Living Life Up HIll

I was out in the mountains hiking yesterday and I realized that it feels like most days I'm going uphill, literally, that's been my world for the past couple month: hills, stairs, dirt trails, scree slopes and rock cliffs.

I've discovered I love solo hiking for a variety of reasons. I enjoy the solitude and I can manage my day as I see fit. I headed to one of my favorite mountain areas, Kananaskis and started to hike up to 3 Aisle Lake. Again, I chose a destination I had been to before that sees a fair amount of hikers. I got to the Fork Campground and chatted wtih some backpackers who had just encountered a female Grizzly and her cub. They had to divert around them. This was enough information to change my mind about continuing on. I consider the best bear encounter is NO bear encounter, especially when its involving a protective mother bear.

So I headed back where I came and started to consider plan B which I decided would mean hiking up Mt Indefatigable, which is a steep ridge walk, the trail head is right by my trail for 3 Isle Lake. But before that I had a very interesting experience. I'm a firm believer in listening to my body, when I have the desire to climb - I climb, when the body says hike - I hike. But this time there I was at a brisk walk along this relatively flat and shady trail when the body said "Run". And this is where the brain - body dialogue started, which is maybe what happens when you hike alone and aren't having a converstation with another person.

Body: "Lets Run"
Brain: "Run? Come on we're in hiking boots for crying out loud"
Body: "It'll be good calf training"
Brain: "Our pack is too big"
Body: "Tighten up the straps, it'll be fine"
Brain: "But it'll still shift around"
Body: "So? We want to RUN"
Brain: "Fine, we'll run, but I'm going to stop if I don't like it"

I started to run and was suprised at how decent it felt. The boots were clunky but are fairly light and the pack wasn't so bad. I decided that when I did a real trail run it would seem easy compared to this. I had forgotten my hiking pole and that turned out better since I didn't have to fuss with carrying it while running.

As I strive reduce the weight I carry and what I think I need out in the mountains, I find this greater sense of freedom. I started to wonder what doing a long trail run would be like with my lighter, more ergonomic pack and light running shoes. The experience becomes about flow and movement, not packing weight.

I need to digress, here's the kicker, for a month I was being very careful about my food intake and my training hoping to loose about 5lbs for my large objective. No weight was lost and I decided to be philosophical about it. If the body didn't want to drop the weight I would have to accept that. This wasn't about looks or anything, but about deciding I didn't want any extra weight. So after a couple weeks of doing what the body wanted and eating decently without being religious about it, I dropped about 4lbs - go figure. Apparently my body has its own rhythm and doesn't appreciate when I try and bully it into doing what I want.

But back to hiking! I ran a fair amount of the trail back, walking when I hit the hot sunshine or uphill. I got to the Indefatigable trailhead and started up. By this time it as 1pm and the heat was intense. My progress uphill slowed considerably when I was in the direct sunshine. I would have to stop in the shade, my pack felt heavy, my legs were tired and nausea was lurking. Tell-tale signs of heat exhaustion for me. I debated turning back and decided to keep slowing my pace until it felt more comfortable. At the top of the hike I felt pretty good but then I looked waaaay up at where the summit lie. Consulted the hiking book and realized the summit was still 500m away.

I sat down and had a little break. One thing I've learned about being in the mountains is that the world can look dramatically different once you take a rest and have some food. After my break I looked up and decided that I would head up but with the permission that I would turn around when I felt like it. Numerous times I thought it would be nice to turn around but I kept walking at a slow pace. I was about 10minutes from the summit when the trail ran out and I would be in scrambling terrain. Not a big deal if I was with someone but by this point it was about 3pm and there were less and less hikers about. It felt like an unnessasary risk. I'm not that summit focussed and figured I had met my objective. I turned around and started heading down.

In my other posts I mentioned that I don't feel I'm that sure-footed on uneven terrain. I should qualify that I don't feel that sure footed when falling means a likely tumble to my death. On a trail where a fall might mean some scrapes and bruising thats another story. On this terrain I began to pick up my pace and found I could manage a jog with some slipping sliding that didn't bother me at all. I began to pass other hikers who were tentatively making their way down and I realized that so much is about perspective. While Brian looks like a billy-goat to me on the paths I imagine that I must have looked billy-goat like to the other hikers.

When I got back down to the car, I had covered roughly 20km and 1200m elevation gain in about 5.5hrs. I decided to give myself a pat on the back with where I've come with my outdoor skills and my fitness. I have to give my head a shake some days, I tend to focus on where my gaps are rather than the gains. I didn't miss climbing this weekend but I'm thinking by the time the weekend rolls around again I'll be itching to get out there again. And it looks like trail running will now be on my to-do list. :-)