i will find a better group for me and apply for a permit next year perhaps. I feel regret over not conquering Whitney, but no regrets over my decision, just relief!

So this is the sign that helped my fearless leaders

figure out we were on the wrong darn trail!!!!

My First All Day Hike

Well back from my first all day hike and things did not go as planned. The day started out beautiful. The weather was clear and sunny. My daypack seemed full of important items yet was not that heavy. I was early to our meeting spot (Starbucks) and had time to get my Venti Nonfat Chai! The drive out to the fishbowls was long but uneventful. However, we neared the turnoff to find the actual road to the trailhead was closed (a fateful sign we ignored). It became clear that many of the trails were closed due to winter and the debate was on over where to go. One member of our group mentioned the McGill trail on Mt. Pinos and we arrived to the trailhead to find it looking open and clear.

We all unpacked and began to make our way onto the trail. At some point we ran into snow at various points on the trail. Unfortunately, this continued as we made our way up the trail until there was a lot of snow. That was when I began to have some problems. I slipped and fell a few times and eventually twisted my ankle. The remainder of the hike was on this injured ankle and that only contributed to the difficulty of hiking in the snow. Some of the snow was fresh and powdery. However, some was hard-packed and very icy. Most was on a steep grade. Some of my fellow hikers had trekking poles and they loaned them to me to help with balance. My ultimate conclusion was that my hiking boots may have been adequate for hiking, but were totally inappropriate for snow. I seemed to have no traction at all. Going up the mountain in snow was pretty bad. Going down in the snow with an injured ankle was worse. Pain was not too bad as i think the ice and cold helped make the area numb. However, being very vigilant about your foot placement, limping at times, and continued falls added to my exhaustion and the trip appeared to take forever. We arrived back to the cars around 1:30 p.m. I advised my buddies my ankle was done and I had no more energy for more, but some of our group was hell-bent on more hiking. Fate was with me when every trail they tried was closed! My carpool finally gave up and we headed back home.

My ankle was pretty swollen and beaten up by then so my husband drove me straight to urgent care after I returned home and I am the sad owner of a badly sprained ankle. I was sent home with some crutches and a lovely ace bandage.

So Excited...

about the weekend! I have my first all day hike planned with my hiking group (the start of our training to hike Whitney in August). We are hiking an area called the fishbowls and it is out past Frazier Park. the snow is supposed to have melted and it will be a nice altitude hike to start getting us used to hiking in high altitude. I found some cool convertible pants at REI on the clearance rack!! And I bought a bigger lightweight backpack. I can't wait to get out there. I am a bit worried about hiking all day and also about the toileting! I have only done trail hikes primarily around Simi and most have been no longer than 1.5 hours (certainly no longer than my bladder capacity).

Me and Mount Whitney???

I am having a bit of an anxiety crisis. During my recent weekend at Big Bear, one of the other moms asked me if I wanted to join a group hiking Mount Whitney in August. I thought, hey pretty cool. The other women going are all pretty cool and I have always wanted to do more cool outdoorsy things so I said sure, why not. Anyway, it is not until August so i have plenty of time to prepare.

However, once I started reserching Mount Whitney and hiking it, I started to realize this is a huge monumental hike!!!!! Oh my gosh! I have since discovered that this is an 11-mile hike most of it at high altitudes. Altitude sickness is mentioned in most of the websites I visited and I even read about a number of deaths on Mount Whitney (now I need more details on this major fact). Basically, you can't just decide to hike Mount Whitney and do it, there is tons of preparation and gear involved. Camping out under the stars, eating dehydrated food, pooping in the woods and saving it to bring back to civilization...am I crazy?

I would say that when I was younger I think I would avoid many tasks that i did not think I would succeed at ahead of time. I think now that I probably passed on some exciting opportunities. So, as of today, I am still committed to the hike. However, I see a lot of work ahead getting my body in shape for this 3 to 4 day hike!

So far, I have been reading up on the internet about Mount Whitney and hiking/camping. I already spent some money at Amazon.com on a few books as well on Mount Whitney. I have to start locating my gear, but luckily do have some more experienced friends who have promised to help. I think the toughest part will be convincing myself to work out more to prep my body! I can not believe I signed on for this.