Work is done, and I’ve had enough of puttering around the apartment. There’s plenty to do to get packed up for moving out by the 30th, but that’s next week’s problem. This week is all about getting outside and enjoying time in the mountains.
*****
Today’s plan was to hit Rumney in the afternoon. My friend Rob from North Carolina was going to be flying into Manchester for work today, so he was going to have some time to kill before starting the job tomorrow. Rob climbs hard, like really fucking hard. He climbs things on gear that I doubt I’d ever drag myself up on bolts or even on top rope. Needless to say I fully expected to get worked today.
I definitely succeeded in getting worked today, but it was hardly the day that I imagined happening. Rob quit his job yesterday, thereby eliminating his need to come to NH. Bummer for me, since I was psyched to get out with Rob again, but a good deal for him. He’s embracing the full-on climber dirtbag lifestyle and is going to make the New River Gorge home base for a while. My best-laid plans had fallen apart once again, however, and needed a quick makeover.
In the past, a setback like this would have derailed me. I’d have ended up staying home, bitter at spending a nice day that could be spent on the rock in Waltham instead. Rather than give in to apathy, however, I drove up north set on making the most of the day. As it turned out, much of the middle of the day was rainy and gross anyways, so not ideal climbing weather. It was cool and cloudy by the time I got up north though, and I figured it would be a good day for a training day.
*****
In August, I’m heading to the North Cascades for a 10-day traverse of the Southern Pickets Range. It’s about as remote a place as you can get in the lower 48, and will include about 40-50 miles of hiking, climbing up to 5.9 with packs, glacier crossing, bushwhacking, and other types of type 2 fun. Rumney with Rob would have been fun (and hard, and good training for climbing harder rock routes), but it wasn’t really the type of thing that would best prepare me for the Pickets. Thus, enter Pat’s ridiculous introduction to mountain running.
I’ve been running for the past few years now, generally at a level I’d call kind of serious, but not serious by actual runner standards. I run most days I don’t climb, and usually between 5 and 8 miles. I’ve been hiking for most of my life, but have generally gotten away from it as I’ve become obsessed with climbing and running. Running is great, but running in the semi-urban environment around Waltham kind of sucks. I could have run at home before coming north today, but why run on Trapelo Road when you can run in the woods?
There are plenty of reasonable runs I could do up here in NH. Lincoln Woods offers a nice wide path and the opportunity to dispatch 8 or so miles along the Pemigewasset River. A totally reasonable choice, especially since the plan for Wednesday is an early morning hike of Franconia Ridge.
*****
Yeah, I don’t do reasonable very well. Instead of doing 8 miles of relatively flat trails, I figured I’d go for a run up Mt. Flume via the Osseo Trail. I’d hiked up it about 10 years ago during winter, and I don’t remember it being so bad, so I check the map (looks long, but should be good… probably should have checked the elevation changes though), and look it up online (oh, it’s 11.2 round trip… longer than I remember). Fuck it, even if I don’t run any of it, it’s not that long a hike and totally doable by dark.
I set off from the car at 2 and reached the summit at an hour and 29 minutes, 5.6 miles, and 3300′ of uphill later. Needless to say, I did NOT end up running the whole thing (which I knew would be the case), but was happy with how I did in terms of keeping moving and pushing through the fact that it sucked. I stopped a few times (the first being about 45 minutes into the ordeal), but never for long and used the flats to recover from the seriously steep. By the top, I had succeeded in meeting my goal for the day – I was WORKED!
Cumbre! – Spanish for, “Fuck, now I have to go down” #DatClimbVasTooHardForYou!
Running down the mountain was far more pleasant, though it offered its own challenges in terms of footing, pounding, and just motoring through tired muscles. The last two miles or so offered a significant case of runner’s euphoria, thereby leaving this misguided notion that the day’s experience was a good one?
Summit Panorama (click for full effect)
*****
Today may not have gone as planned, but it turned into a great day in the mountains. In fact, it was probably one of the best days in the mountains I’ve had in a long long time, combining some awesome views (yes, I do notice these things) with some physical punishment (yes, I know I’m a freak) and a sense of accomplishment. Is that sense of accomplishment seem good enough? Not a chance. The Pickets are going to require a lot more hard days out like this, but today was a good start.
Taking the Sharp End 