Snowy Peak- The Adirondacks Part 1

The Adirondack Mountains are not only located in northeast New York, they pretty much are northeast New York, and have been a New York icon in wilderness and mountains for the past couple centuries. And thus I could not very well travel through the state without a stop, a couple epic hikes, and maybe even a nighttime rescue if the situation calls for it. This foray began in the southwest as I came up through the middle of the Adirondack park and stopped for a few quick hikes as I ran across them.

The gorgeous lakes, trees and mountains are so numerous in this area, it is next to impossible not to find the perfectly, beautiful, serene area that you are looking for.

Most of the trails in this area at this time of year are, unfortunately, made up of mostly mud, rocks, and tree roots and thus can be quite a bit more slow going and mentally draining than most trails, particularly if you happen to be hiking in normal trail running shoes and are trying not to get your feet wet and muddy. However, the added challenge of jumping from stone to stone the entire way adds a unique difficulty dynamic to the hike. The other noticeable difference in these mountains was the seemingly complete lack of switchbacks. When ascending in the Rockies, all of the trails were mostly made up of switchbacks that kept a constant but challenging ascent. Here in the Adirondacks everything seemed to a straight shot, often straight up whatever boulders and rocks made up the particular stream you were following, which very often was the actual trail! Which means getting to the summit of any of the peaks often required some simple bouldering skills (intuitive for most people) and if you missed the easy route (which I often do in my haste) could involve a degree of easy rock climbing. All of which makes for a great fun and challenging time that is compounded by the amazing views rewarded at the top.

The amazing view from Snowy Peak in the southern area of the Adirondacks.

Once at the peak, make certain not to think you've seen everything and go back down. Hiking through a short trail leads to this view from the backside. Off this ledge it is straight down all the way to the bottom so don't get too close if you have any rational fear of heights.

Snapping this shot from the ledge with the straight dropoff was a little disorienting, but well worth it. 

And right smack in the middle of the peak, is an old firetower to climb up and get a complete 360 degree view of everything around so that you don't miss a scene.

Afterwards, the way back down the mountain, though seemingly daunting from the way up, is actually not as bad as it seems. It simply requires a high degree of caution and a slow steady pace, particularly when everything is wet. At this point I must stress that no matter how quick of a hiker you are, it is very important to bring a flashlight. I, myself, barely got back before dark as my time estimates of the hike and when it should be dark did not factor in the slower terrain and the surrounding mountains and northern latitude creating a much quicker twilight than expected. Combine this with no cell phone service at all anywhere in the area and you could end up with a recipe for disaster. Which is exactly what happened to an older couple that I passed on the way back down the mountain. After waiting in my car for 30 minutes or so after finishing the hike trying to decide what to do since I could not call and alert anyone and I did not know who to contact in the next closest town, which would likely be completely shut down by this time, I had no choice but to grab a flashlight and go back looking for them to make absolutely certain they would be getting back safely. Luckily, I ran into them after a scant 30 minutes or so. And thankfully, they were prepared enough to have brought a flashlight, though by the amount of light it put out, it was still an amazing feat that they had not gone off the trail. I provided my support and encouragement and led them back in, which turned out to be quite easy with the pocket flashlight my dad had provided me that was so bright it turned the woods into daylight. After that little scare and lengthy adventure, this was one of those nights where it felt really really good to finally lay down to sleep.

E Camping

In order to provide insight on how you too can travel as cheaply and "luxuriously" as I have been, particularly if you also happen to own a Honda Element, I've decided to create a special blogpost on just this topic along with some sweet pics of my E in some of my favorite places. First, the setup...

I've used color coding to separate the different areas of storage in my "E House". For the color blind... I'm sorry, you're just going to have to use your problem solving skillz to figure it out.

Black Oval= My general purpose storage area where my vast array of clothes for all the swimming, biking, running, and hiking I do are along with my invaluable REI camp chair. This all gets moved to the driver seat for "sleep mode". Behind this area is my Igloo Xtreme cooler which sits on the front passenger seat. My feet touch it sometimes when I sleep (6'0), but it's not in the way.

Blue Oval= My bed. I use a 1.5" thick Alps Mountaineering sleeping pad laid on top of the fully reclined seats and a cheap $25 Coleman 40 degree sleeping bag that works absolutely perfect for my needs. I am just as comfortable here as I would be in my own bed. In fact, it now has become "my own bed". Next to the bed in the rear side pocket is where I store my "fine" red wines.

Green Oval= My camping/cooking gear. Basically my kitchen. I use a super inefficient but cheap Coleman Single Burner stove along with a pot, a wok, wooden spatula and spoon, cheap ss plate, bowl, cup, and silverware, a thin, plastic cutting board and good chopping knife, and I have a Jetboil Flash for quickly boiling up water for my various loose leaf Japanese Green Teas I am addicted to. Using an X-ray machine to move to underneath the leaned back front seat reveals my storage bag for my various tools such as a camp axe, trowel, wrenches and other hand tools, flashlights, matches, man/bear killing knife, bear spray (in case the knife fails), duct tape and other various useful items that may or may not make it easier or more difficult in crossing an international border. And amplifying that X-ray machine that I'm hoping you bought legally and did not obtain from "other means" further on reveals my pantry, located in the very front of the vehicle's passenger side, on the floor beneath the cooler. This is where most of the food (mostly fresh fruits and vegetables that don't need refrigerated) is stored that isn't strewn randomly about the rest of the vehicle.

Orange Oval= My super sweet carbon bikes! They can be a pain to get in and out, but the setup is quite slick for using space as efficiently as possible. This setup shows my Cyclocross and Tri bikes. It also works for my road and Tri bike combo which I used in the Northwest during the summer.

Purple Oval= A neat little storage box that doubles as the platform to set my bikes at the perfect height that is needed for them to fit in the space allotted. Lots of random stuff like bike gear and vitamins and such go in here. Behind it and under the bikes is a nice little space where I have a big back with all my smaller bags of various teas, vitamins, personal hygiene products, and some mini spheres containing parallel universes.

Brown Oval= My Thule Sidekick (8 cu. ft storage) storage box, or as I call it, my attic. I chose this one because of the price and the weight limits of the factory rack (I figure it's a good idea to keep the handling as good as possible with all the twisty roads I drive on). Here is where I keep most of my triathlon and cycling equipment, extra towels, laundry detergent, dirty clothes, and the vast amounts of shoes needed for all the different activities I participate in.

And now for some sweet pics of it in action!

This was at our camping spot in Allenspeak, CO, during the Fourth of July weekend.

Awesome place with tons of free camping spots.

This was Rabbit Valley on the Colorado-Utah border just off I70. This camping spot was not only free, but had pits, grills, picnic tables, and bathrooms as well and was all mine on this particular night.

This was along scenic Highway 128 going to Moab from I-70 from the east side.

I included two pictures since it really was that beautiful. My favorite scenic drive yet.

This camping spot in Mt Hood National Forest was found when I had to backtrack from my planned route because of a road that was washed out. I decided to drive down a dead end path in the forest and found this sweet little spot where it ended.

This was at Mt Rainier. This night I ended up in a parking lot in Paradise where overnight camping was not allowed. Someone shined a flashlight in my car but didn't bug me.

For urban camping, many times I've parked in a Walmart parking lot or that of a 24 hour grocery store whenever a National Forest was not close by, but several times I've found nice little spots in neighborhoods as well. This worked great in Seattle where there is no law against this and so many cars along the side of the road that one more was hardly noticeable. Usually I found a spot close to one of the many parks for quick restroom access in the morning. In small towns like Boulder and Ann Arbor I found awesome spots right next to downtown so that I could just walk back from the bars in the evening and to the coffee shops in the morning. Other times, such as in national parks or the Adirondacks I've found backcountry trailheads to park next to where a car sitting overnight would not be suspicious. And for National Forest and other such free camping areas, the website freecampsites.net has come in handy quite a few times. As of this writing (3-4 months of traveling), I've yet to pay for a camping spot.

And in closing, I leave you with a pic of my carbon fiber drink holder for when I feel like a nightcap

Mysterious Awakening.

I stir from a sound slumber. It's dark. Misty. My windows are fogged. I can't see a thing. My phone says it's midnight. There is no noise. I see an eerie light shining from somewhere to my left. I haven't a clue how I got here. I don't know where here is.

I rack my brain to figure out where I've been recently by backtracking thru my journey. After leaving Columbus, my next stop was Presque Isle State Park (free) in Eerie, PA. An image of sandy beaches, excellent trail running, and a small little lighthouse fill my memory.

Presque Isle State Park beach.

After that was Buffalo, NY, Niagara Falls and endless rain. I had planned on biking over to the Canadian side of the falls, but with the rain and mist, it would have been a miserable trip and with low visibility, one I decided to cancel. Niagara Falls itself tho, along with the state park that sits on the Island in between them, is quite the site. And because of the rain and time of year, I was at least able to find free parking on the side of the street and avoid the normal $10 fee.

The view of Buffalo from the south.

Niagara Falls upstream view.

Niagara Falls side view.

From there it was Rochester, which seemed to be all ghetto from downtown to the north side. Though it was interesting to see so many people walking around at night, I did not get a safe vibe from the area and traveled on towards Syracuse. In Syracuse, it was gameday morning and people were out tailgating for the Syracuse-Rutgers football game. Not quite the same as a Sooner gameday in Norman. Not even close. But in all fairness, Syracuse is a basketball town and the weather was cold and damp and miserable to run in, much less tailgate in. Here I ran into some Syracuse students to tag along with on a run, but left shortly after, so it can't be the area I'm in now.

I did miss a turn and end up at Chittenango Falls (Fee area during summer, free the rest of the year) to the east of Syracuse. A small, beautiful area to picnic and even had a few short hiking trails.

Stunning Chittenango Falls in Central New York.

So where did I go after that? Well it was on to New Hartford and then down to Cooperstown the next morning for the Ommegang Cyclocross race. Which, not only met my expectations for Cyclocross in the Northeast, but surpassed them! The field for the Cat 4 race was huge! And not only was there mud, it was pretty much all there was besides that one hill with long, thick, wet grass where if I'd been thinking, I would have dismounted and ran up instead of hammering out all my power with the tire spinning just to keep the bike moving. It felt like I was racing in slow motion. With switchbacks, sharp, off bank corners, thick mud, and wet, slick grass and rocks everywhere, I only had to speed up just a little to get one of my tires sliding and ensure me that with the lines I was taking through the course I could not, in fact, go any faster than the snails pace I was forced to travel at. However, I was, at least, still in front of a lot of people. That is, until the end of the third lap, going into the final one, where I pulled my shoe right out of my cleat (still stuck in the pedal) trying to dismount for the barrier. For awhile, I stood dumbfounded about what to do or how to fix it and by the time I remembered I could just run it the whole last lap, the leader passed me and the race was over.

Now while I hadn't had a glorious race in the least, I had achieved my two goals of not crashing (miraculously I managed to save it everytime I almost went down) and not getting lapped while I still had a fully functioning bike. And best of all, I had a blast playing with my bike in the mud! Post-race, however, had to be the best part. Everyone I met was as friendly as can be, especially the guys from Team Ommegang who were putting on the race. They hooked me up with all kinds of cool swag and free tickets for the excellent Ommegang brews being served. If you've never been to one of these events, I highly recommend it. It is perfect for spectating. The whole general atmosphere is completely different than the typical crit, road race, or triathlon. It is much more laid back, friendly, and a lot less serious, yet still contains an extremely competitive nature. A cyclocross event almost seem to be an anomaly to cycling in that brings out the best in people as it's atmosphere encourages them to leave their egos at the road and enjoy themselves.

Afterwards, I... wait, what did I do after? Let's see, I was hanging out, enjoying the post race festivities, finishing my beer, and... decided I'd had too many to drive anywhere and moved my stuff over to take a quick nap, and... Hold on a sec, am I at the... Yep, still at the brewery! Oops... that was quite the nap! Well, now that I'm here in this nice quite, safe area, and nobody has bugged me, it looks like I've found my free camping spot for the night!

Cincinnati

Cincinnati turned out to be a surprisingly delightful city. There were bike paths around the two big universities, Cincinnati and Xavier, as well as a good park for running, and a great multi-use trail called the Little Miami Rail Trail which follows on old railroad path that had been paved over (a good place for access is next to the Kings Island Amusement Park and head north). And right across the river in Kentucky is another delightful city known as Newport, which has the first Hofbrauhaus in the US! For those that don't know, Hofbrauhaus is one of the original famous breweries from Munich, Germany, and is well known for its food, beer and cheery atmosphere supported by fun, live German drinking music. The time to visit, however, has to be mid September when the Cincinnati Oktoberfest is going on. From all I hear, it is second only to the original due to the large amount of German settlers and influence in the city. Unfortunately for Newport, its Oktoberfest which falls right after the Cincy one does not measure up. At all. In fact, it is quite dead. However it does offer an excellent across the river view of Cincinatti as seen below.

Cincinnati as seen from across the river in Newport.

View of Cincinnati from Echo Park, one of the many parks in the area offering great hilltop views.

View from the top of Carew Tower dowtown, Cincinnati's tallest building and built in 1931.

One of the picturesque statues downtown. This square had a jumbotron displaying ESPN complete with audio and a nice microbrew pub called Rock Bottom, which has a great happy hour.

Special thanks to my cousin Cathy for showing me around town and buying me dinners! The meals and the company was much enjoyed and highly appreciated!

Michigan vs. Ohio State

While traveling back down to visit my cousin in Cincinnati, I came across the perfect timing of a post gameday Saturday in the town of Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. It did not disappoint. All about students were walking to and fro, some drunk, some about to be, and some busy with schoolwork for some odd reason. One thing was immediately clear, this was not a dry campus. As seen below where enthusiastic and very stereotypical frat boys play an interesting twist on a beer pong game where the object is to throw the ping pong ball at the other team's beer and if it hits, you can drink your beer until the other team places the ping pong ball back on the table. First team to finish their beer wins.

Not only was Ann Arbor a great place for drinking, it was also a great place for exercising. Out of all the places I have been so far, I have yet to see so many people out running! Now this could have simply been because the semester was still young, the weather was good, and all the freshman were still trying desperately not to gain that "15" that undoubtedly happens for some as soon as the warm weather disappears and their self control and motivation along with it. However as beautiful a place as the campus was for running, I found the hidden gem for outdoors exercise to be the Nichols Arboretum, an incredible system of trails, park, nature and wildlife, right within jogging distance. And with scarcely anyone using it! Combine that with a bustling downtown nightlife with a good mix of young professionals and graduate students and this town was not just a great college party town but one that was also easy to escape the immaturity of the college scene. Best of all, traffic and parking did not seem to be a problem around anywhere I went.

After really enjoying the University of Michigan, I was now expecting great things from Ohio State University as well, seeing as they are such a huge rivalry. And upon arriving in Columbus and running on their excellent trail system downtown by the river I was liking the possibilities. However, besides this running and biking trail, which did go through the University and stretched for a very long way, there was nothing about the University itself that I could find to be either picturesque, captivating, or inspiring. Though it was so big I'm not certain there wasn't something I missed as I ran around as much of it as I could stand in the cold weather and the impossibly far away parking spot that I had found after a lifetime of searching. The city of Columbus, itself, though, was quite the city. It had a very nice downtown with not too much traffic, though free parking was certainly not easy to find anywhere even remotely close to it. This was not a problem for me though, as the Scioto Audubon Metro Park was quite close and connected directly to the river trail system that runs right by downtown. This metro park was noticeably lacking in off-road trails, but it made up for it in containing the (according to the locals I climbed with) world's biggest free climbing rock wall, among being a veritable mecca for birdwatching (according to the signs that were posted).



The view of Columbus from the Scioto River Trail. Beautiful place to run.

These wires were not visible from far away and quickly ended my off-roading cyclocross adventure for the day. I was very fortunate to get my bike slowed enough (and skidding sideways...) to come away from this collision so relatively unscathed, despite ending up on the other side of the fence...

The amazingly excellent free climbing wall, seen here as a downpour has just started. Big thanks to the two Ohio State students that lent their gear and expertise so that I could go up it!

So all in all, which one wins? Well in my very brief time spent in each city, my preference was most certainly Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. Though Columbus itself was a very cool city for it's size, the ease of accessibility in the smaller town of Ann Arbor and the proximity of excellent trails in the arboretum made it much more visitor and outdoor lover friendly while still containing all the elements of college town and bustling nightlife. The people in both cities were of course fantastic, save for a couple drunken, rowdy frat boys in Michigan. However for the person who prefers to be lost in the bustle of the big city and to disappear into the crowd, they might very well prefer the ginormous campus that is Ohio State.

A Taste of the Midwest

After leaving Branson, my first stop was to St. Louis and the famous Gateway Arch. I was able to snap this picture by getting off the trail a bit.

On this side sits East St. Louis which I hear is a glorious place. However I decided to save it for another adventure...

Ended up in a quaint little town called Zionsville as I missed a turn on my way to visit my buddie Bob in Kokomo, IN.

Zionsville is located just on the northside of Indianapolis and has a lot of cool, little boutique shops.

This one in particular was quite cool. It had an excellent and very large selection of wine and other goodies, with all of the scores from places like Wine Advocate listed by the name. They only choose the top wines based on these reviews to sell, and based on the one I bought and tried, it seems to be an excellent business model.

The beautiful view from my buddie's backyard. I couldn't believe in all the miles of cornfields and soybeans, there were huge tall trees like this here! Pretty certain they were imported. But nonetheless, very beautiful.

Notre Dame was close and on the way to my next destination so a stop was required.

Overall it was a pretty neat campus with cool features like this one to stop and admire. The most awesome part of the campus though was on the north side by two lakes which had an excellent mostly off road jogging trail that circled both.

The beach in South Haven, MI, is a nice place to stop for a nap. At this time of year, it seemed you had the town to yourself and the weather was still quite nice.

Following a tip from Emily in Grand Rapids (yep, same one from Seattle and Yellowstone) I decided to make the drive to the tip of Michigan where Mackinac Island lies.

This feature was called Cave of the Woods. Along with Crack in the Island and the other "caves" on the Island, it was obviously quite lame. However, that just made the amazing journey through the trees, along beautifully serene and secluded paths, that much sweeter. After all, it's not all about the destination. For me, the journey is much more important. And it was one that was much needed at this particular time when I had really started to miss the solitary, calming beauty of nature that was so much more prevalent on my Northwest trip. What better relief from the city than an Island with no cars allowed on it?

My timing turned out perfect for taking the ferry back from the Island at sunset. With an empty bottle of excellent red wine (tip: do not try to hike and drink red wine at the same time if you do not want it spilt on your clothing) and a great day of hiking behind me and a beautiful sunset in front of me, it was certainly a trip for the records.

On The Road Again

After almost 5 weeks at home with the parents, it definitely felt like it was time to be moving again. Not to get away from family, because I was certainly enjoying the company, free delicious food, and nightly showers, but because being in that environment made it much more difficult to work on getting things done and moving forward. The rest was quite nice. So was the TV. But it was becoming too much rest as my motivation started to slide and laziness crept in. However, once on the road, the motivation returned as a sense of adventure came back and once again any lingering stresses were wiped away. It's a hard feeling to describe, but I liken it to one of complete freedom with wild adventure looming.

While at home, however, all was not rest and relaxation. I, of course kept up my normal racing as I prepped for two big race weekends, one in Tulsa and the other in Branson. At TriTulsa, I came back from being down almost a minute and a half to my friend Toby after the first day's sprint triathlon and a 2nd place finish to catching him on the bike and putting enough time on the run to make up the time lost and claim the Overall Combined title and a 3rd place finish for the Olympic distance race on the second day. It was a very satisfying race as I claimed the fastest time between the swim and run on a very difficult and tough bike course. Considering my slightly unorthodox training regimen consisting of hiking, running, some swimming, and mostly just being active while throwing in some bike intervals when I felt like it, I was extremely pleased.

Here is a pic of me with the plaque and the Zoot Triathlon Bag that I won!

During the weekend trips up to Tulsa, I also was able to redeem massage vouchers I had previously purchased, and to visit my Little a couple of times at his new school. He is in 9th grade now and I'm excited to see him continue to progress into a fine young man as he gets older. One of the massage therapists wasn't great, but the other was gold. She was able to loosen up my hamstrings, which I don't think anyone has ever been able to do, by stretching them while massaging them at the same time. A fairly unique concept to me that worked wonders in recovering for my two big weekends of racing.

The other big weekend of racing? That would be my first stop on the road in Branson, MO, with rain pouring down and things looking very, very bad for race day. Luckily, I had found some other fellow triathletes at TriTulsa who were up here as well for some good old masochistic fun! Staying in an RV with them definitely made prepping for the race much easier and more comfortable than it would have been otherwise. Despite the threat of rain and bad weather, I was itching for a chance at redemption and maybe a little revenge. Last year this course kicked my butt on the bike course and left me to die on the run course. This year, I had different plans. That is, if the weather would play nice and open up a little hole for us to race in. We were in luck! For a little while at least. The course was still wet which slowed the bike down considerably and caused more flats than I've ever seen at a race and the swim went off without a hitch; however, halfway through the run it decided to show up like a beast hunting its prey. Thunder cracked and all of a sudden it was a downpour with puddles of water turning into small ponds and lakes and shoes into nice, cold sponges to cool the body as the temp dropped well below comfortable for someone who just recently was forcibly adjusted to Oklahoma heat. But I was having the run of my life. After surviving the insanely tough and painful bike and riding a slowly leaking tire for several miles, I had steadily been speeding up throughout the run, testing myself with a harder and faster pace each couple of miles. And I hadn't stopped. At any of the aid stations. Except for that bathroom break. That was important though. I had never ran a half marathon off the bike straight through before. Even in Portland I had stopped at every aid station to ensure that I got all my nutrition in. And now this. The cold, hard rain along with the fear that I might be struck by lightning at any second considering I was running through bodies of water that stretched from here to who knows where. So I sped up. I wanted it to be done. Over. Finished. So I sped up some more. And some more. Until I was so close I could feel it. And before my legs could seize up or my stomach could eat itself out of hunger, I was there! Cold and shivering with a medal around my neck trying to force some chocolate milk down. And that's when I felt bad. Very bad. And cold. I went inside of a restaurant to warm up. It didn't work. Outside again, it only got worse. I was now whimpering like a dog as I stumbled from the finish line to the med tent without a clue what was wrong with me. I usually felt bad after a race of this distance, but not this bad. I finally made it in, bewildered and shivering without a clue what was wrong with me. Turns out it was simple. I had hypothermia and thus that was why I didn't really feel all that cold, but I did feel very, very bad. Half an hour later though I was warmed back up and ready to see how I finished. Final results were 6th in a very tough 25-29 age group and 34th overall.

Splits were:
Swim- 35:35
T1- 1:55
Bike- 2:54:34
T2- 1:12
Run- 1:35:30
Overall- 5:08:46

By far my best finish yet! And with the probability of the top guys passing on their spots to either turn pro or for lack of finances, a very good chance to qualify for the world championships. Which is exactly what happened. I got the roll down and wrote the check right away. I had in fact qualified for the Ironman 70.3 world championships. I got my revenge. I beat the course and the weather, despite the punishment they had dished out. And, most importantly, I'm going to Vegas!