Mt. Tallac

3 short (like one minute) Youtube videos on the way up the mountain.
Making the Ridgeline

Greg joining the party and celebrating

Panoramic view from the summit

It's been a LOOOONG time since I've stood on the summit of a High Sierra mountain. Too long.

We're climbing Mt. Whitney in 4 weeks. At 14,400 feet, dealing with the altitude is the toughest part of that trek, so we decided that some high-altitude training was required. Mt. Tallac, at 9700 feet, is the tallest and toughest hike we could find that we could do as a day hike.

3:45 a.m. came really early. Driving to Bev's house I could tell that most of the cars on the road were going home, and the lane markers on the freeway were mostly for reference only. After driving to Tahoe and getting set up we were out on the trail at 8:00 a.m.

Mt Tallac sits on the western shore of Lake Tahoe, straddling the western shore of the Lake Tahoe basin and the Desolation Wilderness. With roughly 3500 feet of climbing in the 4.5 miles to the summit, it's pretty much straight up the entire way. We started off hiking through the alpine forest, in the cool, crisp mountain air that just feels like it refreshes your soul.

Greg and Bev's friend Lora met us at the start and stayed with us up to the point where the trail started getting dicey. Good choice on her part. The girls told each other girl stories and I kind of went the other way with Greg, passing on quite possibly the funniest and most disgusting story ever. I'll leave it at that.

As we climbed higher the views kept improving. From the first glimpse of Fallen Leaf Lake, all the way to the summit, the views just got better. A brief rest at Cathedral Lake gave Greg the opportunity to capture our amazing glutes for all posterity.

Shortly after the rest stop the fun really started. We left the forest canopy for good and entered the high country. The trees thinned out, eventually fading away entirely. The trail took a quite noticeable turn upward, and eventually just disappeared. The snowpack had come down to meet us, and had swallowed up what probably was a trail. Instead we were free scrambling over loose boulders. The hiking poles were useless, so we put them them away and grabbed for hand holds and tried not to slip on the loose rocks. At over 8,000', and attempting to boulder scramble up about a 30 degree slope, we were seriously huffing and puffing. Not knowing if this was even the route to the top made the trek even more, uh, dicey. We saw two guys coming down, and they did confirm that we were on the trail. After quite a long and vigorous struggle we eventually popped out of the Talus field and had made the ridgeline. That's the first two videos above.

From there the trail was much easier to follow. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, and we had to make our way across multiple snow fields. The poles were a big help here.

Finally, one more talus field, fortunately much easier than the first one, and we were at the summit. 9700 feet in the air, with a panoramic 360 degree view, was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. The struggles of the climb were all worthwhile as we sat on the summit enjoying our sandwiches (thanks Bev!).

All in all, the altitude hadn't proven to be much of a factor. Very mild dizziness and a slight headache were all the ill effects anyone suffered. That's very encouraging. Whitney is obviously much higher, but the trail is nowhere near as difficult. So we'll see. But for now, mission accomplished on Mt. Tallac!

Goal Weight

"All men have to do is just think about losing weight. It's so much easier for them".

We all have our hot-buttons. That's one of mine. After struggling and losing the battle for the last nine months I finally got serious about dropping a few lbs. The trajectory of my weight was definitely going in the wrong direction, and had been basically since I started my new job. After the week-long debauchery of our Puerto Vallarta vacation, where my days consisted of unlimited food, free alcohol, and lots of Cuban cigars, I returned and had one of my "Oh Hell No" moments.

So for the last 5 weeks I've been following a pretty strict plan. Oatmeal for breakfast every day. 4-5 meals a day with portion control. No calories from liquids, other than the occasional cocktail. No dessert. Hit the gym hard 4-5 days a week during the week. A long mountain hike or long bike ride on the weekends. Or Both. It's not exactly a book-worthy plan. Diet and exercise. I know, it's revolutionary.

Anyway, after 5 weeks of this I've dropped the 8 pounds I wanted to lose and am back under 150 lbs, which is good for a short guy. I've considered celebrating by going to Outback Steakhouse and pounding down a Blooming Onion and a platter of Baby Back Ribs. I suppose I should. After all, losing weight is so easy for men...

Tanzania says "come for a visit"

Dropping my passport in the mail was a bit of an unnerving experience. I sent it UPS, but still, that's my identity and losing it wouldn't be fun. Nevertheless, if you want a Visa that's what you have to do. A Visa processing company in Texas handled all the details, and $140 and 10 days later I now have a Tanzania Visa stamp in my passport.

This was a first for me. I've done a fair amount of international travel, but Tanzania will be the first place I've visited that didn't just accept a passport. Yet another step in the process is complete. The butterflies have returned to my stomach for another brief flutter. This expedition becomes more real each day!

The Devil's Hole

Bev: I'm sweating so hard I have sweat running down my ass-crack
Me: Ladies don't "sweat". Ladies "glow"
Bev: OK, fine, my ass is glowing

That exchange from a couple of weeks ago was enough to make me go back to blogging. The adventure is in full swing. We're training like crazy. I'm whipping my sorry ass back into shape. The details are coming together. It just seemed like I should capture all of the fun as it's happening, so now I'm back to posting here. We'll see how regular it ends up being.

The Devil's Hole is yet another in the little hidden treasures available in the East Bay that I knew nothing about. We hiked to it in Las Trampas Open Space in the hills above San Ramon. There are some wonderful day hikes up here. This particular one really should only be attempted by skinny 4-legged animals with hooves. Our destination was at the bottom of a canyon hidden in a creek-side tree canopy. After hiking up and down through lots of scrub brush we found this little pocket of greenery, with a babbling brook, moss-covered rocks, and the feel of a rain forest. Quite a lovely spot.

Getting out of there was another story. We missed the trail marker because it was covered in overgrowth, and eventually found our way out via a single track trail so steep that steps had been carved into the hillside. Wonderful views on the way up, but I wouldn't want to slip. I also wouldn't want to try this on a hot summer day. What a nice day for the marine layer to cooperate!

For the numerically inclined

Here's something for the number crunchers out there: All the summary data from the Garmin. Pardon the formatting. The time column is elapsed time for that day, not ride time which would have been more interesting. My highest speed on the entire trip came on the first descent on day 1. You may also notice that we climbed more than we descended. That's actually accurate. We missed a major downhill section during the rainout at the Montana border.

The columns are set up as follows:
distance, time, max speed, ascent, descent

Calgary to Kananaskis Camp
51.25, 5:29, 43.30, 2350, 1745

Kananaskis Camp to Longview
95.77, 7:56, 40.80, 5395, 5571

longview to Pincher Creek
84.36, 7:08, 33.50, 4030, 4383

Pincher Creek to St Mary (shortened)
44.87, 5:34, 36.50, 3862, 2218

St Mary to Kallispell (Going to the Sun Road)
83, 9:09, 32.20, 4308, 5841

Kallispell to Eureka
71.4, 5:35, 34.50, 2051, 2227

Eureka to Ft. Steele
64.29, 5:07, 37.00, 2463, 2443

Ft Steele to Windemere
67.96, 6:01, 34.60, 2174, 2054

Windemere to Golden
76.69, 6:07, 31.50, 2786, 2864

Rogers pass, golden to Revelstoke
95.71, 7:38, 43.00, 4687, 5837

Revelstoke to Kamloops
134, 10:43, 36.00, 4792, 5010

Kamloops to Blue Lake (2 days)
144.09, 10:54, 36.50, 5496, 4394

Blue Lake to Jasper (2 days)
132.72, 10:22, 33.20, 5070, 3870

Jasper to Icefields campground
88.64, 8:44, 41.10, 5616, 4367

Icefields to Banff
104.69, 8:53, 39.00, 6212, 6148

Banff to Calgary
81.83, 6:39, 35.00, 2789, 3739

Totals
Miles: 1421.27
ride time: 121:59 hours
Max Speed: 43.30 MPH
Total Climbing: 64081 feet
Total Descending: 62711 feet

The family reunion song

Six year old (yes, 6!) Kamille wanted to do something special as part of the family reunion. She came up with the idea of having a concert. So she and Laurie worked for a couple of days putting the show together. Kamille made tickets that she handed out to everyone. She wrote most of the words to the song, and she and Laurie put the arrangement together. This is just too cute for words. Click on the link below to see the song on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tutone001#play/all/uploads-all/0/CdJRdVysM5Y

The Paul Family Reunion

I'll be wrapping up the Canada trip posts over the next few days, and making a video slide show, but in the meantime I thought I'd send out an update on the rest of my adventure. I flew out of Calgary on Friday and met Laurie in Cincinatti. Her family had an extended family reunion over the weekend at her cousin Cynthia's house.

Laurie's family is spread out all over the country, so this was the first time they'd had a group like this come together. About 40 people showed up, and they all made me feel like family. It's really interesting hearing an entire family's set of shared stories. Some highlights:

• Smoking stogies with Uncle Tony, an 85 year old WW2 veteran.
• Just hanging out with Uncle Tony and Aunt Lou. They've been married for 57 years. I think this one's going to last.
• Hearing about Fat Finger Pauly, No-Neck Vinnie, and Joey bag-o-donuts.
• The Family Reunion Song. I'll have a post about that and a link to the youtube video in a couple of days.
  
• Little girls. We have none in my family. God they're cute.
  
• "I'm talking and I can't shut up". Laurie had t-shirts printed up for the family members with this printed on the back.