Cookies in Hand...Thanks to The Alternative Baking Company

Huge shout out to the Alternative Baking Company that sponsored a box of their delicious yumminess of Peanut Butter Persuasion Cookies for my hike. I was in heaven when I discovered the Alternative Baking Company's cookies. A vegan cookie jam packed with 480 calories and tasting just like a homemade soft chewy cookie fresh out of the oven. They have a bunch of other awesome flavors too and now have a line of gluten free cookies. 2 of my other favorites flavors are Explosive Expresso Chip and Colossal Chocolate Chip. The big draw to me is that it is a high calorie high energy food and I don't feel like I'm putting processed junk into my body when I'm eating it. I eat clean and healthy at home and one of my main goals is to continue doing so as much as possible on the trail. These cookies are reprieve from the monotony of my usual energy bar routine of eating on the go during the day! Can't wait to enjoy these on the trail.

The Pacific Crest Trail, Thru-Hiking and What my Pacific CrestThru-Hike Looks Like To Me

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is long-distance hiking and equestrian trail which lies 100-150 miles east of the Pacific Coast. The trail's southern most terminus is on the US/Mexico border and the northern terminus is on the US/Canada Border on the edge of Manning Park in British Columbia, Canada. The trail is 2,668 miles long, traverses through California, Oregon and Washington, ranges in elevation from sea level to 13,153 feet, passes through 25 national forests and 7 national parks. The trail runs mostly through national forest and protected wilderness, avoids civilization and passes through the Mojave Desert in Southern California, the Laguna, San Jacinto, San Bernardino, San Gabriel, Liebre, Tehachapi, Sierra Nevada and Klamath mountain ranges in California and the Cascade Range in California, Oregon and Washington. 

Thru-hiking refers to hikers that complete long distance trails from end-to-end in a single trip. The Pacific Crest Trail is one of 3 long distance trails in the U.S. the other 2 are the Appalachian Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail usually takes between 4 to 6 months to complete. The popularity of thru-hikers has grown tremendously over the past years, it is estimated that there are somewhere around 700 +/- thru-hikers attempting the PCT in 2014. Usually the completion of the PCT is around 50% each year, with most dropping by Kennedy Meadows around mile 700. The trail is unofficially divided into 3 parts: miles 0-702 Southern California (The Desert), miles 702-1698 Northern California (The Sierras), miles 1698-2668 Oregon and Washington (The Cascades). Each section provides different elements and challenges. The desert hot and dry with limited water. The Sierras with higher elevations and more difficult terrain, The Cascades with rain and possible early snow. Most thru hikers start at the Southern part of the trail and hike North, but there are also those that start at the Northern part of the trail and hike south. The challenge of the PCT and completing it has a lot to do with weather and timing. Leave too early in the season and you will be in Kennedy Meadows too early with snow in the Sierras and some of the trail impassable. Leave to late and you are at risk for snow storms and impassable trails in Washington. Northbound hikers usually start in the months of March, April and May. With the majority leaving in April. Most through hikers will arrive in Manning Park, British Columbia the last part of September or 1st week of October. 

There are two ways hikers resupply along the trail, buy as you go or send resupply boxes. There are 40+ opportunities to resupply on trail which include Post Offices, small towns, road access to bigger towns within 20 miles of the trail, and stores along the way, usually ranging anywhere from 3 to 12 days between resupply points. 

With the growing number of thru-hikers, even as a solo-hiker you meet many hikers along the way and are not alone in your journey. There is a community that is developed each year amongst thru-hikers and those that support them (trail angels) along the way. 

Some common PCT terminology: 
NO-BO, northbound hikers starting at the southern most part of the trail, the US/Mexico Border, *majority of thru-hikers 
SO-BO, southbound hikers 
Zero Day, rest days with 0 miles hiked on the PCT 
Near Zero Days, small milage days with majority of day being a rest day (most often happens at resupply points) 
Trail Angels, people that help thru-hikers along the way, some live near the trail and host hikers and accept resupply boxes, offer meals, a place to sleep, do laundry and rest, others are out leaving water caches (jugs of water to refill your water supply) out on the trail, or offering hikers rides to nearby towns, filling drop boxes with food 
Trail Name,  thru-hikers will be given a trail name along the way...at this point forward you are known on the trail by your trail name, real names are rarely used and once your trail name is given few will know you by your actual birth name 
HYOH, Hike Your Own Hike -with all the changes in backpacking and trends in Ultralight backpacking, ways to resupply along the way,  and opinionated personalities out there, you are likely to get criticized by your style of hiking , the most important thing to remember is that this is your hike not theirs, there's no right or wrong way to do it, although people will think that and tell you so. That's not to say you will adapt as you go. Your hike is going to look much different in the first couple hundred miles to the last hundred miles. You learn as you go. 
Resupply Boxes, Boxes that you have prepared for yourself ahead of time, before you leave for your hike with supplies, most often filled with food and other small supplies you need to restock along the way, mailed to the post office of the resupply point. Post offices along the trail are accustomed to receiving these hiker boxes. You either mail these out before you leave for your hike or have a point person at home that will be mailing these boxes for you as you go 
Bounce Box, similar to a resupply box, but this is a box with supplies that you may only need at resupply points,  that you keep mailing ahead of yourself to each resupply point you stop, 
Drop Box/Hiker box, boxes along the trail where fellow thru-hikers may leave food and supplies they no longer need or don't want and/or also surprises left by trail angels, up for grabs by fellow thru-hikers (also another term hikers call there resupply boxes) 

So with all this said this is what my PCT thru-hike looks like to me: 

My plan is to hit the trail, on May 21st, this is about one month later then the main group of thru-hikers usually leave, but my milage goals are a little higher and ambitious so I have hopes of slowly catching others as I go. I have an overall goal/daily average of 22 miles/day. Starting off close to 20miles/day. Dropping milage through Sierras to adjust to climbing and elevation. And ending with possibly 25+ miles/day. Keep in mind these are averages only. There will be days that aren't close to any of these numbers, one cannot prepare for actual elements of the trail, so you adjust as you go. I have around 17 resupply points I have selected along the way. Most of my food I am planning on preparing ahead of time, but also I will buy along the way, I am really nontechnical with the resupply strategy just dividing miles between resupply points by my 22mile/day average to get days between resupply points and allowing at least 3000cal/day in each resupply box. That calorie per day is low but that is my number I am sending to myself ahead of time, this doesn't include the food I will be buying along the way to add to my daily caloric intake (i.e. jars of peanut butter, tortillas, whatever I may be craving at my next resupply point) I anticipate my daily caloric intake ranging around 4000cal/day??? 

My goal is to take the least amount of zero day possible, allowing zero days for illness and injury. But using near zero days at resupply points for rest. But again I'll just go with the flow. 

I need to finish the trail by no later then October 5th to get myself to my brother's wedding in Wisconsin on October 11th. That is a total of 137days from one end to the other. That's 122 days of 22mile/day plus 15 extra days. 

Stay tune for future posts of gear reviews, pre PCT projects and preperations. 

Panama: Coffee, Volcan Baru, and more!

Frequently when asked about my Central America trip I get questions like: Which country did you like best? or Where was your favorite place you visited? My answer all of them! Each place was unique in its own way and I have things I liked best about each place.

What struck me most about Panama was how beautiful and pristine the country is. I had the pleasure of seeing the northern part of Panama riding by bus from the Caribbean side to the Pacific side. It was one of the most beautiful bus rides I had taken. 

Panama countryside

Another highlight of Panama was the coffee tour at Cafe de la Luna. I am a coffee fanatic and learned so much about the coffee process and the world market of coffee and trade. An amazing eye opening and educating experience. I have to thank Rich for opening up his farm to us and giving an amazing tour.

Coffee berries drying in the sun

 My favorite place I stayed was Hostel Refugio del Rio. How cool is it to stay in a hostel and camp down by the river! These tents were provided by the hostel equipped with twin size mattress. For the same price of a bunk in a shared room you could get your own private tent. I LOVED IT. Nothing better then laying down listening to the running water of the river 10 feet away.

My private tent!

The hostel grounds

One of the reasons I choose to come to Panama (besides the coffee farms) was to hike Volcan Baru, the highest volcano in Panama. I was able to find a group night hike that left from Hostel... we started our hike around midnight to summit the volcano at dawn. It was a very cold, long overnight 19 mile hike. We had to slow our pace several times to prevent summiting too early and waiting in the frigid temps to see the sunrise. If you want to do the hike and are in pretty good shape I would suggest starting later then midnight. But for me as a single traveler this was my best option, so I stayed with the group hiked slowly and froze my butt off! The trail itself was nontechical mostly steep fireroad, easy enough to climb at night with a headlamp and not get lost.

Sunrise at last!!!

Looking west from Volcan Baru down onto the town of Boquette

Trying to stay warm as the sun rises

Best seat on the Volcan!

Fuego y Agua 25k race report

The first time I had heard about Fuego y Agua was over a year ago. I was at my favorite coffee shop, City on a Hill, in Leadville, CO, where I had seen a poster for Fuego y Agua  it had caught my attention because last year the date was on my birthday. I thought to myself how cool is that a trail race in Nicaragua on my birthday and the race stuck in the back of my head as something fun to look into, I knew I wouldn't go that year since I was already heading out to the Copper Canyons for Caballo Blanco Ultramarathon. It was then a couple months later at Caballo Blanco, that I heard more bits and pieces about the race. There had been several runners that first did Fuego y Agua in Nicaragua and then traveled up to Mexico to Caballo Blanco a couple weeks later. I remember talking to one individual who had describe it as one of the most challenging 50ks he had done, stating the climb up the volcano was challenging then battling the heat when running around the island was brutal. Ironically enough or maybe not, Josue the new race director of Caballo Blanco in 2013, turns out is also the race director of Fuego y Agua. 

So when I decided to take my trip to Costa Rica this year I planned it so the end of my trip would coincide with the race in Nicaragua. When I registered in December I didn't feel I would have enough training miles to comfortably and enjoyably complete the 50k so I opted for the more comfortable option of the new 25k, knowing I could always change my mind and switch races. Prior to my trip I was well trained for a 25k but well undertrained for a 50k, as my longest run in the last month was probably 14 miles. Even at packet pickup I considered switching to the 50k knowing I could complete it, it was just a question of how long and how much I wanted to suffer. I decided I was more interested in enjoying my last days of traveling and stayed with my 25k choice. 

Fuego y Agua's race in on Isla de Ometepe an island in Lake Nicaragua composed of 2 volcanos, Concepcion and Maderas. Concepcion is still active (hence fuego), and Maderas is dormant with a large lagoon formed in it's crater (y agua). Maderas rises to 1394 meters and hosts terrian of a true rainforest. 

The 25k course is an out and back that runs along the beach for 1.5 miles, then climbs up Maderas, and then decends into the crater and then turns around. I knew nothing of the course except a brief description on the website: 
         "The terrian includes dirt trail, sandy beach, paved road, technical single track trail and the           infamous  "jungle gym" section where racers will navigate a chaotic web of Ometepe                   trees, disappearing trail and deep mud." 


And this all intimidating elevation profile: 

I arrived on the island 2 days prior to the race, leading up the the race, I relaxed, enjoyed the laid back quiet atmosphere of the island, and visited with other runners from all over the world. The day before the race I ran the beach part of the course as a little warm-up for my legs, leaving all climbing for race day. 

Going into the race I had 2 strategies: 

#1 and most important have fun and enjoy the experience, and 
#2 go out fast and run until the climbing started (not a typical race strategy one would advise, but I knew from looking at the elevation profile that there could be a good chance that climbing up the Maderas could look more like a hike then a run. So I wanted to take advantage of the running part)

On race morning I got up and walked down the beach to watch the 50k and 100k runner take off at 5:00am, then made it back to my room to finish getting ready for my 6:00am start.

Little did I know what the adventure I was in for. I took off running and ran the 1st 2.5 mile hard until the climbing started. The next mile or so there were still some runnable sections that weren't too steep, then the real stuff, there were no switchbacks in this climb it was basically straight up and straight down. I couldn't even take nutrition without stopping to breath. Plus I needed my hands to help me climb. 

As we rose in elevation the terrian, went from dry to damp, to wet, to pure mud. We were deep in a canopy rainforest and you couldn't see much except the trees around you. One of the coolest things was hearing the howler monkeys, screeching in the background. My favorite thing about climbing is I always manage to pass people and I rarely get passed and this was no exception. I don't think one person caught me on the climb. As I passed one man from Germany he asked how much climbing I thought we had left to go. I looked at my Garmin and assured him we weren't even halfway yet. He mentioned that there weren't too many people in front of us maybe 20 or so and much more behind us. Really? I had no clue. I just kept trekking up, at times huge rain drops dripping down. The higher we got the slippier and deeper the mud got. I was in mud puddles halfway to my knees. All of sudden I got this wonderful burst of energy/runner's high/sheer enjoyment. I was having so much fun laughing and smiling the whole way. I felt like tarzan in his playground. At one point I basically slid out and found myself laying in a mudbath covered from head to toe. Once we ascended up the volcano then we decended down into the crater, climbing over and under trees, hanging onto branches as not to lose footing.

As I neared the turn around I realized there had been a dozen or so men that I passed coming back but no women yet. Then there was one woman, and it wasn't until the right before the turn around 2 more women came by. There was a group right in front of me, we had bottlenecked at some of the technical tree obstacles, in which 2 or 3 women were right in front of me. At the turn around the terrian cleared onto a lagoon in the middle of the crater, there was an aid station that I choose to fly right by. I wanted to get ahead of the group that I was bottlenecked behind and took off running with new found energy, I realized I had just put myself into the 4th female spot, I was estactic, was it possible I could catch at least one woman in front of me to pull off 3rd? Who knew what they were battling in front of me, so I was going to give it my all, to close the gap between us. And I held my own until about halfway down. And then I was passed by 2 women and then a 3rd, my descent was not as strong as their's and staying injury free and being safe was more important. 

By the time I got to the last 2 miles, the mud in my shoes had dried and created dried mudcakes in my shoes making my shoes to small and running painful. Once I hit the beach I beelined for the water and ran in the water to soften up the mud and try to rinse some mud out as I was running, I was determined not to stop until I was finished. 

In the end I finished 7th female overall of 35 women. And 26th of 90 total runners. My time: 5hrs and 11mins for a 25k, goes to show the difficulty of the terrian/course. There was only 8 minutes difference between my time and the 2nd place woman. In hindsight, had I known, that was time I could have easily made up in the 1st half of the run. As I had stopped several times and took my time taking in nutrition.

I crossed the finish line and gave one of the event organizers, Zac, a huge high five, "By far the hardest and most awesome race I've ever competed in, it was SOOOO much fun!" I told him and I meant it. I was already in for next year, 50k for 2015, hand down.

Words really cannot describe the experience I had during this race. It was a once in a lifetime adventure, an experience I will never forget. How cool is it to say I ran in a race in Nicaragua, in the rainforest, up a volcano, with monkeys screeching, trudging through calf deep mud, climbing over and under trees, and running with people from all over the world.

In days to follow my upper body was more sore, then my legs, a true full body workout trail run!!!

I'm really much dirtier then these pictures portray, 1 lake bath and 2 showers later I still had mud caked in my pores.

I love this picture, looks like I'm leading all the guys out to the volcano!

Descending into the crater

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Where am I now and what lies ahead of me...

As I sit down to write this post, I'm struggling for a title. So I'm going to write it first and title it when I'm done. 

Upon the first of the year it began to to hit me how big of a year 2014 is going to be for me. Those who know me know my that I quite often live a larger then your average adventurous lifestyle. Go big or go home. OK before I offend anyone, I know I live within a very small percentage of the population and it's not for most, but it's for me, it's what makes me tick, it what makes me happy and, as cheesy as it sounds, completes me. I'm in one way or another an adventure junkie. 

Looking back at 2013 I can't say that nothing big happened, as lot really did, as my previous post had depicted, but I didn't really feel like I had accomplished anything big and it wasn't one of those years I would say was an amazing year for me. Yes, I did however have amazing things happen in small doses. It was a year of trial and error, live, learn and move forward, it's because of everything that had happened in 2013 that has led me to make 2014 a big year in terms of big adventures, mainly due to timing, but also due to sheer will and determination to make my dreams happen.

So the best thing about not having a full-time standard job is flexibility. I choose to take a 6 month contract assignment, so I would be free to do what I wanted to do when I was done and I didn't have to make any permanent choices that I didn't feel I was ready to make. So I was counting weeks and doing math and figuring out how to squeeze my adventures in between my work contracts. Or maybe I should say fit work in between my adventures.

Alright, enough blabber I'll just get to it already. Those who follow me on facebook, may have already gotten an idea of what lies ahead of me, or where I am in my first adventure of the year. After my contract ended in January I had always been planning on a trip to Costa Rica and then later in the year thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. In planning and researching my Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) hike my Costa Rica trip morphed from a yoga retreat vacation to a backpacking trip, through Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua. So thru-hiking if the big event of the year, more in what that entails later but just in quick detail: The Pacific Crest Trail is a trail that spans from the Calfornia-Mexico border thru Califormia, Oregon, and Washington to the Washington-Canada border. It is 2600 and some odd miles of backpacking through wilderness and some desert in the Southern California. This is all done in one shot, for most it takes about 5 months with an average of 20 miles a day. There will be many posts to follow regarding my PCT planning, what the hike looks like for me, gear reviews and the actual hiking of the PCT.

So where am I now? I am 5 days into my backpacking trip through Central America. I flew into Costa Rica, made my way down the Caribbean coast into Panama and am now in Boquete, Panama. I will travel until mid February, then return to the Bay Area for a 13 week work assignment and then off to the PCT.

Here are a few shots from my trip so far:

Saying goodbye to Izzy, with all my all that I will travel with packed into my backpack of 30 pounds.

Punta Uva, Costa Rica

The hillsides of Boquete, Panama

Test 123

OK...here we go again, this is attempt #2 of this blog post. I'm using the IPhone Blogger app and bluetooth keyboard to blog. Somehow my original draft of this post disappeared. Bummer, it's never the same to rewrite a blog post once you've done it already, cause I'm already over it. But I'll do my best.

It's been over a year since I've been blogging and my last series of blogs were about my training and my attempt of the Leadville 100. So, what have I been doing since then, where I have been? I'll do my best to give you all a very condensed version of the last 15months of my life. Lots of changes here, I guess I could summarize my last 15 months by saying it is all about stepping outside that square little box of the comfort zone most of us live the entirety of our lives in.

Rewind back to October 2012, I had made the decision to quit the job I loved and leave the city, I never thought I would leave, to start to follow a dream of something I have always wanted to do. Over the summer I had spent a lot of time in the small mountain town of Leadville, CO. It was during my trip there in July that I had stumbled upon a foreclosed bed and breakfast. It was then the wheels in my head started turning.

The end of October I gave up my lease, of the 1 bedroom cottage I had lived in for 5 years, put most of my belongings into a storage unit and moved in with a friend, to save money and start cultivating a plan.

By mid November I had given notice at my job, deciding I would work until mid-December and move at the end of the year. Come December 31st I packed up my car and stuffed my storage unit with more belongings that I didn't foresee needing until I had settled down more permanently, at this point I was moving to Leadville with no place to live and a per diem nursing job at the local hospital.

Fast forward a few months. Though I had throughly enjoyed my first winter in Colorado spending most of it outside: downhill skiing, running on the groomed snowmobile trails, and even trying snowshoe racing for the first time. I was starting to feel this small town living wasn't for me and opening the bed and breakfast I had dreamed about, perhaps wasn't the right time and place for me. I was dearly homesick for California.

Now what? I had no plan but knew I didn't want to stay in Leadville.  So in June I called a nursing traveling agency and started looking at my options. Which brought me to a 6 month contract in Santa Clara, CA. This had all happened quite quickly, By July 15th I was starting and new job and living in a new place I had never been. I was terrified, I had no idea if I was going to like it, what if I missed the mountains and small town living, then what? And having to work full time again, I certainly was giving up the luxury of working 2 part-time nursing jobs and having lots of time to explore and play. I was scared of how I would adjust to a more structured lifestyle. Let me tell you I DO MISS the small town living and the mountains and I adjusted 'just ok' to an 8-5 40hr work week. But boy was I happy to be back in California and I absolutely love living in the Bay Area. Maybe only once or twice, in my six months in Santa Clara, did I only vaguely miss San Diego. So I know one thing for sure, I truly am a California girl at heart, I missed the California culture, more then I miss the mountains and the small town living.

I just ended my 6 month contract on Sat, January 18th and once again had to move all of my belongings out of the company provided housing back into my car, onto the next adventure. So what is my next move you ask, well I have some pretty big announcements of some exciting happenings in 2014 for me. Of which will get it's own blog post.

Beaver Creek Snowshoe series

Skiing the back bowls of Vail. My favorite ski spot.

Summit at Leadville Heavy Half, 13,000 and some odd feet

Back in California 

Back at it...

After having candy and coffee for breakfast, pizza for lunch and movie popcorn for dinner on Friday, I hit my threshold of 20 days of no workouts. After Leadville, I didn't have any formal plans of getting back into a workout routine, I knew it would happen all on its own. I purposely did not commit myself to any events after Leadville, I didn't want to feel 'forced' by my own guilt to run. In the last month of training leading up to Leadville my runs were dragging and it felt like a 'need to do' and 'grit and bear it' vs a 'want to do' and a welcome 'escape from reality.'

I still haven't formally committed to any future events but I would like to finish the year up with a few more longer trail events. For now it's just a wait and see how things fall into place before making any commitments.

As far as my training goes, after Leadville I came to the realization that I need to approach my next training cycle much differently than I did leading up to Leadville. After finishing 51 miles I felt I still had more in me to keep going. So I have the endurance part down, just not the speed, as getting my wristband cut at 51 miles demonstrates. But for now I'm just running to run, no heartrate monitor, no concern for pace, just back to the basics for a few weeks.

And yes I know, I still owe 1/2 of a race report, it's coming...maybe this week.