2 High Peaks, 2 Days

01/09/2020

Armstrong Mountain

I hiked Armstrong with Clarisse via Beaver Meadow Trail. The weather forecast predicted a lovely, sunny Thursday. We started around 6:30am and hiked for 12.5 hours, breaking trail the entire time.

In the morning, my spirits were high. I was having a lot of fun and enjoying the bluebird day. Clarisse doesn't like winter hiking that much, so she wasn't having the type I kind of fun that I was having, but she was still moving well.

Clarisse hadn't drank much water prior to the hike and forgot her water bottles in my car. As a result, she was dehydrated and her legs were cramping. I could even see her quads twitch through her leggings! I gave her most of my water, but her legs were unhappy so the going was slow.

Drink water, kids.

Nevertheless, we made it and were treated to an amazing summit view as a reward. It was around 3pm, so the colors in the late afternoon winter sky were even starting to get nice.

We made better time on the way down and had to put our headlamps on not long before reaching the ladder near Beaver Meadow Falls. We met some cool people who were waiting to meet their friends who were attempting all 46 in the winter back to back. Apparently, we may have met their friends coming up Armstrong as we were heading down, but they didn't mention their attempt. One of the guys complimented my Spurs hat and we mostly just talked about basketball.

After pressing on, we heard coyotes eerily calling out into the night right before we reached Lake Road.

It was a fun day, but I showered and passed out when I got home, knowing I'd have to wake up at 4am to do it all again the next day. As a result, I didn't get to eat, sleep, or drink that much.

01/10/2020

Mount Marshall

After my super long day on Armstrong plus four hours of driving, I really wanted to bail on this hike. I didn't want to wake up at 4am and be cold all day. But I told Mac and Jenn I would hike. And Jenn had come up early to school to hike. I want to work on being more consistent, so I followed through and I'm happy I went.

We made great time in the morning. It was another day of breaking trail all day long. The last hiker had come in nearly a week before us. We started hiking around 7:30am and made it to the lean-to near Flowed Lands about 10:30am.

We took a short break and ate a snack. We continued to make good time to the junction, and even a bit of the way up the Marshall herd path as it started out pretty flat.

Marshall got steep and the snow got deep. We actually still made pretty decent time, but it felt like our pace was crawling.

We made the summit and enjoyed a summit pickle, courtesy of Mac's grandma. They were the best pickles of my life. In fact, they inspired me. Jenn, Elena and I are going to Honest Weight Food Co-op tomorrow, where I will try to purchase pickling ingredients so I can try it myself.

On the way down, I started to feel nauseous while my stomach growled. The tables had turned. I was the dehydrated one. I think my blood sugar also got too low. I had drank about 3L of water and a half of a kombucha bottle in the morning during the car ride. I also ate a breakfast of buttered pasta and an English muffin as well as a bit of trail mix and takis during the hike. I think I must have just not eaten or drank enough the day before and probably didn't sleep enough either. I also have a cold, which probably contributed to my dehydration.

We took a break at the lean-to again on the way out and I lied down. I spent the break drifting in and out of falling asleep until my cold toes would wake me. Eventually, Jenn said we should get moving again and she was right.

Jenn was kind enough to offer me her pretzels. Looking at my fire red takis made me gag. Just thinking about the terrible (and soggy) English muffins I had in my bag made me gag again– and I hadn't even looked at them! I was nervous to throw up the little food I had in me. I accepted her offer of the safer pretzels and those plus my remaining water made me feel much better.

We made it down the mountain pretty quickly (it was steep) and the flat walk out was pretty uneventful. We had to rebreak the trail, as there was a freezing rain/snow mix that had fallen during the day. I kept seeing strange things in the snow... I think I was way too tired.

We finished in 10 hours and 22 minutes total.

I had a great two days of hiking. It was nice to get closer to my goal of being a 46er and I felt happy to have the company of my friends to help get me through the long, cold days. In the future, I will be more careful to take better care of my body. I'd like to eat and drink more before a trip, even if it sacrifices sleep. I feel pretty confident that my body can perform in bad conditions, but I'm so much slower and less efficient (and just feel plain awful) when my body is unhappy.

I've spent today catching up on much needed sleep and eating a lot of beans and rice. I'm sore but happy and ready to start planning out some future adventures.

38/46!!!!