Team: Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to the Live Ultralight podcast. Today we are doing part two of our Beaver or Tushar Mountain fast pack. We did part one on the trail, we did not, or we're not able to get the second part recorded on the trail due to some rain, which we'll cover, and then also just finishing up the trail and getting home. So today we're back in the studio and then we've got Brennan joining us
Team: virtually as well, but we've got everyone that was on the fast pack with us. And we're gonna actually take you back through this trip and just talk about how awesome it was. How crazy was how hard it was? Lessons learned all sorts of good stuff but it was definitely a trip. I think all of us will remember and we're stoked about it. So to get started though we do want to do a little bit of a
Team: recap just to make sure that we did Cover. If we haven't. Already just what is fastpacking? Why we chose this route and yeah kind of what are what our goals were I guess setting out in this. So Really quick. If you haven't listened to the episode, I don't remember the episode off the top of my head to the number. But early this spring, we did an episode with Jeff LTA and he talked about fastpacking, we really
Team: go off deep. I believe me and Brigham were the ones doing the interview and we
Team: were quite fascinated. With the possibilities and the big possibility that we were seeing is just the ability to do things. Start time period. Be able to do things that we typically couldn't, because we have time constraints with families and jobs and other responsibilities. But to be able to short night condense it to be able to pull off trails that maybe we wouldn't be able to otherwise and that that was I think the big takeaway for me
Team: in Brigham. I don't know if there was other pull to it for you, Brigham. Yeah,
Team: mostly similar to yours was just doing trips that you typically wouldn't have and you might not be able to see in the certain amount of time, but when you implement kind of
Team: a faster pace and The fast backpacking? It just opens up. Another realm of being able to be in the mountains and see more beautiful country in giving Windows time, Yeah. And so to explain fastpacking itself, I really like Jeff's. Explanation of just look your hiking, the uphills. Like you're not running up the hills, your
Team: jogging, the flats, and then you're running down the hills. So it's it's a mixture of hiking and jogging and running and you're just basically trying to cover as many miles as you can just do it quicker. So you you change the backpack, you have it's more like a vest style backpack and there's different piece of gear you might change. But for the most part is just like backpacking. With the back. Pack design for you to move
Team: and gives you more access to things like food and water, while you're active and while you're moving. So anyways, to give an example of why we chose this particular trailer is last year. We went and we hiked another mountain range near is called Pine Valley. That trip ended up being right around 33 or 35 miles. I want to say we did that over about two and a half days. This year doing it. The fast pack method
Team: we basically doubled that mileage. Almost exactly. And we did it in the same exact amount of time and we had I Believe by twice the amount of elevation. So twice, the mileage twice, the elevation, but the same amount of time. So just really open up our possibilities to do a trail that otherwise would have taken us five days on a pace that we would have maybe been taking a year ago, so that's the appeal to it.
Team: And that's kind of what I guess fastpacking is in general. So at the end of part, one of this particular podcast series, we talked a lot about Day one went oh we did 26 and a half miles. However, almost feeling and let's just pick things up from there. So after we shut off the podcast, we all went to bed. Thank you guys all. Slept pretty good, right?
Team: Yeah, I mean I slept super well
Team: even Brennan and his baby. I think got a couple hours lately. Oh yeah, I was in a baby for about 12 hours and probably slept for 10 of them. We were in. I was impressed that you got some sleep that night.
Team: I slept so good. I when I woke up the next day I fell pretty much just the same as I've been sleeping on my own bed and some of that comes from, I mean I sleep pretty well in General, on the trail But not always and this time that night especially just ended up being one of those. For me. So I was ready to go on day two.
Team: I think everyone got a lot more hours in the tent, which was helpful. Like we were in the tents for a long time and like at home. Sometimes you just, you get to lay in your bed for, like, six hours. So, that's the most amount of sleep. You can get where, as We were in our tents for probably what? I don't know, Brandon said 12 hours, I don't know if that's accurate or not but it was
Team: a long time, we crashed. Afterwards. And also keep in mind that Derek could probably sleeping and upside down, he's just got that ability. So, but I think I was the only one that I, you know, we had our food, we did our, we did our podcast and we went to bed, I laid down and I felt okay, but I kind of kept feeling like my like I was getting hot like pulling the covers off me just
Team: thinking like, man, I'm hot my stomach felt hot and then I started, I fell asleep kind of drifted off and then about every 30 minutes, For the next. Two, three hours I was waking up feeling, super nauseous, thought I was gonna throw up and then I got a couple hours straight of sleep and then woke up again around 3 a.m. and was feeling super nauseous again and and signed you. I was not in a good situation.
Team: I don't know, I wasn't sure what was going on, but I didn't get great sleep and I was feeling super nauseous. Woke up the next morning, Feeling pretty, pretty diagnostic still, I tried to get some food down thinking that maybe I just needed some food, I don't know if that helped me or hurt me in the long run. I just did not super agree with me. Yeah, that's how I was starting off my day. And I
Team: know that we kind of left it at the end of yesterday or the last Episode. Where was that? So maybe Brandon tell us kind of where you were feeling or what you were feeling like at the start of that day, with your knee. And how the first Um, yeah, so just to kind of give everybody a brief overview. Probably towards the late afternoon about miles 15 of the last day, I started struggling with some pretty bad
Team: knee pain. And definitely slowed the guys down a little bit. And like I even got a point where it was pretty bad word. I wasn't ready to quit but I was just like hey in case this gets worse to put my help and my best interest and just protect my health. I was asking the guys hey if this does get worse tomorrow. Where is like the next cut off point where I could maybe get off Trail.
Team: And the guys were super supportive of me they just kept me going offering me electrolytes or slowing down or whatever we needed to do to kind of keep me there and just get me to Camp that night that night. I took some ibuprofen and some Acetaminophen. I just thought I'd see how I felt in the morning and it definitely wasn't perfect but it was good enough that I could go at a fast hiking pace is just
Team: the downhill running those. A little bit of a struggle to constant change of pace. But just goes to show that like everybody's gonna hit walls at different times like tastings wall was getting sick and my wall was knee pain and other people hate Cal walls and but if you can just kind of push it through him, maybe get a good night's rest just its best. To see if you're feeling in the morning and just push through
Team: the wall. So that's what we did.
Team: I think another aspect for tasting at least Beyond just getting sick as you started like yelling at night. Oh,
Team: I I was drugged out of my tent by a bear in the night, it
Team: was pretty intense. I was yelling pretty hard attempting to yell pretty hard turns out. I was just dreaming, you know? But What actually happened was is the weirdest thing is. I I was yelling trying to get out of my tent this Bears dragging my tent off and Finally, when I get out of my tent, I went running over towards Darren and Brigham's tents and I don't remember which one of them, you know, stepped out of their
Team: tents and they kind of walked up behind me. Like what's going on in like like put their hand on my back and right as they put their hand on their, my back I woke up and my like left trap was cramping. And so my head was like, turned to the side. Like I couldn't. Like I think that was part of why I couldn't yell but so I woke up and I'm like, man, I wonder if I
Team: was yelling because I was sure trying to yell as hard as I could, and Darren in the morning confirmed that someone was yelling and
Team: Was right next to my hand and so I assumed it was him. He
Team: was kind of in between,
Team: that was waiting to hear some rustling to see if there was really some kind of bearing. I like to hear is yelling go away and as I was talking to bring him tastes like, I had the craziest dream and
Team: it landed right up with what? I heard that person yelling go away. Go away, you know, and it was Chasing.
Team: Yeah, when I woke up I thought for sure I was gonna have to like Get up and be like, no, it's me. I just had a bad dream because like, I just laid there. Listening like, man, someone's got to get out of their tent. I was screaming, you know what I mean? Like, at least in my dream, I was here, like, maybe I didn't yell, because no one was getting out of their chance. None of this
Team: moving, I'm like, all right, I guess I'll try to go back to bed, but I was pretty convinced that someone was gonna be At least inquiring after me but apparently Darren's just like he quit screaming, he's fine, you know. That's why it's too.
Team: I'll make sure that was tired Aaron's. Got my back. I guess when the bear comes and became that was I totally forgot about that. So yeah, we had in the morning. Brandon feeling a little bit better with his knee but not perfect and tasting, just totally unsure of what the heck was happening with between yelling and dreaming and feeling sick. And I think the rest of us were feeling pretty good.
Team: Yeah, we had kind of identified that like the first bailout point for Brennan was gonna be about three miles of the mountain from, where our camp was. And so we were like, that'll be a good. Test to see how you're feeling that day and we like we had kind of Taken Jeff's advice from the fastpacking intro episode of like deciding to do breakfast. Three or four miles down Trails, just get up and get moving, get your
Team: body warm and then have have a bigger meal further down. So that was what we did. We were we were camping, a beautiful little spot next to a stream on the side of this Valley. And and we're a little worried about bears because we need that was their country. It wasn't
Team: far from a very hot spot Bear Country for sure. Yeah,
Team: where bears are consistently and camps and stuff. But then
Team: all. So we knew that there had been a ton of flooding around southern Utah from flash floods and we were camped next to a stream. So that was like something. We were just keeping in mind, we didn't want to flash flood while we were sleeping but that night was good. And then we had We had three mile climb right off.
Team: I was not yeah, I wasn't expecting that. I was like, oh it's pretty much flat to get to the next spot where we'll probably do breakfast. And so, basically right out of Camp, I was just very uncertain. How I Was Gonna Fill and then we started climbing this hill, almost right away and I was like this day is not like usually like you end the day feeling like crap and you wake up and you feel so
Team: much better. But it was like thought it was like the opposite went to sleep, feeling just tired and then woke up feeling like this isn't good. My stomach is killing me. I can't really eat energy slow and So, yeah, I was pretty quick after camp, where I knew that the day was not going to be a normal day for me. but was able to kind of Push through and like it wasn't hindering me from moving. I
Team: guess I didn't have high energy but I was able to move I was just kind of, stomach pain and running through all the list of things of like man what could have got me sick like what's going on with my body? And That's pretty much where I stayed the next two days in my head at least it was like what the heck's going on. But yeah, we we got we got the few miles down, we even
Team: did it. We did some running climbed up, a few different Hills and kind of jogged into this spring and then set up to get some breakfast down. And I just was thinking at that point, like, I just gotta have food. Like I just maybe I'm just a huge calorie deficit. I just need to get food down and so I actually cooked up Mountain house and did everything I could to try to get that down because just
Team: nothing was sounding good. And got about half of it down and that was about as much as I could stomach. And that was the most, I ate that entire day was about half of one, sorry Peak refuel, I might have said, mountain house but about half of one Peak refuel and that's the most, I ate the rest of the day, but Yeah. I mean from their Brandon was doing well and he's he was ready to go.
Team: So we had no, we were at that point. We were worrying about Brennan struggling or anything like that and I was we basically just got going and kept moving the miles on the trail.
Team: So we may have mentioned this in the last episode but we piece together, this Trail to go all the way through the Tushar mountains. Something that nobody that we know of is ever done before, but one thing that I thought was super lucky and super great for mealies was as we as we jump from one tail to the next Trail, to kind of make our way through the through the mountain range. We would pass these trailheads
Team: with, you know, good out houses and stuff. So I didn't have to use up all my toilet paper and
Team: and we was just time to almost perfectly for me, you know, we're talking about like clockwork, how, you know, certain times in the morning, sometimes you just got to go do your thing. And And we just happened to jump onto new trailheads for the first couple days. Right when that Clockwork time was for me. And so I thought that was a highlight and pretty neat.
Team: I felt the exact same way. So Yeah,
Team: that was right after this breakfast, it tastes and mentioned, we jumped onto the skyline Trail, basically, right after we stopped to get some water and have breakfast. And and there's a there's a nice Trailhead right there. So
Team: yeah. So I from there, we started, we started cruising along and there was quite a lot of climbing the rest of this day. So day one, we did 5800 feet of elevation So just a ton of elevation on day one, plus the 26 miles. And today, I think in my head I was thinking like we climbed a lot. I know there's more climbing but like I thought there was bigger sections of lack of climbing, you know,
Team: and so I was definitely wrong for kind of a section from breakfast. So towards that lunchtime, and that's really that's where I started to really fill it as well. So on flats or neutral type ground or downhills I could run, I could I could move, but it was like the second. It was uphill. I was just struggling hard. And that's when I need to that. I was just way behind on calories. So because I've been sick,
Team: I just was able to eat as much and then I was really budding into felt like a lot of of a cal wall. But yeah, just just kept trying to to move and push forward and again was just thinking like, what did I do that? That caused this? And one of the things I thought is, you know, I thought for a second on day one, I was getting a little bit behind on hydration. And I started
Team: just pounding water. And so one of the questions that's still out there is I might have kind of waterlogged myself which I May or may not be a thing. I, I really don't know, but it's one of multiple options, but anyway, so we kind of get through part of that. And we decide we meet up, and I'm feeling like I'm slowing the group down at this point. A big part of this trip was to get good
Team: research done and to experience a fastpacking trip the way it's supposed to be, which, which to me was like, you guys need to be running. You need to be moving miles and so I kind of pushed to make the call that we would split up. We had two Garmin in reaches, And I feel like I was holding people back. I kind of drug Brandon and to my crew and said, all right, me and Brandon will stay
Team: back and we'll let you guys try to move forward and go at whatever fastpacking rate you guys want to go at, So, we split up and, and kept moving along and then at lunch time, or I believe I was when you were having lunch. We actually did meet back up with you guys. You guys got quite a bit ahead of us but then we we sunk back up at lunch and were able to kind of
Team: talk through some things and then just like Darren had predicted, that was about the time. The storms were were starting to brew on the horizon. So Yeah, I missed anything. I guess leading up to this point. I mean, we did get some awesome views. As well, which I definitely. So if you want to see any of these views or things like that, make sure that you do tune in to our YouTube channel. Make sure you're subscribed
Team: because a little bit later, most likely around September time frame. We're released a series, we'll call the Hardline Challenge, and we'll be putting all of the stuff we've been doing into video format. You can see exactly what we're talking about, and, and really grasped some of the views we saw. How much rain, we saw maybe some of the lightning Which we'll get to but it's just some awesome views right there before lunch too.
Team: Yeah, I think. There was about 15 miles that day that we did that. We were just kind of dipping in and out of the tree line and just seeing the storms roll in from a long ways of way. And knowing that we were we were trying to get through the really exposed part before the storm happened, but the way that it shook out, Brigham Darren Derek. And I Hit the most exposed part.
Team: We kind of got there,
Team: like, just right above Tree Line like perfect timing for the storm to just hit us pretty hard.
Team: And it was a good stretch, where we wouldn't have any kind of coverage for a while. We were kind of just kind of move as fast as we could get through there. And there's a lot of storms at one point. Wait,
Team: wait, wait, wait. We gotta have Darren tell the story. Okay, of lightning legs himself.
Team: This was the highlight of my trip.
Team: so yeah, we're in this exposed area and Tyler at the time was Recording some Thunder. And I think, you shouldn't it was putting the camera down, I was like, hey, you got some good Thunder on on camera there and we're just kind of talking about that and Then we just hear a lot crap, you know, like loud. Enough was like someone's clapping right in your ears. You dropped to the ground and you know there was a
Team: big old crack of whitening and thunder that went off right next to us and it's scared us. All we dropped to the ground because
Team: it was close. It was not more than two seconds. Oh and between the cracks between the Flash and the crack. Yeah. Right. It was right there.
Team: We were looking around like, oh yeah,
Team: pretty crazy. And I turned around to look and make sure it was okay. And Derek's, 100 yards down the trail.
Team: Took off and smart thing to do, you know, like there's lightning. There you go on to get out of the area, but we did all we could to catch up to him and we couldn't not Not till we got to a good. You know, area with cover that we actually caught up with Derek but he hears jumping over Boulders and streams and all sorts of
Team: obstacles. We'd usually walk over and he was getting out of there, so he gave him the nickname lightning legs. You know.
Team: That was his Trail name that we decided for this. So
Team: yeah, we were averaging like 15 to 17 minute miles. I think, like, going up and down and through there and I think if we went back and looked on Strava, that'd be a 8-minute. About a mile.
Team: Luckily like the direction of travel at that point was either flat or downhill. Yeah
Team: so like serve two purposes it's like downhill means less lightning danger but it also means we could run and Derek could run fast.
Team: Yeah. So like but it was sketchy because it was like Talus slopes that we were sidewalks and it was wet and there was like all of these raspberry bushes grabbing your legs and stuff. And so it was like we're just blasting through the mud and rocks and yeah covered a lot of country in that, that was where we saw. The only two people we saw on the whole trip. Yeah,
Team: the older couple that was pretty running the tester race. That
Team: was there doing pretty running? Yeah, they were running, they were running down to get the heck out of there and we're like running just into it. Yeah. More more into it and try to get down to the cabin's,
Team: he had some weird looks and some be careful comments for us at the past but when that cracking head, I looked around for a second because I got scared like everyone. Did. And that kind of made me just kind of look around and I see Brigham off the trail and I'm just like, I'm out of here. It wasn't like a look around and see everyone and then run it like, I'm simultaneously running as I see Brigham like fall.
Team: Okay, yeah, I'm not stopping but it was good because we were able to get through that most exposed part pretty quickly. And then even though we were still really high up, we ended up filtering water in a pretty deep Little Valley. That that came down from the peak. And we thought way better about the lightning where we were getting water right there because we were You know, it was a pretty tight little draw so that was good.
Team: Yeah. I mean for mine and Brendan's perspective. We we let you guys you know we let just thought it'd be nice to let you guys leave before us at lunch and I laid down on the grass for a minute and tried to try to close my eyes for about five minutes and then we took off behind you and so I think that particular lightning bolt. We were just down on the trees. Like oh, that was a
Team: good one. You know, you guys are up on top, take it off for running. Luckily that that's my favorite. Stretch of the trail from where We got water at lunch time to go to that password lightning hit and then the next I don't know how many miles that's my favorite stretch. Like for sure. And it's also logistically. The best stretch because you cross several streams at a easy interval. Yeah. So you have so you're not you're
Team: not wondering if you've got enough water to the next one, you have more than enough. And
Team: so you're just kind of like topping off and then like we got good discussion while we were down in that deep stream bed of just like the scenery and the mist. And because where we were was like, if you looked to your right, it was Alpine Tundra. And if you look to your left downhill, it was like, you know, just
Team: sparse pine trees. And then wait down below like this, the thick forest, it was really cool. what was kind of crazy about
Team: the rest of the day is that it kept raining and, and actually, hailing for a while as we were As we were running. And so we didn't really get a break from that for pretty much. So we crawled into our tents at night. Short break set up later on, but with that non-stop rain, I think as we continue down the trail and threw all this beautiful stretches, they were really beautiful. We were exposed to thunder and
Team: lightning quite a bit but it was kind of a cool perspective to see what the like Brigham mentioned the clouds and the waters and the rain coming down on it all. Think some of us started getting some water to start to soak through some of our gear, some of our jackets started getting saturated and and things like that. And so, towards the end of the day, things started getting a little bit chilly for a lot of us. Yeah. Yeah.
Team: The wind picked up. Quite a bit when we were going over that very highest point in the trip. And by that time we had, we had like, I know, Darren and Derek and I had been soaked through for probably an hour by then. So as that wind picked up all the sudden our hands were frozen. We're feeling really cold. We're also at like miles 17 or 18. And I've been pretty much all of Hill. So, we
Team: were tired and Frozen and the water was just like, screaming down where we were trying to go up and so we're like slipping. Yeah. It was a pretty miserable hour or maybe not quite an hour, but It was cold and wet and slippery. And we're all just like still worried about the lightning because we're still really exposed. And so we're just like, we just gotta get over this Summit and down to the campsite. So you're just
Team: rooting your way through it at that point. so,
Team: Yeah, I mean for me and Brandon. First off, I do got a note, two things that I didn't cover one. Me and Brandon we saw a well I think Brandon you saw it but saw weasel. A little baby weasel is pretty cool or ferret? I don't know. One of the difference to be honest. I did not see it. So that must have been all you you didn't see it. Yeah,
Team: I saw one we got to the end of the Trail by. Yeah I was a big John or something like that. Yeah yeah.
Team: When we got the Big John the end of the trail there. He definitely saw weasel. Yeah,
Team: this thing was Tiny. It was it was way cool. It was probably right where you guys like after you guys were running that stretch from the lightning, it was probably right at the end of that but I don't know. I thought I was cool, we don't see him in. I feel like in Utah. Nearly as much as like, I've seen him in Colorado and other places where they just hang out in your campus, feels like, but
Team: I was cool. The other thing though, is still to this point, I had not been able to eat hardly anything and it was about this and except for some of Darren's homemade. Very spicy jerky, for whatever reason. That was one of the only things that sounded good. And so I had a few pieces of that at lunch and then from there though when we started going, that's kind of where is like, you've got to find a
Team: Groove. I felt like and Um, Brennan and I just never thought about this because I had like a baby Clif bar, right? Like that like the mini Clif bars and usually I've just never not eaten a full one of those at a time. Like they're so small it's like two bites. But Brendan's, like you should just take like a bite or two without at a time or eat like half of a pack of fruit snacks or
Team: something. I'm like half a pack of fruit snacks, like it, I breathe in and I eat a whole pack of fruit snacks like but I started doing that and that made a pretty significant difference. To just keep me off of like a super hard Cal wall. Obviously, I was still burning way more calories. Than than I was consuming or had the ability to consume but I would literally go at about every 30 minutes or so, I
Team: was just taking two bites of something and then I had one water bottle that I fill up with water. And one water bottle that I'd still up with like, an electrolyte drink mix or something or the mountain Ops electrolytes, and that ratio seemed to do really well for me and then all just keeping some level of calories. So I'm still running still feeling or still moving. Still feeling pretty sick, but that combination just allowed me to
Team: to just at least move forward and not hit as big of walls on some of the climbs that we had, which was pretty important because we had a massive climb. It was upcoming So when we got we kind of get through the section of the skyline and then we are on to this next section where we just are climbing all the way up to go through this peak. And it's just a lot of climbing and a
Team: lot of switchbacks and the trail was so muddy that your feet were just getting heavier and heavier with mud and with water. But fortunately, I was able to kind of stay off a cal wall there and that's when we finally got another glimpse of the group and head of us, me and Brennan Where we could see him and they were actually about 10 minutes up the trail, but they had, I think they had taken a little
Team: Sanctuary out of the wind, which, by the way, one of the piece of gear that I was using on this trip. Was a rain skirt. And that actually proved to be pretty interesting. It was so rainy and every sweaty and everything that everything was was wet. But when it came to the wind blowing, Skirt definitely just helped me. I think keep my core temperature up a little bit. These guys were all talking about how freezing they
Team: were and I really didn't didn't get that cold and I could definitely tell that that skirt was cutting the wind and those big exposed Peaks which I think helped me kind of keep my body temperature at a more comfortable spot. So this this girl was really
Team: something like if you guys that are listening can picture, sorry?
Team: I meant to say kill not skirt, nothing that's here.
Team: It's a picture. This you got some Big Beard. You've got this rain jacket. Now, you've got a skirt that pretty much matches the rain jacket that he has on. So almost looks like for a distance that he's got this big, long Reign robe more or less. So this total Image of mountain Gandalf, wizard Dumbledore or something. Just out
Team: and I saw that was hilarious but also, I mean, it did the work for me, he stayed a lot warmer.
Team: Yeah it worked pretty well. I also at that point I think Brandon and I got a got a glimpse of those other guys and he kind of found a click and on those uphills he started to pull away from me even so It was it was good though. We we made it through that back. Tough stretch. I don't know if we're missing anything, but I think in retrospect just thinking about hiking and it just raining like
Team: that the whole time, you could kind of had a choice. I felt like you could see it and be like, man, this is miserable soaked to the bone, just just your cult, maybe your colder, or whatever it is. Or I feel like I just kept looking at it and just thinking, like, this is so cool because it's raining. No, one is up here. Plus, we're in the middle of the week, but there's no one up there.
Team: No cars going by on any roads. No, one on the trails. And then you're just like up in the clouds. You're you, literally, I feel like you just all you heard all day was just Rolling Thunder in the distance. Sometimes I got a little too close for comfort but most of the time it was just off in the distance rolling and yes, it was harder to cover the miles because of it. But at the same time
Team: it was just one of those things that's like man. She could just like, take this and capture this moment up here on this mountain forever. You know, you really wish you could Which hopefully he kind of did was some of at least some of the video and stuff. But I don't know if any of you guys have any thoughts on just what was like, the hike kind of what all day in the Rain from basically noon
Team: until we were sleeping. It was raining. So I don't know what you guys think about that. Would you rather have been sunny skies or did you like the rain? Um, for me personally, I thought it was just a cool experience. Like you said to be hiking in the rain and then it was just like a big accomplishment at the end of the day, like, we were doing 20 to 25 Mi days, like with 15 of those
Team: miles in the rain every day which I I don't think any of us had ever done because none of us had ever done anything like this. So I think it just made it be more of an accomplishment and even more of a challenge and just made for some actually pretty cool views. I'm one big fan of like Misty Mountains and that little Haze and the fog and it just made for a really fun really different trip
Team: that. I don't think I'd ever experienced before having that much rain on a backpacking trip. I usually try to plan around the rain if I can. So
Team: For me, I also was a big fan of the rain and I'm really glad actually it rained throughout most of this trip. I agree with Brandon personally where I think things look a little bit more beautiful in the rain. element of curiosity, like, I don't know if that's a word, but stereo City history.
Team: Yeah, that's what I'm looking for. Is an element of mystery in there, where it kind of just The mountains are kind of enshrouded a bit and rain clouds and to me, that, that brought out the color of the grass and the plants as well. And just to me that was way more beautiful than looking at, you know, Blue Sky sunny day where everything just looks hot and Dusty. And dry. I'm not as big of a fan,
Team: especially in, you know, terrains above tree line, when everything's just sunny and Colorless and and whatnot. So for me I was grateful for that plus how cool it was having it rain like it just a lot less. hot as we're we're putting forth so much physical effort. Yeah.
Team: The rain definitely made all those wildflowers smell really good, and just the smell of of having everything be so fresh. All day was was pretty nice at the highest point. We were just under 12,000 feet on the trail and there was Peaks around us, that were Decently higher than that. And when we, when we hit our very highest point in the trail, we looked over to the one Peak to the Northeast and it was covered in
Team: fresh snow from all of those storms. So had we been just a little bit higher, we would have been in the snow and that would have been in July a little colder, but it was also cool. Right? At that moment, we looked way down in the valley below us and we could see a pretty good sized herd of elk. Which was neat to see. We saw deer kind of taking refuge in different places and it was
Team: fun to see that wildlife and see how they get out of the rain and the exposure up there. So that was pretty cool to see,
Team: I think the biggest con with the rain. Was. Everywhere we tried to get water. It was muddy water. Yeah, it was. It was murky and salty hard on her filters. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't like rain and like I don't care to like hide that I do not like rain, I don't like backpacking or running wet soaking. But it was. The it was pretty. I do think like I would Echo like all the things. Derek said
Team: about the aesthetic. Views of the Mist and the clouds, and all that. Like, it was very pretty. I would, I would never choose rain over a clear, sunny day, especially up there. It doesn't get up of 60 degrees so it'd be sunny and windy, and just not rainy. So, like, I don't feel like I choose rain, but having said it was, it was beautiful.
Team: It was, it was awesome. Yeah. So once we crashed it over like you said, I think we were like a 115 for maybe a little more like, yeah, they're kind of dropped down the trail, another one or two miles and then that's where we set up camp on the date. Do you remember, what the hell of total elevation game was, or kind of miles that we ended up logging?
Team: I was just looking at it. So the total elevation gain for day two was 4600 feet. Over 20 point four miles. So, almost as much climbing as day, one. and, A few miles less, but it was way more rugged miles and a lot more mud, you know. so that's that's almost
Team: 10,500 feet of elevation in two days of climbing that elevation in two days which I think we were all filling that and I think to be able to do two days in a row with still getting over 20 miles and that kind of elevation that was That was rough like it's not like flat 20 miles by any means or any stretch the imagination. It's it's And with a little bit of rain in there, it was it
Team: was a pretty intense. I think, just Just as far as the exertion goes. But so at least when me and Brandon got to Camp. It was raining. I think you guys said it might have been not raining for half a second. When you set up your tent,
Team: we got there and started setting up our tents. There was a little break in the rain and we had just enough time to get everything. Pretty much fully set up for start raining again for us. Yeah.
Team: But everyone. Caught set up and went straight in their tents and really didn't come out. This part was kind of interesting to me. I I walked down the road a little ways because I needed to get some water and just kind of spent too much time out there getting water. And when I was moving and climbing and everything, like my temperature was was plenty High. But when I got to Camp, I set up the tent and
Team: set up a few things and wasn't really moving. And then I kind of slowly walked over to this water area and was getting water and messing around and just kind of taking my time. And then I was like, all right, I'm starting to feel a little bit, a little bit cold. So then I was like, I need to get my water quicker. So I finished getting my water and I just start walking back to Camp about
Team: the second. I start walking back to Camp, it just hit me, like, so hard, how quickly I went from like a normal feeling temperature, or, like, I'm starting to get cold to like, really cold, like, Thankfully, obviously, my tent was already set up. My pad has already set up. My top was already set up and dry and dry. So all I had to do is get back to my tent and get my clothes off and get dry and in that in
Team: that top quilt, which was totally doable. But man, I really got thinking like my teeth started just chattering and I only had to go like a couple hundred yards back to Camp. My teeth started chattering I kind of swung by Tyler and Derek's tent just said, hey, I'm back to camp and I went over to mine and but it was like, it really caught me off guard and I was like, man, that would be an incredibly
Team: dangerous situation to be in if you want prepared. If you didn't have other layers, or if you didn't have, you know, other things that could have got really intense really, really quickly. So it's kind of on point that out. That just really surprised me moisture water, and temperature, swings up, you know, that kind of elevation can really quickly. Go south, but I think particularly when you're wet like that, that the moist that the water on you
Team: can pull moisture out so fast that it's kind of hard to Fathom. Yeah, that's I mean, that really is like the perfect storm for hypothermia because your energy depleted like you're like You put in all the physical effort, but all. So you like specifically probably ate the less the least of anybody because of your stomach. Like, you just couldn't even, so your body wasn't even Burning inside, right? So you've got no energy, you got no food
Team: in your belly and your Physically exerted, like, you're tired and your wet and it's windy. Like that's like a recipe for hypothermia and so I would totally Echo about the kind of the experience, the knowledge, and wisdom comes from experience and like the planning and preparation like, I'm a huge proponent of Especially if there's any kind of weather involved at all. It's specially at high elevation in the mountains like my priority. Number one is get shelter
Team: set up. That's like your Refuge that is your. That's like the barrier between hypothermia and A warm night's sleep is like, first thing gets shelter set up. Get your quilt or sleeping bag out. So it's lofting as soon as it's out versus you know, sitting down drinking water, eating first cooling down stretching like I will never I'll never do that just because I've had too many experiences of like close calls or having people. I've been with
Team: get hypothermic or have problems like getting like having the experience to know the priorities in a given situation is is really huge.
Team: yeah, luckily we had all like we knew the rain was coming and so I'm in for one. I don't think it's a good idea to go into the mountains for that long. Without Rain Gear right ever really dial elevation?
Team: Yeah, and and our rain gear got soaked through, but luckily we had all used dry bags or pack, lighters for our shelters, and our sweeping systems and so we were all good that way. I know I was pretty chilled by the time it was time to get into the top quilt and Luckily, I had a dry top quilt because otherwise, it'd be pretty, dang hard to overcome the hypothermia. If, if you weren't prepared
Team: Yeah, I think the craziest part for me is like, that, switch from feeling like I'm totally a decent temperature to feeling like a teeth or chattering I'm losing cognitive ability. Was maybe 10 minutes, like it, like, it felt like it was that fast, which, I think now is just what surprised me. I've gotten cold and I've gotten cold, I've gotten really cold before, but never that quickly, which was, which was just kind of an eye-opening thing
Team: for me. And I also, I mean, just to kind of go on this too a little bit further. Like when I got into my tent, I just striped off all of my wet clothes and I threw on like the Ventus and even just the second, the Ventus was on me. It was like, just because it's dry. I mean, it is a warm piece for what it is, but just the dry nature of it was so impactful,
Team: and then I pulled the out of 30 degree, top quilt pulled that up on me and just like, instantly almost as fast as it came, it started leaving, you know? So
Team: you mentioned something there that I think is really worth talking about as well. You talked about how in that fast switch you, you lost energy and physical ability, but you also mentioned cognitive ability, and I think that that's something that gets underestimated a lot, but Like I noticed that that night Derek, and I were just telling stories and talking in our tent and I just could not remember, like the names of things and, and just like
Team: different things, it's really surprising. How much cognitive ability you lose when you're strained? Or when you're cold, or exhausted like that, I was telling him something that I had written and created. And I could not even remember the words then because I was super tired and, and cold and everything. And and I think that's important to know. Like, if you feel yourself getting to that level, you need to put yourself in a position where you don't
Team: have to make very many critical decisions because that your decision making really goes down the tube when you're back stressed, you know?
Team: Yeah, I think that's a really good point that you should. You should never just go pick a trail like this. I think I think one you know time in the field is massive just things. Like I set my tent up extremely quickly and efficiently because I pitched it multiple multiple times so like anything you can do like that. I feel like that you've done over and over again. It was really helpful and then the other part
Team: of it which I feel like Brigham could probably talk on more is just playing those scenarios ahead of time and so you don't have to make decisions on the Fly. You know, if a happens then I do B type of stuff and that that also helps. So when you're going out there to stretch your body, it keeps you a lot more safe and you've got continuously plans and you've got options but mainly you just know if
Team: a happens then I do be Totally like the contingency planning. It's, it's very closely related to, like sports psychology of visualization. Like, that'll be like, there's big time like top, tier athletes that have won. All kinds of titles that have had at some point in their career like a time where they've had to get some like coaching on. sports psychology and like one of the common things that they will go through as like this kind of
Team: this therapy of like visualization. So if you can't if you can't visualize what you're going to do, it's a lot harder to do that thing. If you can't visualize your your setup at the free throw line and like how you dribble and where you place your handle the ball and then like you're set up in your falls through like those are things that I kind of equate to the same as like the contingency planning for, you
Team: know, any like fairly intense trip like this one. So like as I'm packing, my fast pack the night before, when I'm physically, grabbing my dry bag that has a dry change of polyester, intentionally polyester base layers. I'm physically, I'm like, mentally thinking what that purpose is for and visualizing the scenario when I put those on and then I stuff it in the bag and it's like catalog in my mind and just things like that, like they
Team: really Come to fruition and
Team: act as a as a benefit. I think one other thing that along that same line is like, we knew our route inside and out, we had planned it multiple times. We had done our research with different people who had been on the route or like on sections of it. We were connecting a through hike that we aren't aware that anyone has done, but we know a lot of people who had done sections and been in that
Team: area. So like we took that decision making out of the equation while we were out there, like we knew where we were going, we were our water was going to be. We had six bailout points identified where people from the office could come get someone if there was an injury or an issue and I think that that that's a important part of it. When you're pushing yourself, or you're just whenever you're going into the back country,
Team: we had the two inches.
Team: I think the only thing that we need to do a little bit better out with the next time which we discussed is to make sure every single person on the trip, knows the route as well as maybe the two that are planning it or the two that are kind of leading it out so that if we ever did have an issue like that than every single person would have a little bit better idea of every turn
Team: and or just the ability to navigate to the drop points without having either me or Tyler or Brigham there. So, at this point, I big, big shout out again to Darren. Still the only thing I was really able to eat, was some jerky, I spent about an hour and a half, special jerky,
Team: putting down some special, some special Styler jerky, and I think I got down a peak refuel granola, like a breakfast granola. If I remember, right? So I but I took me an hour and a half and I was like felt like I was feeding a small child where it's like Shoving it in the mouth, like, you're just trying to force it down, but it was great. You know, I could mentally prepare because I was jamming out
Team: to bring him zcdc and some oldies rocks. So I was I was feeling it and It was good time.
Team: That was the night. We spent 12 hours in. The tent. Yeah,
Team: I was confused about by about six or 6:30. If you're like chasing one of the later ones. So From about 6:30 p.m. till. 6:30, a.m. we were just hanging out in tents.
Team: So I think, I think this is where we gotta listen to how Brennan enjoyed because he's the only one not in a tent. He had a busy, but he also didn't have a baby with the tarp. It was just a bivy. So, how was that Brennan? I've slept in a baby, quite a few times. It had been a while. I did not get wet, there was quite a bit of condensation, but I was warm, like I
Team: said, I definitely got my Knights confused. This was the night where I spent. 12 hours in a baby and probably about 10 hours of its sleeping. So I just got in got my wet clothes off. Tried to just heat up and get in a comfortable spot. And then one thing that I'm like, a True Believer in and this is something that I kind of talked to taste in a bit about when we kind of split off
Team: is, I tried to just bring things that helped me feel comfortable, even though you can't create all the Comforts of home or anything like that has shown a fast parking trip, but just things like, I bring food that I would want to eat if I was at home or I bring things that I would want to do if I was at home. So, Loaded, a few podcasts, and a few episodes of Criminal Minds. Gotten my tent,
Team: turned them on and it put me right to bed because that's what I do every night is I turn on a show and it puts me right to sleep. So, Just the same thing when I'm out in the field as well. And Got me 10 hours worth of sleep on a pretty cold night in a bivy. So, that's like that was Pretty impressive here, you're very positive about it. I would not have wanted to switch places with you. I'm saying
Team: I will not be bringing a baby on The Highline trip. So Yeah, that's good. I would recommend you not. So we, we knew that it was gonna be cold wet nights. Like we just knew that the Tushar, mountains in July gets a lot of rain and the temperature can drop a lot. But we all I think we all had tops. We were all pretty comfortable in our top quilts. and, I think a lot of people
Team: would would opt for a mummy bag for a night like that, but I think anyone had any issues at all, I was too hot. That was so cozy,
Team: I was 21, so that's why I was perfect.
Team: I will say Derek slept upside down on his mummy shaped sleeping dad. Well, so Tyler. And I decided to share a tent kind of distribute weight in our packs out a little
Team: bit because there wasn't any more one person tents around. So we just had some two-person tents for these trekking pool tents, that we've been testing. And Getting ready like you guys. You guys are probably all aware. We're trying to work on developing a triple 10, but anyways, we split this. Checking pool tent between our packs and And anyways, everything was set up my pad was in there already and there's not a lot of space. Well, you're
Team: in the 10 and all your years in the tent to like, flip the pattern around in there. So, I was convinced that on my half of the tent. The higher end was where I put my feet, you know, originally when I said things up, but I didn't want to flip the whole pattern around. So I just kind of spun around and laid down on the pad upside down and it works the same as just a little
Team: bit less wide up there.
Team: Hence, the reason we say Derek and literally sleep upside down,
Team: And I was glad because my shoulders got to expand onto the other path.
Team: But you guys have mentioned a few things about crawling in your tents and pulling off wet clothes and and drying off that way. And I definitely would recommend most people do that, but I on this trip, both nights didn't do that, and there's a few reasons why, and I would not change what I did either. So I had thought that my clothes had been soaked through in the rain, but when I actually pulled off my rain
Team: jacket and was inside the tent, everything I really wasn't that wet. I was mostly just cold and feeling the wind and like the constant cold water on my jacket, that had no insulation. And so I thought that I had been soaked through. The only thing that we're really wet, were my shorts and my socks and shoes. So I did pull off my socks. And get rid of those. But everything else, I just went right into right
Team: into my top quilt. Wearing everything my shirt really wasn't that wet my shorts. They're really quick, drying synthetic, and they really want that way. So, on both nights, I was in the same scenario where my body heat by the time, I was getting into bed, head dried off my shorts enough to where I was very confident that by keeping them on they'd be much drier. And Ready for the next day. If I just slept in them
Team: and had the heat from inside my top quilt, dry them off and and for my body heat and that actually works perfectly both days on both days. When I woke up the next morning, I was 100% dry actually because I'd slept in just slightly damned shorts and I will say, I had a top quilt. That's the little overcooked overkill on the temperature rating for quilted.
Team: Is a 15 degree top quilt. But for me, that's the, that's the top goal that I'm gonna be using pretty much all year round. If I only have one quilt, I'm gonna have a 15 degree quilt rather than have, you know, buying multiple quotes with multiple temperature ratings. It's the most versatile. So I actually wasn't really overheated either because I didn't I didn't tuck that quilt around me or Buckle it or clip it. I just literally
Team: had my feet in there and then it laid over the top of me and I could vent as a needed if I got little warm and Still had plenty of insulation on top of me to keep me warm on top of it so it would pads. So while I like I said, I don't recommend everyone do that. actually, if you're clothes or wetter than mine and But for me I wouldn't change what I did. And for
Team: me that particular scenario worked out really well to have way dry clothes in the morning to start out the new day fresh.
