My Peak Challenge: The Epic Weekend Finale

We must all listen to this, my last song selection from the playlist, while we read. Because if I wrote this, it means I survived and I'm not giant kitty food or lying at the bottom of a ravine.

On Top of The World by Imagine Dragons

Now that it's playing, on with the show.

Saturday: EPIC PI DAY (March 14, 2015) Sadly, I didn't eat any pie.
Super duper ultra thanks to my new friend and fellow My Peak Challenge member, Double L for inviting me to join her on the De Anza Trail on Saturday. I was a bit nervous to say yes. But I'm always a bit nervous when I meet people for the first time. You are awesome. I had a nice time. Next time we should have lunch after in town. I don't know about you, but my tummy was rumbling by the time I got home.

We did a total of 6 miles. We made it to mile marker 3, which is the farthest Double L has ever gone on the trail. So yay! And just in case you don't want your picture on my blog, here are some highlights without your face front and center.

Sunday: Et tu Brute (March 15, 2015)

While the guy who started the #MyPeakChallenge was running the LA Marathon, I was sleeping. I didn't want to get up. I knew there would be no heroic shots at the top of Mt. Willson today. Because I knew I wasn't going to be able to do the hike I wanted. Ms. Certifiable went certifiable and couldn't make it. I was angry. I've been running my ass off for 2 months (literally, my ass has fallen off like 3 times) to get ready for this big day. I was ready. It will have to wait. I decided I couldn't stay mad at Ms. Certifiable, there's no point. Shit happens and you get over it and move on. We will conquer Henry Coe another day. So I decided to make the best of it. Because I went with Double L yesterday to San Juan Batista, today I can do what I had originally planned to do for that day today instead. And that was this: 7-8ish miles up and back down Mt. Madonna. I started in Sprig day-use. Trails included were merry-go-round, loop trail cut-off, upper miller, blue springs, and sprig.

Lupine!!!!

first redwood grove on the way up

looks like the top... but it isn't. more to climb

made it to the miller ruins

at the top, sitting on miller's front steps

that's twisted!

on the way down

on the way down

I don't think people knew how important it was for me to do this this weekend. I don't think I even know. I just had to do... something. And if I had to go by myself, then I had go by myself. Did I join My Peak Challenge to raise money for leukemia and blood cancer research? Eh, honestly, no. I donated a whopping $5 bucks. I needed motivation to get back out there after my mom died. It worked. I'm running again. I have no idea if I lost weight, honestly, that isn't important to me anymore. I don't know what my weight is. But I'm getting muscle definition, I'm getting healthier. I haven't had a soda in 69 days. I think that's a new record. I hate the taste of fast food now. I'm going to keep it up. I just have to decide what my next peak challenge will be. I'm not done yet.

My Peak Challenge

I'm going back on my word. Sorry, not sorry. Long ago in a land not far from here, I said I would stop talking about my oh so exciting exercise and getting healthy drama. I told you all sorry here. Well, I'm going to be going back on that promise for a while. At least till mid March anyway. Why? Well, let me tell you.

The last day that I got outside and ran was September 29th, 2014 (I know this because I kept track on my kitty cat wall calender). Ironically that's exactly one month prior to the day my mom passed away from cancer (October 29th, 2014). I'm not sure my subconscious knew that something was up. Maybe it knew I should have been spending that time with my mom instead of out running circuits in my neighborhood. When she was in the hospital those last two weeks, it was never a choice. It was go see mom. November and December came and went. Now that it is January, I've decided that it's time to finally get outside again. I'm not one who makes New Years Resolutions. I would break them within a week or so. So I gave up on that silly stuff long ago. I've realized that the past two years or so, that I've settled. I never reached the goals I had set. I told myself, that that was okay. That I was healthy, and I wasn't fat or gaining weight. So it was okay. But it isn't. I shouldn't settle. So this year will be all about NOT SETTLING. And that is not just in my get healthy for reals part of my life. In everything. But in the get healthy for reals part I actually want to see my abs and not the muffin top. I want to eat healthy and get off processed foods. And so, to get me back out there and get my ass moving again, I've decided on #MyPeakChallenge.

I knew I needed some type of motivation to get me going again. I needed some sort of goal (not the end goal) to get me motivated and moving. And this fits... perfectly. I won't tell you all about the challenge's details here. Click on the link above and read all about it yourself. You can do it. It's not that hard, just mouse up and click. I'll wait...

Now that you're back and informed I had to decide on what my challenge would be. The event takes place March 14-15, 2015. That's not long from now. So a marathon was out. Not that I want to do a marathon anyway. So was doing an actual mountain peak. Mt. Lassen and Mt. Whitney (which are on my must conquer list) are out do to snow and permits respectively.

Mt. Lassen

Mt. Whitney

So what can I train for for two months? Two hikes. Crazy, but I've been wanting to go backpacking again. Time made me forget about the back spasms I guess. First will be hiking up Mt. Madonna (Mt. Madonna County Park) from outside the park. The second will be doing a 12 mile back country hike in Henry Coe State Park.
Here's a really bad pic of what I will be doing at Mt. Madonna:

it may look big, but it's only 6 miles or so

And well here is a link to the Henry Coe hike. I can't seem to figure out how to get a good topo pic. But in my defense, it is 1:42am.

And now for the history: You can skip this part if you want. This is just the scholarly part of me trying to make you all learn something.

Mt. Madonna is one of the largest parks in Santa Clara County, it being a county park. It sits at the top of Hecker Pass in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Gilroy in the east (where I live) and Watsonville in the west. Besides the park where you can go hiking, biking, horse riding, archery, and camping, there is also the Mt. Madonna Center. This is a temple (Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple), retreat, yoga, learning institute, etc. It is also home to Mt. Madonna School. This is a k-12 school hosted by the Center that has a focus on the arts. Now what I find interesting is that the ruins of Henry Miller's summer home is in the park. Miller is quite famous in Gilroy. He was a cattle baron from the 1850's till his death in 1916. There is a street named after him in Gilroy. He also helped establish the city of Los Banos. A cool old work related fact is that SCE (Southern California Edison) an electric company bought land and water rights from him along the San Joaquin River for their Hydroelectric Systems in Big Creek. If you have read any of my older stuff about my archaeology days, you know that I spent a great deal of time in and out and about SCE's Big Creek Hydroelectric Project. In Gilroy, he is famous for stealing land and cattle from less prosperous folks. And the coup de gras is that there is a ghost story about his youngest daughter. She died when she was 8 when she fell off her horse and it crushed her. She was riding in Mt. Madonna. They say she haunts the campgrounds and the old Mt. Madonna Inn. You can read about it here. It's awesome.

I'll save you the enormous yet pretty cool and interesting history of Henry Coe State Park. I did a day hike there years ago with a friend, if you like you can read that here. The short version is this: Henry Coe had an ginormous ranch called Pine Ridge Ranch which had over 12,000 acres. He gave it to his son, Coe Jr. who was an idiot and sold it to Beach Land and Cattle Company in 1948. Coe's kick ass daughter Sada, bought it back in 1950. She donated the property to Santa Clara County in 1953, and so it is named after her father. The state eventually took ownership over the county and things happened. It almost got shutdown in 2012, but got saved by awesome people with money and the Pine Ridge Association. The park is still growing in size. It is over 67,000 acres now.

I'm now done with today's lesson.

I have asked my "certifiable" friend to join me on the hikes. This is the same "certifiable" friend from the adventures in backpacking the Skyline to the Sea Trail that you can re-read here if you like. If she is able to get both days off of work like I hope, she will join me both days. If she can only get one of the days, then the day she gets off we will do Henry Coe. I'm not about to venture into the back country on my own. I ain't stupid! Whether or not she decides to join in the challenge or not, is up to her. I'm most excited about the t-shirt I get. I realize I have a problem.

Now, just a few more things. I found this particular motivation via my geekiness. I will write about much of this in a different post, but let's just say that I started reading a book series called Outlander back in September. I tried starting it years ago, but never got passed the first 100 pages or so. Then the tv gods decided to make it into a tv show, so, I thought, ok, better try it again. Well, I finished the series back in December. (that's 8 books peeps). These books helped get me through the last month of my mothers life and the first two months after her death. I would read till my eyes burned and could no longer focus. The books were my escape from reality. It was the only way I could get to sleep at night. So, I also watch the tv show and geek out and drool online. Which is how I found out about #MyPeakChallenge. I thought it was a good fit since by joining the challenge I am also donating to a worthy charity. Granted my mom didn't have this type of cancer (blood cancer), she did have myelogous leukemia the last few weeks or so when her myeloma spread out of her bone marrow and into her blood stream. The peeps running the challenge are also avid outdoorsy mountain climbing nuts, which I am as well, so it all seemed to fit nicely.

So to start I have been off my precious soda for 7 days as of the posting of this. And here I am after the first run since the last, 106 days ago.

4.06 miles in 40 minutes, I still got this

Oh God, I think I'm going to die

Trekking: Henry W. Coe State Park

A while back a friend of mine Facebook-ed me one night and asked if I wanted to go hiking the next day. Sure! Don't have to ask me twice. She drove down from Milpitas and I drove up from Gilroy and we met in the Parking lot of Trader Joe's in Morgan Hill. We drove up to the main entrance to Henry Coe. We were the only car, heck looked like we were the only visitors. We figured out the parking fee (on the honor system) and we set off on our first hike of the day (after my friend spotted a snake of course). We did a loop of the Monument Trail and the Ponderosa Trail. I had read in a little hiking guide book I have that this is a great trail for sweeping views and good for a short hike. It was about 2.4 miles. We did it pretty quickly. The views were pretty awesome. There is a steep section right at the beginning, we stopped once or twice to catch our breathe (but really it was to take in the views). We came back to the Coe Ranch Headquarters and had lunch, and decided to do another trail. We did a another loop that entailed the Corral Trail, Forest Trail, and the Springs Trail.

And that's where things went bad. Not super bad, to me anyway, because they all happened to my friend. We saw a little detour though some rocks and I went in front. And right when I said, "don't fall in the poison oak", she slipped and landed butt first into the poison oak. In the process tweaking her ankle. She said she would be fine so we continued on. Then she ran out of water on our way back. I gave her the last bit of my gatoraid. About 5 minutes or so from completing the loop she got overheated and we stopped and rested for a good 5 to 10 minutes. We made it back to the Headquarters and she puked. Ew. Luckily the Ranger decided to fix the photocopier machine so the visitor center/ gift shop was open. I went in and got her a cold water and me a soda. But of course I had to talk to the Ranger, but I'll tell you about that later. My friend sipped the water, and when we thought it was safe to get in my car to leave she puked again, but not in my car thankfully. I puked in someone else's car before and I have not lived it down yet. I then drive slowly back down the mountain and to her car. I ask if she will make it home ok. She assured me that she was going to be fine. I heard later that she didn't quite make it home before she puked again.

Question: How come every time someone pukes all conversation turns to "there was one time when I puked..." like this subject is suppose to make the person upchucking feel any better?

We were making fun of it all the whole time. The "oh my god, i killed Kenny" thing. In actuality we didn't bring enough water with us. At the headquarters there were water fountains and we should have restocked before we left for the second hike after lunch.

Also, I have puked horribly after ingesting gatoraid before. Most of them are too sweet and my body will react to that. And apparently so does my friend. She was also wearing shorts. I don't recommend shorts on these trails because of the poison oak and that some of the trails are narrow and through high grasses, so if one is sensitive to varying types of grasses brushing against your legs, then shorts should not be worn.

We had a great time except for her twisting her ankle, falling in poison oak, and upchucking. We didn't even scratch the surface of this parks network of trails. Henry Coe is the largest State Park in California. It is over 87,000 acres! Besides day hiking like we did, you can backpack, camp, fish, ride horses, etc. If you are backpacking, you better be serious and know what you are doing. 23,000 of that 87,000 is designated wilderness. You really can get lost... for many many days.

Also, this is one of the parks slated to close in July 2012. This lovely state decided to cut the State Parks budget in half and close over 70 state parks. I think this was one of the stupidest ways the state thought it could save money. And the Ranger I talked to agreed with me. When the park is closed and the trails and campgrounds are overgrown and the water system is turned off, who is going to find the idiot who decides to go on a backpacking adventure to prove he is all that, when he gets lost?? Who is going to patrol 87,000 acres to make sure nobody is growing pot in it or hunting illegally? And where is the state going to get the revenue the parks brought in? They may have a budget from the state but they also made money for the state. I don't understand why you would cut something that makes you money.

Anyway, you can see I have issues. Henry Coe Park is trying to fight its closure. If you'd like to help by donating money the Coe Park Preservation Fund is the place www.coeparkfund.org or if you are the letter writing type, write to your congress person.

Henry Coe has been my backyard my entire life, yet I have only been in it once. Strange that sometimes you don't see the value of a place, especially one so close, until it is threatened or gone.