Sunday Apr 30 |
 | Miscellaneous (Mountaineering) 4:00:00 [3] 0.6 km (6:40:00 / km) +550m 1:11:39 / km | |
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| Map here.
The real thing today. Woke up at 4:30 to get on the trail by 5:30. Reached the base of Dragon's Tail couloir on the far side of Emerald Lake by 7:00. Geared up, roped up and began the ascent with 25 mph winds and blowing snow. The morning clouds cleared as we went higher and the south facing slope was somewhat protected, but we could see a sheet of snow blowing off Flattop Mtn directly above us. The first part of the ascent steepened to 40-45 degrees, and we took 2-3 rests along the way. There were several other groups climbing as well, some with the evident intent to ski down what they climbed up. After a food break at the base of a large buttress, we tackled the hardest part of the climb, the eastern branch of a "Y" about 3/4 of the way up. The bright sun was making conditions mushy, and there were a couple of sections where there was up to 12 inches of crappy snow that would move in unnerving and unpredictable ways underfoot. We spent a lot of energy kicking secure steps and there were quite a few steps where only my front points had a secure hold (in the deeper layers of snow.) For the last two pitches, around 55 degrees I think, our guide was concerned about the team's safety in light of the softening snow, and so he anchored us, climbed up and belayed the whole group (me, Mark, and two guys from Denver.) No one slipped, though, so it was a safe ascent the whole way. At the very end we climbed to the right of a large cornice onto Flat Top Mtn (which, not surprisingly, has a flat top) and met a group of skiers that was just about to descend the same branch we climbed up. Had a fun time on the way back trying to glissade down the east slope of Flat Top (it didn't work that well.) and had a nice hike back to the trailhead. |
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| C • Aren't those experiences speci... 3 |
| Hiking 3:00:00 [2] 4.0 mi (45:00 / mi) +260m 23:16 / km | |
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| Hike into Emerald Lake. Out down the east slope of Flat Top Mtn cross country to the winter trail. |
Saturday Apr 29 |
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| MNOC Afton |
| Miscellaneous (Mountaineering) 3:30:00 [2] | |
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| Weekend mountaineering class at CMS. After an hour or so in the gear room at Estes Park, we headed out to RMNP for technique lessons. We practiced on a pristine snow slope just above Dream Lake. Learned the proper way to travel on snow slopes, step kicking, management and use of ice axe, short rope management including step-over during switchbacks, self-arrest in three positions, and seated glissade. Beautiful day in the high country. |
| Hiking 1:30:00 [2] 2.0 mi (45:00 / mi) +200m 21:20 / km | |
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| Hike in/out from Bear Lake trailhead to Dream Lake |
Friday Apr 28 |
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| Terrace Oaks #3 |
Thursday Apr 27 |
| MTB (road) 1:10:00 [3] 15.5 mi (4:30 / mi) | |
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| Downtown - Mendota - Crosby loop. Beautiful evening. |
Tuesday Apr 25 |
| MTB (technical) 1:10:00 [3] 11.5 mi (6:05 / mi) | |
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| 3 loops at Wirth Park on a cold blustery day. |
Sunday Apr 23 |
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| MNOC Sand Dunes |
| Hiking 1:00:00 [2] 3.0 mi (20:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Montrail Vitesse II (2006, gra |
| Low intensity hike at WRSP. |
| Orienteering race 1:04:30 [4] **** 6.16 km (10:28 / km) +100m 9:41 / km | |
| ahr:180 max:196 spiked:15/18c shoes: Montrail Vitesse II (2006, gra |
| Excellent course by the Bairds, with lots of short legs and changes of direction. They also used the new area in the NE part of the map. A good run, except for a 10 minute boom on #13 that cost me several places. The top results were bunched up in a way uncharacteristic for local meets. Still a fast run considering it was Sand Dunes. |
Saturday Apr 22 |
| Orienteering (Bug-O) 50:00 [2] * 3 km (16:40 / km) | |
| spiked:12/12c shoes: Montrail Vitesse II (2006, gra |
| Spent the morning planting trees at the Arboretum. Then did the Bug-O with Andrea and the boys. Not at all technical - yellow level - but switched between helping Michael with route choice and head-on-a-swivel map contact. |
Friday Apr 21 |
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| Terrace Oaks #2 |
| Orienteering race 37:00 [4] *** 4.94 km (7:29 / km) +220m 6:08 / km | |
| spiked:12/12c shoes: Montrail Vitesse II (2006, gra |
| Terrace Oaks AR #2. Fastest run. Fun. Got a thorn across my nose and upper lip on the first leg and didn't realize blood was drawn until after the finish. mcarl and Julia came in about 3 minutes later, capitalizing on iriharding's bobble on the run in - he came in 20 sec later. jerritt and MAJ were in a couple minutes after that.
Legs weren't feeling so good afterwards. |
| Orienteering 20:00 [3] *** 2.5 km (8:00 / km) | |
| spiked:3/3c |
| Control retrieval 9-11 by memory. Right at sunset too. |
Wednesday Apr 19 |
| Trail Run 45:00 [3] 8 km (5:38 / km) | |
| shoes: Montrail Vitesse II (2006, gra |
| Easy run at Battle Creek, west part. Feel recovered from the weekend. |
Monday Apr 17 |
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| Trip stats:
42 hours total, 37 on the move. 1.5-3 hours of sleep.
47 miles trekking, 5 miles riverboarding, 63.5 miles paddling.
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Sunday Apr 16 |
| Paddling (kayak) 13:00:00 [2] ** 46.0 mi (16:57 / mi) | |
| spiked:3/4c |
| Paddled all through the night. Cloudy, so no moon and the river was very dark until we saw the Twin Cities skyglow. The upper part of the river had some rocks and rapids, but only if you strayed from the main channel. We got out to stretch at Sunrise Landing, afterwards tried to raft together float & sleep in shifts. It didn't work too well so we got out on the Nevers Dam sandbar and slept for 1/2 hr. Arrived at the Taylors Falls dam portage at sunrise, and hauled the boats 1.5 miles to below the highway bridge. We had brought portage wheels for the tandem and they worked beautifully. The day was beautiful and we finished the paddle down to Stillwater with some goofing off along the way. |
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| C • Sweet 4 |
| Hiking (portage) 1:00:00 [3] 1.5 mi (39:59 / mi) | |
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| Portaging the kayaks around the St. Croix Falls hydroelectric dam. |
Saturday Apr 15 |
| Hiking 5:30:00 [2] ** 28.5 mi (11:35 / mi) | |
| spiked:2/2c |
| (distance includes previous day's hike) Found 3 checkpoints and arrived at Big Eddy about 5:30 AM. Clear skies and no wind dropped the temperatures into the 40s so we were pretty cold. We decided to start a fire, warm up and wait for sunrise before attempting the risky Kettle River crossing. |
| Swimming (river crossing) 45:00 [2] | |
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| Kettle River was about 50m across, 3mph maximum current in a short band on the N side, dropping to 1 mph near the S bank. According the the USGS, water temperature at that hour was about 51 degrees.
We donned wet suits and dry tops. Mark swam across first with a throw rope, and we found the river was too deep to walk pretty much the whole way. Rebecca went 2nd and Mark used the throw rope to help her near the end. Then I went. The whole time Dan was about 80m downstream on the N side of the river, with the backup throw rope. He crossed last and we immediately changed into dry clothes and kept going. Also managed to snap a few pictures. |
| Hiking 5:30:00 [2] ** 18.5 mi (17:50 / mi) | |
| spiked:0/1c shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| A slog through what Rebecca called "monster truck swamp". Those lucky people that have been to Chengwatana in the spring know what I mean :) Tempers started to get a little frayed at this point - but that's good, that's one of the reasons to train together. Because of the slow going we were about 2 hours late into Snake River landing, but Kristin was there with hot food and coffee. She had also talked to an NPS ranger that was getting mildly worried, but after we saw we were responsible adults he lightened up. |
| Riverboarding 2:00:00 [2] ** 5.0 mi (24:00 / mi) | |
| spiked:1/1c |
| After refueling at the TA, we put the wetsuits back on and switched to riverboarding. It was interesting learning how to handle the things, especially with packs on. The St. Croix is pretty placid, only a couple sections with choppy water (up to class II later in the year.) Until I got the kicks down I was a little slower than the others. We learned you have to REALLY plan ahead since you can only do 1/2 mph relative to the current. Near the end I did so and managed to get on the narrow side of an island and catch a chute that allowed me to catch up and overtake the others by the end of the island. Pulled out at Raspberry Landing around 5 PM.
All said, a little bit boring in calm water but I'm looking forward to more excitement. I didn't really get cold either, since my torso stayed mostly up out of the water and I was continuously kicking my legs. |
| Paddling (kayak) 5:00:00 [2] ** 15.0 mi (20:00 / mi) | |
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| Had to change plans because the team mutinied and refused to trek anymore. So we called Dave to bring the 'yaks to Raspberry Landing instead of Sunrise. Kristin fueled us up again and we more or less endured a group of rowdy and well liquored-up guys who had been fishing and partying at the landing all day. Spent a couple of hours waiting for Dave and napping, then got on the water about 7 PM.
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Friday Apr 14 |
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| Long ass weekend training. Looks like I'll miss AR#1, sorry O-Steve! |
| Hiking 4:45:00 [2] ** | |
| spiked:1/1c |
| Started a tour of the St. Croix Valley with my PQ team. Brian drove us up to the Hwy 48 bridge to Danbury and we started trekking at about 7:15 PM. Dan took about 20 minutes to plot and organize the maps (18 of them.) I let him do all the navigation since I had "set" the course. |
Wednesday Apr 12 |
| Orienteering (course vetting) 36:32 [4] *** 5.1 km (7:10 / km) +210m 5:56 / km | |
| spiked:12/13c shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Ran the AR #1 course at race pace. |
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| C • looks good...thanks! 1 |
| Orienteering (course vetting) 10:00 [4] 1.4 km (7:09 / km) | |
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| Ran the 1st leg differently plus the course 2nd fork to compare splits. |
| Trail Run 20:00 [3] 2.5 km (8:00 / km) | |
| shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Ran to swap some tapes as a warmup, plus a short cooldown jog |
Tuesday Apr 11 |
| Orienteering (course vetting) 50:00 [3] ** 4.5 km (11:07 / km) | |
| spiked:13/13c shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Vetting for Terrace Oaks AR#1 |
| Trail Run 25:00 [4] 4.5 km (5:33 / km) | |
| shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Mountain bike loop is still closed, so it was safe to run it. Conditions were quite firm. I can hardly wait to start the MTB season. |
Monday Apr 10 |
| Strength/Core (gym) 30:00 [2] | |
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| Swimming (lessons) 1:00:00 [2] | |
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| Getting to the end of what lessons can give me. Think about moving on to the masters class in a little while - still some things to work out yet. |
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| C • Masters class ? 5 |
Sunday Apr 9 |
| Hiking 2:00:00 [2] * 5.0 mi (24:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| At the Chippewa Moraine SRA. Map.
Saw a group of about 50 great blue herons nesting in tall trees west of Weeks Lakes. |
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| Arm curls (24) |
Saturday Apr 8 |
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| MNOC Lebanon E Night-O |
| Map Run 2:20:00 [2] ** 10.0 mi (14:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Checking out the course for next weekend, mostly at St Croix SP. Most of the park roads were gated and locked, so it was a pain in the butt to get to the spots I wanted to. Had to take gravel road to the edge of the park and cut in. Some running, some hiking. |
| Orienteering race 48:09 [4] *** 5.55 km (8:41 / km) | |
| spiked:6/13c shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Night-O at Leb Hills. Red was a 3-loop butterfly course. First night event since the sprain in November, ran with the Active Ankle and felt strong and confident. Not a lot of spikes, but only minor mistakes, plus I was able to pound the pace on the trails. There were a lot of them, and not as confusing as I expected. No long off trail legs so the course gets 3 stars instead of 4. Good job Ian!
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| C • Leb Hills Night O 3 |
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| Arm curls (22) |
Friday Apr 7 |
| Map Run 1:00:00 [3] *** 4.5 km (13:20 / km) | |
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| Practiced looking for little features and staying in close contact with the map, at a leisurely pace. I feel a bit rusty. |
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| C • AR #1 Vet.... 3 |
| Strength/Core (gym) 25:00 [2] | |
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Thursday Apr 6 |
| Spinning (gym) 50:00 [4] | |
| ahr:170 max:189 |
| High endurance. Cranked it up and left it there for 30 min. |
| Strength/Core (gym) 35:00 [2] | |
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| Usual, plus a few extra sets before spinning class started. There were severe thunderstorms crossing through the metro right as I got to the club. Lightning is so cool! |
Wednesday Apr 5 |
| Hiking 30:00 [2] 2.5 mi (11:59 / mi) | |
| shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Light jog at Lebanon Hills before going to swim class |
| Swimming (lessons) 1:00:00 [2] | |
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Tuesday Apr 4 |
| Swimming (gym) 1:00:00 [2] | |
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| Strength/Core (gym) 25:00 [2] | |
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Sunday Apr 2 |
| MTB (road) 2:30:00 [4] ** 25.0 mi (6:00 / mi) | |
| spiked:8/8c |
| Biking section of Dan's Bike-Hike-BBQ. Teamed with Jim and Mike. Jim didn't want to tow - not so fast. If we'd worked together better we could have started breathing down WEDALI's neck.
Maps were Topo! plus a trail map of Elm Creek. Cold and rainy the whole day. |
| Orienteering 1:44:00 [2] ** 5.0 mi (20:47 / mi) | |
| spiked:6/6c shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2006, black |
| Coon Rapids Dam park, again on USGS maps. Lots of swamp crawls and a couple of icy cold stream crossing, plus a trek up a deep gully filled bank to bank with a knee deep stream (OK Ian, I had that coming for having avoided wader duty in Georgia!) Saw WEDALI coming back from the second loop just as we started on it. Then saw Roger and Karl as we came back. Walked mostly. |
Saturday Apr 1 |
| MTB (road) 1:35:00 [3] 25.0 mi (3:48 / mi) | |
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| Tow practice with GH and GH Too - from Mark's house to the east end of Cliff Rd and back. Big party - it ended up with me, Mark, Brian, Suzanne, Dave, Chris, Rick, Leslie, Dan, and Rebecca - 10 people! We didn't try to put all 10 in a single tow line, but did switch up on the return leg. |