Gear

Some of my fondest memories from childhood are walking in the woods with my brothers, father and uncle.  As a teenager we would go camping and hike to waterfalls or climb mountains in the Ozarks.  I took a camping class in college and made a B (a bit embarrassing for an engineering student and a story best accompanied by a strong drink).  As an adult, I still find a hike in the forest refreshing.  I am unsure if it is the solitude, the bird songs, the fresh smells or something else but I crave hiking. I had a lot of gear like good boots, layered clothing and a hat. My point is that even though I am experienced, there was still gear I needed that I did not have. The tour group sent a comprehensive list of all the gear I would need, so over my training period I slowly gathered all the correct gear.

I started with a new backpack.  My old one (in the Portland picture yesterday) has been all over the globe and is like an old friend. However, it will not hold enough for a 9 day hike so I had to shop for a bigger one.  I began online and quickly found  the REI store.  It is amazing!  REI stands for recreational equipment incorporated.  I like their gear and their website.  I also found a great backpack on clearance.  Now I love getting a good deal so I purchased this one:

When it arrived, I filled it with some of the items I already had like hiking pants, moisture wicking shirts and basic supplies.  I wanted to get a feel for wearing it like it would normally be packed.  I also added extra weight for training purposes. I played around with the adjustments until I was happy with the fit. Then I wore it for my stair climbing.

Last Christmas, my engineering team gave me a $100 gift card to Bass Pro Shop.  So on my next gear forage, I went there.  I needed four one liter Naglene bottles for Kili.  These are required because at some point we will receive boiling water and these bottles won't melt.  Also when sleeping on the glacier they won't crack if the water freezes.  Bass Pro Shop also has great wool socks so I grabbed a few pairs of those.  The brand name was Red Head which made me smile.  I have a great fondness for redheads (right, Trish?).  I got another pair of hiking pants to finish off the gift card.  At this point I am feeling pretty well equipped.

My third major forage was in Santa Fe.  One of our first stops in town was the REI store. If you remember, we were there over Memorial Day weekend.  This just happens to be their biggest sale of the year. Woohoo more deals!

I acquired a number of essential items on sale: trekking poles, a 1.5 liter water bladder, a compass and gloves. Since this trips is about personal reflection, I needed to be able to take notes.  I am an engineer (read huge nerd) so the only obvious solution was to take my iPad along. Since there are no outlets on the mountain, I clearly needed a solar charger for my iPad.  I had researched good ones and when I found it at REI it was on sale; yeah!  This is it and it worked well on the trails in Santa Fe.

While in REI I also got a consultation on the fit of my backpack.  He showed me what all the adjustments were for and taught me how to adjust it on the fly.  The REI employees are great.  After grabbing some more long underwear (I don't like to be cold that's why I live in Florida), I was fully geared up for the trip.

So here is what I will look like climbing up Kilimanjaro. 

One final note for those of you considering a similar hike: the tour group rents gear.  Living in southern Florida means a sleeping bag rated to -15 degrees is not something I could use often so it went on the rental list.  I also decided to rent the heavy mittens, the outermost pants and a pad to sleep on (a small luxury since I am old after all).

That about covers the gear.  I leave one week from today and I am very excited.

Training

There are so many things that might prevent you from reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro. I am (hopefully) mentally prepared to deal with things outside my control like weather, injuries or other potential possibilities that could make me miss my goal. What I absolutely do not want is to fall short because I lacked preparation.  At 90 days prior to departure, I kicked it into gear and started a training program.

I have never liked sports much so my regular activities are usually just biking, swimming and hiking.  I don't frequent the gym either so I was afraid it would be difficult to get in shape.   I reside in a seven story condo in an end unit.  I figured hiking the stairs from the roof to the ground would be a good start. In typical American fashion the builder put the stairs at the end of the building, so when I want to workout all I have to do is walk out the front door and I am 3 feet from the stairs!

I started slow, doing 2 full ascents with about 15 pounds in my backpack.  It was tough at first. But quickly enough, I worked up to 5 ascents every other day.  On the off days, I would do calisthenics and weight training.  About 60 days before departure I wanted to try a practice hike.  I had to go to Portland on business so we flew up early on Sunday and hiked up to Devils Rest.  The trail was about 7 miles long with 2300 feet of vertical ascent.  The guys I went with were younger than me and I slowed them down slightly during the ascent.  It was a gorgeous hike though and I made it reasonably well.  Here is a picture of me at a waterfall along the way.

When I returned to Naples, I kicked it up a notch.  I was unhappy that I had slowed down the hike in Portland.  I added weight to the backpack and increased the ascents eventually achieving 25 pounds and 10 ascents each day. It felt great to know I could do 10 ascents at my age.  Over Memorial Day weekend we flew to Santa Fe to get in a practice hike at altitude.  I planned to go to Santa Fe Baldy at about 12,200 feet.  I had gotten a trail map from the ranger station the day before.  Trish and I had also taken a few short hikes to acclimatize during the preceding days, I was ready for the solo hike.  However I made a rookie mistake on this hike.


I left at 6:00am to ensure I had a full day and could take my time.  When I arrived at the trail head, dawn was breaking and it was 39 degrees Fahrenheit.  I followed the trail and quickly shed layers as the day warmed and I was working up body heat.  When I came to the first fork, the trails were not marked.  I looked at the map and it said I was to take the first fork to the right, so I did.  The trail was supposed to be moderate to difficult.  As I hiked, once again I thought I had not trained hard enough.  I was really working to make it up this hill.  After a couple of hours of hard hiking, I encountered beautiful vistas and some very friendly chipmunks. 

At the top, I lost the trail.  I backtracked a few times and just could not seem to pick it up past the summit.  Eventually, not wanting to be lost in the wilderness alone, I reluctantly turned back and took the trail down where I had come up.  When I arrived back at the fork, there were other hikers present. I asked about where I had lost the trail, they said I had taken the trail to Raven's Ridge which was not on the map.  One of the hikers commented that the trail is too strenuous for most locals and she avoids it.  I tried to continue on for a while, but I had overdone it at high altitude and eventually turned back.  My hike totaled about 6 hours that day and I had made it to about 12000 feet.  I experienced some mild altitude symptoms like fatigue and a headache, so I took a nap when I got back to the hotel.  I think it was good training.

My daughter and parents came to town for the month of June, so we moved into a condo in a 12 story building.  I thought I would start the stair climbing training at 4 or 5 ascents.  Boy was I wrong.  I had no idea how much rest you get going down.  I made it two full ascents the first try.  It was really tough but I was doing it.  I was so happy the day I realized I had climbed over 1000 steps that morning.  I eventually worked up to 5 ascents which equalled 1136 steps with 25 pounds each day.  I am in the best shape physically that I have been in 20 or more years.  I feel better then I did at age 35.

I think I am ready physically and mentally.  Preparing also consists of acquiring the proper gear, but I save that for the next post.

A half a century

As my 50th birthday approached this year, it made me reflect on my life. I have great friends, a great job, and I live in a great place, so there is little I would change.  Men my age are expected to have a mid-life crisis. I've had friends that bought sports cars or motorcycles as they hit age milestones.  Some of them even got depressed or had affairs.  But I am not that typical guy, so instead of having a mid-life crisis, I decided to go on a mid-life grand adventure. The problem was where to go or what to do.  I am lucky in that I have always traveled where ever I dreamed of going: Australia, India, Europe, South America.  I really could not think of something spectacular that fit my situation.  So I began to solicit suggestions from others and kept a list of the better ones. I had some great suggestions, like: Cage diving with sharks, hiking the Appalachian trail, or sky diving.  All of these were inspiring ideas, but one night my friend Krissi suggested climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Hmmm.  I added it to the list.  Over the next few weeks as I prioritized my list, it kept rising to the top.  It fit every thing I wanted to get out of my adventure: a little danger, a little travel, a little endurance training, and a lot of intrinsic cool factor.  So finally- I booked it.  Thanks Krissi, I owe you one.

I have traveled alone before, but most of my exciting international adventures have been with my significant other and best friend, Trish.  She really wanted to go on this adventure, too, but her grad school schedule and tendency for altitude sickness made her decide to pass on Kilimanjaro. Besides, she has been to Africa twice already.  But she is really cool and encouraged me to do this trip for me.  I will miss having her with me, but as Joe Banks says, "There are some doors in life you have to walk through alone".  This is one of mine.  I am approaching this trip as a sort of system reboot.  I will extract myself from my normal trappings for a while and spend time in Africa, on a mountain, freezing my tail off when tent-camping on a glacier!   Seriously , I should have a lot of time for quiet reflection during the long hours of hiking each day. Not having email and a phone will definitely take some getting used to. I think it will be good for me face a challenge of this magnitude at this stage in my life.

So there it is: I'm climbing to the highest point in Africa at 50 years old. Tomorrow I will post more about how I've been preparing for the trip.