Hiking in the White Mountains

- After reaching one million feet of elevation gained for the year on August 24th, I was looking forward to mixing things up a bit, starting with changing my gym workout from a total body, light weight, high rep drop sets to a more conventional weight training program that I had done in the past, focusing on one or two body parts a day with free weights, heavier, fewer reps and sets. Unfortunately, on day four of this training regimen I pinched a nerve in my back. It was a pretty bad flare up that knocked me out from doing much for almost two weeks other than walking the Great Glen Trails with Sarge while figuring out the best physical therapy stretches to alleviate the pain. Luckily or unluckily for me, having dealt with pinch nerve / sciatica issue since my mid-twenties, I have quite a few stretches I go through to find the one that eventually helps me heal up to the point where I can tie my shoes without pain again.

- Finally, on September 11th I felt good enough to test out my back with an easy hike up the ski slopes to Wildcat D Peak followed by an intense stretch session. Good news is that I was healthy enough to get back out there, definitely sore and a little tender but no shooting pain at all.

- The following day I put my back to the test by joining in on the annual Chad Denning Memorial 50K on Moosilauke. It was a beautiful day going up, down, around Mount Moosilauke. There was a group of four of us who did the whole route, Dan, Jerimy, Todd, and myself, while about a half dozen others did a shorter version of the run. My back help up well, no pain, just soreness and fatigued. I knew I was past the pain stage when I stubbed my toe and went wildly flailing around before gaining my balance to stay upright as there was no shooting pain when this happened. Basically, I was back to about 75%-80%, as long as I stayed at "all day pace," which is what Todd had us doing for the 31 miles and 9K of elevation.

- After the big day on Moosilauke I had only one week left before Sarge and I packed up the Jeep and headed to Arizona for our Fall Cactus League season. Before leaving I was able to get up Washington four times, including once with Sarge, twice solo, and once with Todd on the day before I left where I was able to sneak in my annual trek up Huntington Ravine Trail. Huntington is my favorite trail in the Whites but one that has become tougher for me to do as I get older from a fear of exposure on the initial scramble where there is a twenty-foot section over slab that place tricks on my mind, the other 99.9% of the trail I'm fine with and love it!

- Sarge and I hit the road on Sunday the 20th, stopping at my parents house in RI for the day before leaving at 3:30 AM on Monday to head west, staying in Ohio, Missouri, and Texas, before reaching Flagstaff. Only traffic we hit, was in Connecticut at 5AM, having lived in CT in college and heading there once or twice a year since, I'm never surprised but always agitated with the awful traffic in that state.

- The main highlight of our drive was stopping at three Buc-ee's! If you are not familiar with Buc-ee's, it's the Disney World of Travel Centers. It's the best and worst of America in one store, the stores are spotless, run extremely well, prices of food and memorabilia are fair. However, the food is excessive, awful for you, and 75% of the people waddling around the store are obese. Luckily for Sarge and I we hit two of the three Buc-ee's at 6AM when it was a ghost town, so it was nice to stroll around and take it all in.

- The final stretch of the drive had us stopping in Winslow, AZ so Sarge could stand on a corner for one last tourist stop before ending our trip in Flagstaff where have set up home base for the next month before heading to Sedona for another few weeks.

- The last weekend in September I was able to head to the Grand Canyon, which has been devastated by flooding, closing North Kaibab Trail, the River Trail, and South Kaibab below the Tipoff. I was still able to make the best of my first Canyon run, heading down Bright Angel to the Colorado River and back up. The following day, Sarge and I headed to Sedona to watch the hot air balloon show from Bear and Doe mountains.

- As I head into October, I am hoping to head to the canyon as much as possible, maybe explore a new trail or two from the South Rim, take Sarge to Sedona, and hopefully get up Humphrey's Peak.

Sarge heads to the Great Glen Trails and poses by the "This Dood Climbed" auto road sign

Flags on the 48 coincided with the Chad Denning 50K Memorial Run again this year. Beautiful Day on Moosilauke

Heading to Lakes of the Clouds

Mount Washington summit #123 for Sarge

The coal fired steam engine cog train runs twice a day during the summer. Easy to spot from the plume of smoke it emits

The Fan in Huntington Ravine

Hikers carefully picking their way up the middle scramble in Huntington Ravine

Buc-ee's. After snapping his pic with the statue, Sarge tried to run inside, making it through one set of sliding glass doors before I could corral him!