It's been almost 5 months since I last posted, Wow how time flies and boy has life and work been busy!! Following my spring Trail Mix 25k race, I discovered that the pain outside of my knee was Iliotibial band syndrome. I also discovered that the more I ran, the worse it got thus I bailed on the Superior Hiking Trail 25k race and the Afton 25k race. In fact, I stopped running all together to let it rest and then started to incorporate more stretching and cross-training into my schedule to hopefully take care of the root of the problem. As a minimalist shoe runner, I attributed the ITBS to a combination of overuse and a muscle imbalance. Strange as it was, while the pain was too much to run with, I was fortunately still able to bike, hike and backpack with no pain.
I'm finally getting back into the routine of running and am experiencing no pain. I think the key for me is to stay balanced in my cross-training and stretching. I am eying a couple 5k races this fall and just waiting to see how our family schedule pans out before I commit...
Other blog posts in development:
June 2010 Superior Hiking Trail Solo Trip Report
July 2010 Rocky Mountain National Park Family Trip Report
Backpacking Gear Update
Showing posts with label Superior Hiking Trail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Superior Hiking Trail. Show all posts
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Winter camping more spring-like on the Superior Hiking Trail
I apologize as I am very delinquent at getting this out, but here is my trip summary from our trip to the SHT the weekend of March 12-14th. I forgot to charge the battery on my camera, took three pictures, then the camera died... bummer!
What was initially planned for a winter camping trip, turned relatively warm. Temps were in the 35-45F temp range and mostly cloudy until Sunday when we saw a little sunshine. The early spring warm-up we had this year provided for some rains just prior to our trip that would normally have produced an incredible amount of snow. We were really hoping to use the snowshoes and truly set up camp winter style with a pyramid tarp and 0F bags. But, we ended up leaving the snowshoes in the car, donned regular shoes, lightly insulated clothing and my Tarptent Rainshadow.
I was wearing my ULA Ohm pack, my brother Bryan had my GoLite Pinnacle pack (2008) and Barak was wearing a old Mountainsmith pack that he picked up at a secondhand store for $7. He was very proud of that purchase and it really wasn't too bad of a pack. Fairly light and yet carried weight pretty well. We each had somewhere between 25-30 lbs in each pack (including food and water). At that weight range, mine was a little overloaded and I ended up with some chaffing on my hips. The hipbelt is not really designed to carry much weight as it is more for just stabilizing the pack. This was an error on my part to try and transfer too much weight to my hips. Both of the other packs carried really well.
On Friday, we hiked from Castle Danger to a multi-group site just west of Gooseberry Falls State Park. The trail had up to 12" of wet slushy snow and occasional clear spots. The lower lying areas provided us with trails that were all or partially under water. As we neared the gooseberry river, the trail was largely under water as it followed the banks of the river. This left us but now choice to walk in cold, slushy water. I elected to wear my Inov-8 Roclite 295 trail running shoes with a pair of merino wool liner socks and my Simblissity gaiters. My feet did get quite cold when walking in the water, okay, they were numb! But would quickly warm up as soon as I was out. I might try and find a pair of neoprene socks to wear in these kind of conditions.
Since we got a late start, we push hard and hiked about 8 miles in 4 hours and ended up setting up camp in the dark. Not a big deal unless you are trying to find dry wood to heat up water for dinner and a cocoa. We ended up bypassing three campsites as all the tentpads were under hard-packed snow/ice. We finally came upon the multi-group site that offered a nice dry tent pad under a large pine tree. We had almost given up and were going to bushwack our own tentpad, so we were very thankful that we found this one.
It had been raining for the last couple days and while that had quickly melted a lot of the snow, it also saturated all the wood we could find. We took some risk in taking my DIY J.Falk Compact Wood Burning Stove, and in the wet conditions we were in and trying to melt snow for 3 guys, either the stove or our skills fell short.
After trying to boil 1.5 liters of water for about an hour, we decided to set up a tripod over our campfire and that's how we melted snow and heated up water for the rest of our trip. This worked out much better for us. We just had too much trouble finding wood that burned hot enough in the stove.
In the future I will definitely be bringing my MSR multi-fuel stove for these kind of conditions. Although, heating up water over the campfire wasn't such a bad thing, it just took a lot of extra time. It's nice to be able to have a hot drink within about 10 minutes of reach camp when it is cold out. Even though it's heavier, I think it will be worth it.
I was testing out my JRB quilt inside of a TiGoat Bivy and Bryan and Barak used a standard sleeping bag inside of a couple of bivy's that Bryan made out of reflective tyvek. They had pretty major condensation inside the bivy and I had a little. I think the their bivy's were just not breathable or just reflected too much heat back into the insulation. As for me, not sure why I had the condensation I did. From what I've read, it's really hard to eliminate condensation in these conditions (35F and humid).
On Saturday we hiked from down to Gooseberry Falls and then northward to the Split Rock River. This section of the trail proved to be much drier of which we were very happy about. However the last few miles were very icy and made for very slow going. I was really wishing I had my Kahtoola Microspikes through this section. Either way having our hiking poles saved us from falling numerous times.
Once again we bypassed a few campsites as the tentpads were either icy or too exposed of a site. We ended up setting up camp on what I think was an unofficial campsite, but it had a fire ring and a tentpad and that was good enough for us. As we were preparing dinner, Bryan announced to us that he just threw up... poor guy! Turns out it was just a little stomach bug that thankfully, neither Barak or I caught. He ended up not really eating anything and went to bed early.
Enter, a BIG advantage of a tarptent. I decided to roll back the mesh door in case Bryan needed to make a quick exit during the night. (See picture of Tarptent from previous trip.) While I was staking out the sides to give us a little more room, I hear him puking and as far as I can tell he is still inside the tent. My first thoughts ere 'My tent is going to stink like vomit for the rest of it's life!!' Fortunately, he was able to clear the tent and all the stink ended up on the dirt ground. With a sigh of relief, I found a couple big chunks of birch bark, scraped it up and through it deep into the woods. Some little critter will get a nice snack tonight I thought.
No more episodes for Bryan overnight and we all slept well. I slept pretty warm all night, and woke up to discover quite a bit of condensation on the inside of my bivy, more than the night before. I had been pretty warm the night before and didn't wear as much clothing, but I think I was still too warm. My sleeping pad (CCF) was under my bivy which meant I was sleeping directly on the sil-nylon. This definitely did a good job of trapping any moisture!! Next time I will bring the pad inside the bivy to put a little buffer between myself and the sil-nylon. In hindsight, we really didn't need the bivy's at these temps inside the tarptent, but personally, I just wanted to test it out to see how it works. Bryan and Barak went without the bivies the second night and thus no condensation. It's almost as if you need to sleep on the verge of being cold versus sleeping warm to reduce this condensation. More experimenting will need to take place on future trips.
Next morning, the sun was shining, temps were very comfortable and Bryan was feeling a little better. However, he was pretty weak from not keeping any calories down, so I lightly loaded my pack and let him carry it while I donned the GoLite Pinnacle (my first time carrying it). The Pinnacle definitely felt much better at the ~30 lb weight range than that of the ULA Ohm with about the same weight. Certainly not a fault of the Ohm as it's just not designed to carry that much weight unless you are willing to carry most of it with your shoulders.
The hike out was about 4 miles through Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. The hiking was much easier as there was very little ice. The last couple miles were especially as it was mostly downhill and on a mowed grass trail.
Overall, we enjoyed the trip and look forward to another!!
What was initially planned for a winter camping trip, turned relatively warm. Temps were in the 35-45F temp range and mostly cloudy until Sunday when we saw a little sunshine. The early spring warm-up we had this year provided for some rains just prior to our trip that would normally have produced an incredible amount of snow. We were really hoping to use the snowshoes and truly set up camp winter style with a pyramid tarp and 0F bags. But, we ended up leaving the snowshoes in the car, donned regular shoes, lightly insulated clothing and my Tarptent Rainshadow.
I was wearing my ULA Ohm pack, my brother Bryan had my GoLite Pinnacle pack (2008) and Barak was wearing a old Mountainsmith pack that he picked up at a secondhand store for $7. He was very proud of that purchase and it really wasn't too bad of a pack. Fairly light and yet carried weight pretty well. We each had somewhere between 25-30 lbs in each pack (including food and water). At that weight range, mine was a little overloaded and I ended up with some chaffing on my hips. The hipbelt is not really designed to carry much weight as it is more for just stabilizing the pack. This was an error on my part to try and transfer too much weight to my hips. Both of the other packs carried really well.
On Friday, we hiked from Castle Danger to a multi-group site just west of Gooseberry Falls State Park. The trail had up to 12" of wet slushy snow and occasional clear spots. The lower lying areas provided us with trails that were all or partially under water. As we neared the gooseberry river, the trail was largely under water as it followed the banks of the river. This left us but now choice to walk in cold, slushy water. I elected to wear my Inov-8 Roclite 295 trail running shoes with a pair of merino wool liner socks and my Simblissity gaiters. My feet did get quite cold when walking in the water, okay, they were numb! But would quickly warm up as soon as I was out. I might try and find a pair of neoprene socks to wear in these kind of conditions.
Since we got a late start, we push hard and hiked about 8 miles in 4 hours and ended up setting up camp in the dark. Not a big deal unless you are trying to find dry wood to heat up water for dinner and a cocoa. We ended up bypassing three campsites as all the tentpads were under hard-packed snow/ice. We finally came upon the multi-group site that offered a nice dry tent pad under a large pine tree. We had almost given up and were going to bushwack our own tentpad, so we were very thankful that we found this one.
It had been raining for the last couple days and while that had quickly melted a lot of the snow, it also saturated all the wood we could find. We took some risk in taking my DIY J.Falk Compact Wood Burning Stove, and in the wet conditions we were in and trying to melt snow for 3 guys, either the stove or our skills fell short.
After trying to boil 1.5 liters of water for about an hour, we decided to set up a tripod over our campfire and that's how we melted snow and heated up water for the rest of our trip. This worked out much better for us. We just had too much trouble finding wood that burned hot enough in the stove.
In the future I will definitely be bringing my MSR multi-fuel stove for these kind of conditions. Although, heating up water over the campfire wasn't such a bad thing, it just took a lot of extra time. It's nice to be able to have a hot drink within about 10 minutes of reach camp when it is cold out. Even though it's heavier, I think it will be worth it.
I was testing out my JRB quilt inside of a TiGoat Bivy and Bryan and Barak used a standard sleeping bag inside of a couple of bivy's that Bryan made out of reflective tyvek. They had pretty major condensation inside the bivy and I had a little. I think the their bivy's were just not breathable or just reflected too much heat back into the insulation. As for me, not sure why I had the condensation I did. From what I've read, it's really hard to eliminate condensation in these conditions (35F and humid).
On Saturday we hiked from down to Gooseberry Falls and then northward to the Split Rock River. This section of the trail proved to be much drier of which we were very happy about. However the last few miles were very icy and made for very slow going. I was really wishing I had my Kahtoola Microspikes through this section. Either way having our hiking poles saved us from falling numerous times.
Once again we bypassed a few campsites as the tentpads were either icy or too exposed of a site. We ended up setting up camp on what I think was an unofficial campsite, but it had a fire ring and a tentpad and that was good enough for us. As we were preparing dinner, Bryan announced to us that he just threw up... poor guy! Turns out it was just a little stomach bug that thankfully, neither Barak or I caught. He ended up not really eating anything and went to bed early.
Enter, a BIG advantage of a tarptent. I decided to roll back the mesh door in case Bryan needed to make a quick exit during the night. (See picture of Tarptent from previous trip.) While I was staking out the sides to give us a little more room, I hear him puking and as far as I can tell he is still inside the tent. My first thoughts ere 'My tent is going to stink like vomit for the rest of it's life!!' Fortunately, he was able to clear the tent and all the stink ended up on the dirt ground. With a sigh of relief, I found a couple big chunks of birch bark, scraped it up and through it deep into the woods. Some little critter will get a nice snack tonight I thought.
No more episodes for Bryan overnight and we all slept well. I slept pretty warm all night, and woke up to discover quite a bit of condensation on the inside of my bivy, more than the night before. I had been pretty warm the night before and didn't wear as much clothing, but I think I was still too warm. My sleeping pad (CCF) was under my bivy which meant I was sleeping directly on the sil-nylon. This definitely did a good job of trapping any moisture!! Next time I will bring the pad inside the bivy to put a little buffer between myself and the sil-nylon. In hindsight, we really didn't need the bivy's at these temps inside the tarptent, but personally, I just wanted to test it out to see how it works. Bryan and Barak went without the bivies the second night and thus no condensation. It's almost as if you need to sleep on the verge of being cold versus sleeping warm to reduce this condensation. More experimenting will need to take place on future trips.
Next morning, the sun was shining, temps were very comfortable and Bryan was feeling a little better. However, he was pretty weak from not keeping any calories down, so I lightly loaded my pack and let him carry it while I donned the GoLite Pinnacle (my first time carrying it). The Pinnacle definitely felt much better at the ~30 lb weight range than that of the ULA Ohm with about the same weight. Certainly not a fault of the Ohm as it's just not designed to carry that much weight unless you are willing to carry most of it with your shoulders.
The hike out was about 4 miles through Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. The hiking was much easier as there was very little ice. The last couple miles were especially as it was mostly downhill and on a mowed grass trail.
Overall, we enjoyed the trip and look forward to another!!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Winter Camping Trip in planning stages...
My brother, a friend and I are trying to pinpoint a date to go winter camping. We have elected to go somewhere along the Superior Hiking Trail, but not sure where yet. I will be posting an update once we nail dates and location down.
Once again as I approach another trip, I am making gear list modifications. My updated gear list can be found in the right-hand column. The major modifications I have made are:
Sleeping System:
I Purchased a Jacks 'R' Better Sierra Sniveller Quilt. This will be my goto quilt for most of my trips and should easily get me down to 25F by itself. When combined with my BPL Cocoon Pro 60 Insulated Pants and insulated jacket/vest, it should take me down to 10-15F. When called for, I will add my 45F poly fill quilt and use it as an overbag to give me another 15F+ of insulation. I would like to test this sleep system out in my back yard in the coming weeks. The great thing about this quilt is that it can be used as a Serape which is why I purchased the Sleeves Accessory. Down to about 20F and maybe colder, this will eliminate the need to bring along an insulated jacket or vest. This is a great way to reduce some weight.
I picked up a second-hand (unused) Titanium Goat Raven XL bivy which I am stoked about. It was a little too small for the guy that I bought it from, so he was happy to pass it off. The Titanium Goat website is outdated, but basically this is the long version as described with a full net hood and side zips added. I will use this when camping with a tarp or any time it will be below freezing. This will also be great to through in when going out for a long dayhike as an emergency shelter. Here are a few links to this bivy if you are interested in seeing it in person. Pic1, Pic2, Pic3 These pics were taken by William Puckett and posted in this Backpackinglight.com forum.
Shelter:
I also purchased (at a great price!) an Oware 9x9 Pyramid Tarp made out of a heavy duty 200d urethane coated nylon. This fabric is way overkill for me, but there is no way I could fork out $240 for a silnylon version much less $225 for a similar version to the one I have. Oware had some special deals going at the time and I was able to pick this up for $50 (very slightly used). The version I have also has a 1' skirt around the bottom along with some additional height. This should shed snow extremely well! It is not ultralight at 5 lb 10 oz, but if shared amongst 4 people, it is only 22.5 oz each. That's actually really good for a heavy-duty 4 season shelter!
Cooking:
I am experimenting with a couple wood stove comments from J. Falk at Trailgear.org. He has plans available on his website to make your own wood stoves. I made both his compact wood stove and his bushwhacker wood gase stove. I have not decided if I will be bringing both of these or just pick one and run with it. I ultimately would like to go with using wood for all my cooking as it eliminates the need to bring along fuel of any kind. The only thing I would bring is some goods to aid in fire-starting. This is also something I will be experimenting with on this trip. I am very confident in my fire-starting ability, I am just trying to find ways to speed up the process. I will blog more about this another time.
Pulk/Tobaggon:
On my last winter trip (10 years ago), I was far from being ultralight and would venture to guess I had close to 60-70 lbs of gear. I had a Lowe Alpine Contour IV 90+15L backpack and a tobaggen that had gear on it. Now that I think about it, it was probably much more than 70 lbs, maybe even approaching 100 lbs. I weighed most of that gear just out of curiousity, so I should go back and add it up some time.
As posted, my base pack weight is 12 lbs 3 oz and the base pulk weight is 22 lbs 7 oz. These really are not bad weights in themselves for winter camping, but if I could eliminate the hassle of the pulk, that would be nice. On the flip side, if I can put all the weight in the pulk, it would save getting my back all sweaty which is inevitable for me.
In reviewing my list posted in the right hand column, I could remove the following things from the list and drop significant weight:
1. Just use snowshoes and leave skis at home. (-8 lbs 8 oz) Is it realistic that we will be able to use the skis with much success on the SHT in terms of giving us that much of a speed advantage? From my experience hiking it, probably not. If we were going into the BWCA, it would be much more reasonable to bring skis and leave the snowshoes at home. Skis would be great for going across lakes or open areas of which the SHT is neither.
2. Leave shovel at home. (-1 lb 4 oz) Can I use my snowshoes as a shovel if needed? The shovel would really be for fun if we brought it, as it's not really a need. I'm sure my brother will be using a pulk, so we can lash it to that if we want to bring it.
3. Leave Bushwhacker Stove at home (-8 oz). I can always test this out on another trip or in my back yard. The Compact Wood Stove will probably be the ticket for winter camping as constant feeding of the stove will be necessary when melting snow for water. This is not as easy with the Bushwhacker Stove the way it is designed. The Bushwhacker Stove will be a much more efficient stove for conditions when melting snow is not necessary.
What would this accomplish? The Pulk is no longer necessary... Subtracting the weight of the Pulk and associated stuff sacks (~9 lbs) and it brings my base pack weight down to 19 lbs 11 oz. This is really pretty decent for a winter set-up! I will work on getting this gear list posted as this is probably the direction I will be heading... I have posted this updated list in the right-hand column as well.
My ULA Ohm backpack is designed for weights less than 30 lbs, so it is my goal to stay well under that including consumables. This is easily manageable although I am more concerned about the bulk of the winter insulation and the pyramid tarp as this may fill up my pack quicker than I would like. I will have to check to see how full my pack gets with this gear set-up...
Once again as I approach another trip, I am making gear list modifications. My updated gear list can be found in the right-hand column. The major modifications I have made are:
Sleeping System:
I Purchased a Jacks 'R' Better Sierra Sniveller Quilt. This will be my goto quilt for most of my trips and should easily get me down to 25F by itself. When combined with my BPL Cocoon Pro 60 Insulated Pants and insulated jacket/vest, it should take me down to 10-15F. When called for, I will add my 45F poly fill quilt and use it as an overbag to give me another 15F+ of insulation. I would like to test this sleep system out in my back yard in the coming weeks. The great thing about this quilt is that it can be used as a Serape which is why I purchased the Sleeves Accessory. Down to about 20F and maybe colder, this will eliminate the need to bring along an insulated jacket or vest. This is a great way to reduce some weight.
I picked up a second-hand (unused) Titanium Goat Raven XL bivy which I am stoked about. It was a little too small for the guy that I bought it from, so he was happy to pass it off. The Titanium Goat website is outdated, but basically this is the long version as described with a full net hood and side zips added. I will use this when camping with a tarp or any time it will be below freezing. This will also be great to through in when going out for a long dayhike as an emergency shelter. Here are a few links to this bivy if you are interested in seeing it in person. Pic1, Pic2, Pic3 These pics were taken by William Puckett and posted in this Backpackinglight.com forum.
Shelter:
I also purchased (at a great price!) an Oware 9x9 Pyramid Tarp made out of a heavy duty 200d urethane coated nylon. This fabric is way overkill for me, but there is no way I could fork out $240 for a silnylon version much less $225 for a similar version to the one I have. Oware had some special deals going at the time and I was able to pick this up for $50 (very slightly used). The version I have also has a 1' skirt around the bottom along with some additional height. This should shed snow extremely well! It is not ultralight at 5 lb 10 oz, but if shared amongst 4 people, it is only 22.5 oz each. That's actually really good for a heavy-duty 4 season shelter!
Cooking:
I am experimenting with a couple wood stove comments from J. Falk at Trailgear.org. He has plans available on his website to make your own wood stoves. I made both his compact wood stove and his bushwhacker wood gase stove. I have not decided if I will be bringing both of these or just pick one and run with it. I ultimately would like to go with using wood for all my cooking as it eliminates the need to bring along fuel of any kind. The only thing I would bring is some goods to aid in fire-starting. This is also something I will be experimenting with on this trip. I am very confident in my fire-starting ability, I am just trying to find ways to speed up the process. I will blog more about this another time.
Pulk/Tobaggon:
On my last winter trip (10 years ago), I was far from being ultralight and would venture to guess I had close to 60-70 lbs of gear. I had a Lowe Alpine Contour IV 90+15L backpack and a tobaggen that had gear on it. Now that I think about it, it was probably much more than 70 lbs, maybe even approaching 100 lbs. I weighed most of that gear just out of curiousity, so I should go back and add it up some time.
As posted, my base pack weight is 12 lbs 3 oz and the base pulk weight is 22 lbs 7 oz. These really are not bad weights in themselves for winter camping, but if I could eliminate the hassle of the pulk, that would be nice. On the flip side, if I can put all the weight in the pulk, it would save getting my back all sweaty which is inevitable for me.
In reviewing my list posted in the right hand column, I could remove the following things from the list and drop significant weight:
1. Just use snowshoes and leave skis at home. (-8 lbs 8 oz) Is it realistic that we will be able to use the skis with much success on the SHT in terms of giving us that much of a speed advantage? From my experience hiking it, probably not. If we were going into the BWCA, it would be much more reasonable to bring skis and leave the snowshoes at home. Skis would be great for going across lakes or open areas of which the SHT is neither.
2. Leave shovel at home. (-1 lb 4 oz) Can I use my snowshoes as a shovel if needed? The shovel would really be for fun if we brought it, as it's not really a need. I'm sure my brother will be using a pulk, so we can lash it to that if we want to bring it.
3. Leave Bushwhacker Stove at home (-8 oz). I can always test this out on another trip or in my back yard. The Compact Wood Stove will probably be the ticket for winter camping as constant feeding of the stove will be necessary when melting snow for water. This is not as easy with the Bushwhacker Stove the way it is designed. The Bushwhacker Stove will be a much more efficient stove for conditions when melting snow is not necessary.
What would this accomplish? The Pulk is no longer necessary... Subtracting the weight of the Pulk and associated stuff sacks (~9 lbs) and it brings my base pack weight down to 19 lbs 11 oz. This is really pretty decent for a winter set-up! I will work on getting this gear list posted as this is probably the direction I will be heading... I have posted this updated list in the right-hand column as well.
My ULA Ohm backpack is designed for weights less than 30 lbs, so it is my goal to stay well under that including consumables. This is easily manageable although I am more concerned about the bulk of the winter insulation and the pyramid tarp as this may fill up my pack quicker than I would like. I will have to check to see how full my pack gets with this gear set-up...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Two 25k Spring Trail Runs on my Schedule
It's official, I am signed up for two 25k trail runs this spring and getting excited. The two races are the Trail Mix Race Minnesota on April 17th and the Superior Trail Race on May 15th.
The Trail Mix Race is on the Hyland Lake Park Reserve in Bloomington, MN and is where I'll be doing much of my weekend training as it is the longest section of trails near my house. It will be nice to be able to train where I will be doing my first race. This race is commonly used as part of training prep for Grandma's Marathon which is held at the end of June in Duluth, MN.
The Superior Trail Race is held on the Superior Hiking Trail near Lutsen, MN. The 25k race starts at the Lodge at Lutsen Ski Resort, catches the Superior Hiking Trail going to the southwest. The race has lots of ups and downs including Mystery Mountain, Moose Mountain and then turning around at Oberg Mountain. The irony of the route of this race is that I backpacked through this section last summer. It was a very enjoyable, scenic section of the route which helps me look forward to running it. It will be nice to be somewhat familiar with the course going into it.
The following book was written by a gentlemen who has run this race. The description of the book goes as follows. I am going to have to add this book to my must read list...
"ULTRA SUPERIOR is a true story set in the country's most rugged endurance events, the Superior Trail Races at the Superior National Forest in Minnesota. The book starts as a story of preparation, training and competition; Ending as a vision and realization lasting the ages."
The Trail Mix Race is on the Hyland Lake Park Reserve in Bloomington, MN and is where I'll be doing much of my weekend training as it is the longest section of trails near my house. It will be nice to be able to train where I will be doing my first race. This race is commonly used as part of training prep for Grandma's Marathon which is held at the end of June in Duluth, MN.
The Superior Trail Race is held on the Superior Hiking Trail near Lutsen, MN. The 25k race starts at the Lodge at Lutsen Ski Resort, catches the Superior Hiking Trail going to the southwest. The race has lots of ups and downs including Mystery Mountain, Moose Mountain and then turning around at Oberg Mountain. The irony of the route of this race is that I backpacked through this section last summer. It was a very enjoyable, scenic section of the route which helps me look forward to running it. It will be nice to be somewhat familiar with the course going into it.
The following book was written by a gentlemen who has run this race. The description of the book goes as follows. I am going to have to add this book to my must read list...
"ULTRA SUPERIOR is a true story set in the country's most rugged endurance events, the Superior Trail Races at the Superior National Forest in Minnesota. The book starts as a story of preparation, training and competition; Ending as a vision and realization lasting the ages."
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Indecisive Root
Not sure what's going on with this tree trunk/root. Very strange. Notice how it comes off of the tree in the upper right hand corner and then goes into the ground on the bottom left hand corner...Friday, July 24, 2009
SHT July 2009 Pics
We had a great campsite the second night. Here's a quick pic of our gear all sprawled out with the Tarptent Rainshadow 2 in the background. This tent worked very well for the three of us. The only challenge with it is to find level ground to set it up on. It's a pretty big footprint obviously to fit three people. You can barely make out in the picture that my trekking poles are used as the support poles on the front of the tarptent. The total weight of the tarptent without the poles is 2 1/2 lbs. Pretty remarkable since it replaced my REI Taj 3 which weighed in at just under 10 lbs with the footprint. The only thing I will be adding to this is a tyvek footprint to save abuse on the floor of the tarptent and to help keep it clean.
During a break on an overlook, we had four Cedar Waxwing birds pay us a visit. I don't remember ever seeing one of these before and had to do a search when I got home to figure out what it was. A remarkably cool looking bird!
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This is a typical trail through the area that we were hiking in. Trying to step on dirt instead of tree roots in an effort to avoid beating up the bottom of the feet is a constant effort.
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Amazing interlocking of roots.
SHT July 2009
I recently hiked a portion of the Superior Hiking Trail with two good friends of mine. We started at Oberg Mountain and hiked through to Cascade River State Park. The weather was great and the bugs were tolerable. I will be posting more pics and comments of the trip in the days to come.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Superior Hiking Trail - Spring 2008
I had bought I Hennessy Hammock Ultralight Explorer. Little did I know when I bought it that you still need to bring a lot of insulation for underneath you for any temps below about 55F. Fortunately I figured that out before my trip and went fairly prepared. Unfortunately, having to bring all that extra insulation didn't really lighten my load as much as I wished it would, but looking at my picture, my pack looks WAY more comfortable on my back than the previous trip.
Superior Hiking Trail - Summer 2006
It wasn't until several years later, that myself and a few of my buddies decided to take my first true backpacking trip. I had accumalated a fair amount of gear betweeen my boundary waters adventures and car camping, so I felt pretty prepared. I took a lot of time to organize and try to get all six of us guys on the same page as far as our gear. As much as I tried to communicate to them that I had all the essentials covered, they all ended up bringing their own. I guess that meant that I was going to have to carry "more than my share".
We all have a desire to be "real men", so we loaded up our packs with everything we had and away we went, stupidly thinking that this makes us men. I don't know for sure, but I think our packs were probably at 50+ pounds each... About half way throught the second day, my knee started to have some throbbing pain. Being the "man" that I am, I kept pushing right through the pain. By the end of the third day, I was moving very slowly and every down hill slope was pure torture.
Upon returning home, I went to visit a sports doc and he said that I have Patellofemoral Syndrome. Basically, my knee cap doesn't ride right over the end of my Femor. Why does this happen? Doctor said I'm getting old and too out of shape to "overdo" it on the trail. He recommended shoe inserts and basically to get in shape before I try to "prove" that I am a man.
FamilyDoctor.org has a great description of patellofemoral syndrome and some exercises I should be doing to relieve the knee pain and make it stronger.
This experience motiviated me to quickly get some inserts and then put me down the road of transitioning to lightweight backpacking. And the journey begins....
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