Training Log Archive: Funderstormin

Pemi Loop - Day 3

Rain continued through the night but lucky for us cleared in the morning and we were at least able to pack up the wet stuff under a clear sky! We only had 7 miles today which felt like a luxury after the previous one, so took a bit more time getting organized in the morning and hit the trail around 9:00. We were very close to Mt. Liberty but it was shrouded in fog, which was actually pretty cool. Then it was just a short jaunt to Mt. Flume, the final summit, which we enjoyed under blue skies. We took our time playing around on the summit and taking photos as it was so beautiful! From there, we started a long descent back to the Lincoln Woods trailhead, which had a few challenging sections but generally speaking felt like a cakewalk compared to what we'd been doing the day before.

We got back to the car just before 2 and did a bit of clean-up before heading into Lincoln for some well-deserved pizza and beer!

I loved the challenge of this loop and would highly recommend it either as a backpacking trip or good hard long run!

And now that I have 8 of 48 4000 footers ticked off, it's time to start looking at the maps to find some more. :-D

C • wow, what a fantastic adven... 2

Pemi Loop - Day 2

When we told others of our plan to hike from Guyot to the Liberty Springs tent site on the second day, some told us outright it wasn't likely possible while others encouraged us to start at dawn. Eeek! We thought 14 miles seemed like a reasonable plan but this did turn out to be a long hard day, with a total elapsed time of almost 12 hours. We got out of camp around 7:30 and enjoyed the first few miles and the summits of the Guyot Spur and South Twin Mountain. From there we were introduced to the reality for the rest of the day: steep, rocky terrain that was always going up or down. We descended South Twin and started a very long, tough (but beautiful) slog up to Mt. Garfield, which took many, many hours! We stopped into the super cool Galehead AMC hut to fill water and I could suddenly see the appeal of staying at one of these mountain huts, which are pricey but include a dinner and breakfast. When we reached Garfield about 2:00 p.m. we realized we had only covered about half of our miles for the day, but we were reassured by some other hikers that things would get better. My half-joking motto for most of this day was "things don't always get worse, but sometimes they do..." "Worse" in this case was hand over hand climbing up wet rocks with a giant backpack! There were a few times I had mini panic attacks thinking I couldn't do something but I guess that is character building!?

We stopped to take a break at what we *thought* was near the summit of Mt. Lafayette, the highest peak on the route, but got a rude awakening when we saw a sign saying it was still another 0.8 miles! We hit the summit about 5:00 and started the funnest part of the whole trip - a traverse across Franconia Ridge, bagging Mt. Lincoln and Little Haystack in quick succession. At this point it had been a long day but the views and the realization that we were going to make it to the campsite buoyed our spirits. We moved as quickly as we could trying to make it in before dark.

During the last couple of miles we could hear thunder and hauled ass trying to get in before the rain. Alas, we were unsuccessful and had to pull our rain covers and coats about 0.3 miles from the site. The rain lasted a good long time so we cooked dinner under a tarp and waited to set up camp. By the time we got set up and cleaned up, it was almost time for bed. This was a long and challenging but also very rewarding day!

Pemi Loop - Day 1

I had this backpacking trip on my bucket list for the summer after being unsuccessful in securing a Wonderland Trail permit and not quite risk tolerant enough to fly out there and hope to get a walk-up permit! The Pemi Loop is a 32 mile trail that summits 8 of New Hampshire's 4000 footers, and has a great infrastructure for backpacking with several tent sites, an AMC mountain hut, and stealth camping options around the loop. It seemed that 3 days, 2 nights was the most common length chosen, although we did meet a couple of runners doing it all in one go, which I can also see the appeal of!

Tim joined me on this adventure and we camped the night before a mile from the trailhead at the Hancock campground. We were able to get organized and hit the trail around 9:30, with about 11 miles and 2 summits to our first campsite. The first few miles were quick and easy, but once we started climbing we learned how quickly things could change! I think that we really lucked out starting this on a Tuesday as we had the first (and most) summits to ourselves. We took off our packs and ate our lunch on the summit of Bondcliff before descending and climbing back up to Mt. Bond. From there it was a couple of relatively easy miles to the Guyot campsite, where we nabbed an awesome platform with a sunrise view. There were about 15 people staying at the tent site and it was fun to talk to others about route choices and experiences.

This class was a bit of a killer!

Warm-up
- decreasing KB swings (10-1) and increasing box jumps (1-10)

Circuit #1 x 4
- SA bench press X 10
- Sled row X 30 yards
- DB Arnold press X 10
- Pull-ups X 4-6
- Rope slams X 15

Circuit #2 x 4
- SL elevated hip bridge X 10 per leg
- SL landmine lunge with press X 8 per leg
- Trap bar deadlift X 12
- Rear foot elevated squat X 8 per leg

Finisher - EMOM
- 20 MB slams
- 120 yard sprint
- 70 mountain climbers
- 30 second assault bike

I was pretty beat by the end of it!

C • Pretty Beat 1

On the trails at Point Farms Provincial Park.